NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – October 10, 2025
A milestone goal for Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, the debut of Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer, Jonathan Toews played his first game with the Jets, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
NHL.COM: Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist, and Evgeni Malkin collected three assists, and Justin Brazeau broke a 3-3 tie as the Pittsburgh Penguins nipped the New York Islanders 4-3. Islanders rookie defenseman Matthew Schaefer had an assist for his first NHL point. He was the first-overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Crosby has 626 career regular-season goals, moving past Joe Sakic into fifth place for the most goals with one franchise. Former Penguin Mario Lemieux is fourth with 690. Penguins rookie Harrison Brunicke scored his first goal, becoming the first player from South Africa to score in the NHL.
The Dallas Stars held off the Winnipeg Jets for a 5-4 victory. Mikko Rantanen had a goal and two assists, and Jason Robertson had a goal and an assist for the Stars. Kyle Connor had a hat trick as the Jets rallied from a 5-1 deficit, but fell short. Jonathan Toews was held scoreless in his debut with the Jets.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Earlier in the day, the Jets placed forward David Gustafsson on waivers.
Ottawa Senators center Shane Pinto scored twice (including the go-ahead goal) and picked up an assist to down the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-4. Brady Tkachuk and Artem Zub also collected three points as the Senators overcame a 3-1 deficit. Nikita Kucherov tallied twice, and Brayden Point had a goal and two assists for the Lightning.
The Vegas Golden Knights overcame a 3-2 deficit for a 4-3 win over the San Jose Sharks. Jack Eichel scored the tying goal and collected an assist for the Golden Knights. Jeff Skinner scored his first goal with the Sharks after joining them in the offseason.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: A solid effort by the Sharks was undone as goaltender Alex Nedeljovic allowed Eichel’s weak game-tying goal late in the third period, followed by a costly turnover near his own blueline on Reilly Smith’s overtime goal.
Carolina Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis scored the go-ahead and insurance goals to beat the New Jersey Devils 6-3. K’Andre Miller tallied twice in his debut with the Hurricanes, while Jesper Bratt and Luke Hughes each had two points for the Devils.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Goaltender Frederik Andersen got the win as Pyotr Kochetkov was unavailable for this game after getting injured in practice earlier this week. He will be evaluated on Friday.
An overtime goal by Fraser Minten lifted the Boston Bruins over the Chicago Blackhawks by a score of 4-3. Casey Mittelstadt, Tanner Jeannot, and Elias Lindholm also scored for the Bruins, while Connor Bedard and Andre Burakovsky each had a goal and an assist for the Blackhawks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm left this game in the first period with a lower-body injury. Blackhawks forward Jason Dickinson did not come out for the third period due to an undisclosed injury.
The New York Rangers got a 37-save performance from Igor Shesterkin as he shut out the Buffalo Sabres 4-0. Alexis Lafreniere and J.T. Miller each had a goal and an assist, giving Mike Sullivan his first win as head coach of the Rangers. Alex Lyon stopped 29 shots for the Sabres.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Rangers center Vincent Trocheck left the game in the second period with an upper-body injury. Sabres forward Josh Norris suffered an upper-body injury in the third period.
Speaking of shutouts, Filip Gustavsson of the Minnesota Wild made 26 saves to blank the St. Louis Blues 5-0. Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy each had three points, and Ryan Hartman scored two goals. Blues goalie Jordan Binnington gave up five goals on 21 shots.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Before the game, Wild general manager Bill Guerin defended his club’s signing Kaprizov to an eight-year deal with a league-leading $17 million average annual value (AAV). “Look, everybody’s got a price to where they want to play in their market, and Kirill is worth that to us. He’s that important to us,” Guerin said. “And we couldn’t take the chance of letting him go.”
The Wild announced forward Nico Sturm is expected to miss six to eight weeks with a back injury.
Montreal Canadiens goalie Jakub Dobes turned aside 30 shots in a 5-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings, spoiling the latter’s season opener. Zack Bolduc and Oliver Kapanen scored in their second straight games, and Mike Matheson had a goal and an assist for the Canadiens. Dylan Larkin scored for the Red Wings.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Red Wings netminder John Gibson was pulled in the second period after giving up five goals on 13 shots.
A four-goal third period carried the Vancouver Canucks over the Calgary Flames 5-1. Filip Chytil tallied twice for the Canucks, who also got goals from Kiefer Sherwood, Jonathan Lekkerimaki, and Brock Boeser. Morgan Frost scored for the Flames.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This was Adam Foote’s first win as head coach of the Canucks. Flames defenseman Kevin Bahl left this game in the third period after being struck in the back of the head by a puck.
The Florida Panthers downed the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 on a third-period goal by Brad Marchand. Anton Lundell also scored for the Panthers, while Noah Cates replied for the Flyers, who got a 32-save effort by Dan Vladar.
Nashville Predators goaltender Juuse Saros kicked out 37 shots, and Ryan O’Reilly scored the winning goal to nip the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-1. Michael Bunting also scored for the Predators, and Dmitri Voronkov tallied for the Blue Jackets.
Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon’s early third-period goal held up as the winner in a 2-1 victory against the Utah Mammoth. Ross Colton also scored for the Avalanche, who got a 32-save performance by netminder Scott Wedgewood. Dylan Guenther tallied for the Mammoth.
The Seattle Kraken defeated the Anaheim Ducks 3-1 on goals by Vince Dunn, Mason Marchment, and Jared McCann. Ducks rookie Beckett Sennecke tallied his first career NHL goal.
Confirmation that Gibson is not the answer for Detroit. 😣
He was no longer the answer in Anaheim either!
5 goals on 13 shots will take the life out of any team. Hell, the Habs only had 17 in total, while giving up 31 to Detroit. Dobes played well.
To be fair the stat-line isn’t indicative of Gibson’s game. Deflections, screens, sharp shooting with early pressure sealed the game.
Detroit had incredibly bad puck luck last night to top it off.
Habs are going to make many seem ordinary this year.
Albert Johansson and Hamonic gave up odd man rushes on the first two goals, and the 4th goal went in off AJ’s shoulder. Gibson should have been sharper, but most of it wasn’t his fault. That defense pairing was a train wreck, bad enough to make me miss Holl.
Ottawa’s winning goal by Giroux was a bit of an oddity in that it was an empty-netter.
Down 4-3 with under a minute to go, Tampa had pulled Vasilevsky and Giroux’s marker came from a scrum along the boards in front of the benches near center-ice.
Then, with 14 seconds left, Kucherov scored his 2nd of the night with a long floater that eluded a screened Ullmark and it was 5-4. Kind of like Zub’s goal earlier in the game that came from even farther out and eluded Vasilevsky over his right shoulder.
Give credit where it’s due. Saros stood on his head as the Jackets peppered him with shot after shot. Had Saros not played lights out, the Jackets might have put 5 goals in net.
as a level headed and realistic Sens fan….I feel that game last night was more about Tampa suddenly dropping off a cliff than anything the Sens did. Tampa owned them in the first and should have pushed that into the second. Instead they just stopped. Heck Tampa even won both fights.
Sens are a resilient bunch but Timmy missed a couple of point black opportunities and Ullmark was only so-so. It was right there for the Bolts. But one shot in 25 minutes? Eeek Cooper. Figure that out.
Pittsburgh off to a 2 – 0 start yes I know its early but this coaching staff has them playing a better system overall and it shows. They were sound against the Rangers and solid against the Islanders,
They coaching staff have figured out how to use Karlsson who has been great in camp, the whole preseason, and the 2 regular season games….fingers crossed !!
They get Brian Rust back this Saturday, the goaltending has been good and the young legs of Brunicke 19 Koivunen 22 Kindel 18 adding speed. Mc Groarty 22 is skating he will be back as they continue to get younger..
Crosby strong goal and assist last night.
Who lit a fire under Malkin’s has 5 points two games….maybe he wants to go to Florida….LOL
His Linemates work Mantha Brazeaux who has 3 goals..this line is huge and fast which helps Malkin who has slowed good balance
Pickering and Broz will be up soon…
All I’m saying lets hold off the 30th place in the league for now… I said all summer they would be better how much we will see but of there close Dubas can swing a deal with cap space..
Dark G , I can see why a lot of pundits are picking Tampa to lead the Atlantic Division AND the Conference.
That’s a well-balanced team and if Ottawa escapes their first 2 games with a Florida split I’ll consider it a successful start.
Hard to believe Cooper is in his 14th year behind the bench t here … and has NEVER won the Jack Adams! Ridiculous.
I watched the game, and to me, it looked as though once the Sens regrouped after the first, calmed down and stayed out of the box they played that shut down style of hard forchecking and backchecking hockey that got them into the playoffs last year.
I think you underestimated the Sens influence on why Tampa struggled the second and third periods.
Lyle, is there any particular reason why no NHL games were scheduled for Friday October 11?
Seems odd in a compressed-schedule season due to the Olympics.
Or have I missed something? Again? LOL
Wo that we can all watch the Tigers at Seattle tonight!
Heh. Doesn’t matter who wins that series – the Blue Jays will have them for lunch!
Sorry. Friday October 10!