NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – October 14, 2025
Recaps of Monday’s games and the three stars of the week are revealed in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines
NHL.COM: The Philadelphia Flyers upset the Florida Panthers 5-2 as captain Sean Couturier led the way with two goals and two assists, giving Rick Tocchet his first win as the Flyers’ head coach. Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett scored for the Panthers, who suffered their first loss of the season.
Philadelphia Flyers captain Sean Couturier (NHL Images).
Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon scored two goals and defenseman Cale Makar netted his first of the season in a 3-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres. Tage Thompson replied for the Sabres, who are 0-3 to open the season.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin wasn’t happy with his performance and that of his teammates. “Better start today, worse ending,” Dahlin said in his postgame interview. “Not good power play. Good PK and goaltending, we just can’t catch a break. We have to get out of this bullshit.”
Meanwhile, the Avalanche sent goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood to their AHL affiliate for conditioning. An injury sidelined him throughout training camp.
Nashville Predators goaltender Juuse Saros stopped 31 shots and Jonathan Marchessault tallied twice to beat the Ottawa Senators 4-1, handing the latter their second straight loss. Ridly Greig scored for the Senators, who lost captain Brady Tkachuk in the third period to an upper-body injury.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Tkachuk was injured on a cross-check by Predators captain Roman Josi in the first period. He tried to play through it, but left with about 10 minutes remaining in the game. Senators coach Travis Green had no update on his captain, saying Tkachuk was still being evaluated.
A late goal by Mason Appleton lifted the Detroit Red Wings to a 3-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. Goalie Cam Talbot kicked out 38 shots while Dylan Larkin and former Leaf James van Riemsdyk also scored for the Wings. Matthew Knies had a goal and an assist for the Leafs, who had rallied to overcome a 2-0 deficit.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond suffered an upper-body injury in the second period and didn’t return. There was no update on his condition. Meanwhile, Leafs coach Craig Berube singled out William Nylander’s poor play since the start of the season, while praising rookie Easton Cowan’s energy and physicality in his NHL debut.
The Tampa Bay Lightning got two goals from Anthony Cirelli as they held off the Boston Bruins 4-3, handing the latter their first loss of the season. Jonas Johansson made 30 saves for the Lightning. Pavel Zacha collected two assists for the Bruins.
New Jersey Devils forward Dawson Mercer tallied twice to nip the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2. Devils goalie Jake Allen turned aside 23 shots before leaving after the second period with muscle cramps. Timo Meier also scored for the Devils. Kirill Marchekov and Dmitri Voronkov replied for the Blue Jackets.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Before the game, the Devils announced that forward Zack MacEwen will miss a considerable period of time with an injury.
Blue Jackets forward Miles Wood left this game after taking a high stick in the face from Devils defenseman Dougie Hamilton. Jackets defenseman Erik Gudbranson missed this game with an upper-body injury and will be sidelined indefinitely.
Rookie winger Jimmy Snuggerud scored twice for his first NHL multi-goal game as the St. Louis Blues rolled to a 5-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks. Jordan Binnington made 27 saves and Brayden Schenn had a goal and an assist for the Blues. Kiefer Sherwood scored both goals for the Canucks.
Winnipeg Jets forwards Nino Niederreiter, Tanner Pearson, and Morgan Barron each had a goal and an assist in a 5-2 win over the New York Islanders, handing the latter their third straight defeat. Defenseman Logan Stanley also had a goal and an assist for the Jets. Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Emil Heineman scored for the Islanders.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Jets forward Cole Koepke left this game in the second period with a lower-body injury.
The Minnesota Wild blew a 3-0 lead to the Los Angeles Kings but got a shootout goal from Marco Rossi for a 4-3 win. Jared Spurgeon, Kirill Kaprizov, and Matt Boldy scored in regulation for the Wild, while Kevin Fiala, Quinton Byfield, and Adam Kempe replied for the Kings.
Chicago Blackhawks forward Ilya Mikheyev scored two goals, and Andre Burakovsky potted the winning goal to defeat the Utah Mammoth 3-1, giving Jeff Blashill his first win as the Blackhawks coach. JJ Peterka scored for the Mammoth.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Before the game, the Mammoth announced that defenseman Sean Durzi will be sidelined for a month with an upper-body injury suffered on Saturday against the Nashville Predators.
NHL.COM: Vegas Golden Knights winger Pavel Dorofeyev, Ottawa Senators center Shane Pinto, and Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky are the three stars for the week ending Oct. 12.
Boston brought back down to earth. Team works hard but lacks offensive talent. They have about 5 players that if hurt and out for a significant time period could turn their season upside down quickly!
5 players? More like 1 (Pastranak).
If he goes down, they are a lock for the #1 lottery odds.
Related to Pastrnak, gotta wonder how many years they can waste without putting a playoff contending lineup around him before his names starts surfacing in “trade rumors”.
Agree with both of you that we don’t have the depth to be able to withstand injuries to key players.
I’ll go with 3 for the number of guys that if we lose any of them for an extended period, it will be a serious problem.
Obviously Pasta as we are already challenged offensively. McAvoy, as I would suggest he is just as valuable as Pasta and plays more minutes than anybody not wearing goal pads. He controls play when he’s out there and his contributions are huge, even though not a big points guy. Sure didn’t go well after he went on LTIR last year.
I’ll add Swayman as he looks to be in good form to start, and maybe found his game. We need to keep goals against down to have a chance to win more than we lose.
Ray Bark, the next 3 games away at Vegas,Colorado and Utah will tell a little bit.
Ya, tougher stretch on the road Sr. But, I would rather play COL and VEG early in the year than later.
Intensity picks up as the season goes along and the B’s seem highly motivated to play well right out of the gate. Plus a new coach which generally gives a team a bump for a short stretch.
I was wondering who would be the new whipping boy for Toronto now that they don’t have Marner to kick around. Nylander leads the team in points and is -1 after three games, and he’s the problem….
No, if your new here, this is typical of Nylander – a hot and cold player, one that looks like he isn’t trying but like many of us, doesn’t have it on any particular day. Having disclosed suffering from migraines, I’m certain that some of those off days are caused by them and others are just him, being human.
Since the Kings have 2 Kempes can we trade for Adrian Kempe and they can hold on to the newer Adam Kempe? 😉
They still count but he had 3 pts in the 1st game, 2 game from empty netters.
Nylander is the current Leafs equivalent of
Frank Mahovlich.
I’m inclined to think that another bad week will put the focus on Matthews and Berube.
Of course if the Jays win a couple everything changes.
Hey George, what happened to those awesome Blue Jay bats????? Oh well, there is always next game, till there is not next game.
LOL. They’re made of balsa?
One of my great-grandsons lives in Seattle and on the way home from school the kids were chanting M-A-R-I-N-E-R-S and yelled for the school bus driver to turn on the radio. He watched the last 1.5 hours when he got home.
I’m still trying to get him interested in the Kraken but so far, no luck.
Far from ideal start that’s for sure, and nobody thought it would be easy. Seattle was the hottest team in baseball down the stretch for a reason.
But it ain’t over yet!
Need a big start from Bieber and get back in the series. At the plate we need to calm it down and get back to the approach that got the Jays to where they are. Too many home run swings. When you don’t try for them, they have a tendency to happen. IMO.
Dean Evason was seen wandering around the guts of Nationwide Arena calling out, “PK, where are you?”
I was @ Avalanche v Sabres yesterday. Wedgewood made some solid saves in 1st period but 2nd. & 3rd, the Avalanche took over the game: MacKinnon, Makar and Necas were all over the place. Buffalo played a good 1st period and the Avalanche were fortunate that they only got 1; from where I was sitting, they just missed some wide open chances in addition to Wedgewood getting the job done. I feel for Sabres fans. Great atmosphere
Buffalo has very good speed. team play is just missing a step.
Dahlin,Thompson andTuch have to wonder if they are ever going to turn it around?