NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – December 11, 2025
Recapping Wednesday’s games, Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin talked about his future, injury updates, ongoing concerns about the slow construction of the 2026 Winter Olympics rinks, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPS OF WEDNESDAY’S GAMES
NHL.COM: Detroit Red Wings forward Alex DeBrincat scored twice and collected an assist as his club held off the Calgary Flames by a score of 4-3. John Gibson made 34 saves for the Red Wings (17-11-3), extending their win streak to three games as they moved into first place in the Atlantic Division with 37 points. Nazem Kadri had two assists for the Flames (12-16-4) as their three-game win streak ended.
Detroit Red Wings forward Alex DeBrincat (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Down 4-0, the Flames got three unanswered goals in the third to make it interesting, but they ultimately came up short. Speaking of Kadri, he donated $50,000.00 to a food bank in his hometown of London, Ontario.
The Chicago Blackhawks got a 21-save shutout from goaltender Spencer Knight to blank the New York Rangers 3-0. Connor Bedard had a goal and an assist for the Blackhawks, who improved to 13-11-6. Igor Shesterkin stopped 22 shots for the 15-13-4 Rangers, who have lost three straight games.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Before this game, the Rangers placed sidelined center Adam Edstrom (lower body) on injured reserve.
Florida Panthers center Anton Lundell scored with 52 seconds remaining in the third period to lift his club to a 4-3 victory over the Utah Mammoth. Sam Bennett had two goals and an assist, and Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 27 shots for the Panthers (15-12-2), who picked up their third consecutive win. Dylan Guenther tallied two goals as the Mammoth lost its third straight game, slipping to 14-15-3.
An overtime goal by Vince Dunn capped his three-point performance as the Seattle Kraken nipped the Los Angeles Kings 3-2. Matty Beniers scored with 24 seconds left in the game to force overtime for the Kraken (12-10-6) as they snapped a six-game losing skid. Alex Laferriere and Kevin Fiala scored for the 14-8-8 Kings.
HEADLINES
RG.ORG: Alex Ovechkin discussed his future in a recent interview with Andrew Knoll.
The Washington Capitals captain is in the final season of his contract. He isn’t thinking beyond this season, but hasn’t ruled out bringing his career full circle by returning to the KHL’s Dynamo Moscow in a ceremonial or competitive role.
Having surpassed 900 NHL regular-season goals, Ovechkin has shifted from chasing scoring milestones to the Capitals’ resurgence as they jockey for first place in the Eastern Conference for the second straight season.
ESPN.COM: NHL commissioner Gary Bettman expressed concern about the delays plaguing the construction of the hockey rinks for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. He pointed out that constructions of rinks for previous Winter Games had never stretched on this long, calling the delays “disappointing.”
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Once the arenas are completed, the league will be sending its experts to determine that the ice surface is safe for its players. There are no alternate venues if the ice isn’t up to the standard expected by the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly stated the players won’t participate if the ice surface isn’t suitable.
NBC SPORTS PHILADELPHIA: The Flyers’ blue line will soon get a boost when sidelined defensemen Cam York and Rasmus Ristolainen return to action. Ristolainen has been recovering from surgery in March to repair a ruptured triceps tendon. York has missed the past five games with a lower-body injury.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: Carolina Hurricanes center Jesperi Kotkaniemi is sidelined again with a lower-body injury.
SPORTSNET: Montreal Canadiens center Jake Evans will miss Thursday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins for personal reasons.
DAILY FACEOFF: The Toronto Maple Leafs placed defenseman Dakota Mermis (lower body) on injured reserve.
DAILY FACEOFF/TSN: The St. Louis Blues announced that center Nick Bjugstad is out for at least five days with an upper-body injury. They also signed forward Robby Fabbri to a one-year, two-way contract, and signed forward Dillon Dube to an AHL professional tryout contract.
I’m surprised that the NHL is just now “concerned” about length and width of ice surface in addition to quality of ice when the Olympics are approaching? How come they weren’t aware of this sooner? I’m sure teams are already concerned about their players surviving it and continuing to compete @ a high level for SC playoffs. I know I am. I want another SC for the Avalanche more than I care about the Olympics. I’m still amateurs for Olympics but that ship
has sailed a long time ago. I’m going to be BS if MacKinnon, Makar, landeskog, etc get injured in Olympics. I can’t be the only one who feels like this, right? Lyle, George O?
I think you are just hearing about it now. I can’t imagine the league wouldn’t have been monitoring the progress.
You can almost bet some NHLer is going to be injured in that mid-season tournament and, since each country chooses only the best, it will be someone critical to the success of the team that pays them millions per year.
“Dream teams” from the pros have always been – in my view anyway – complete nationalistic, flag-hugging BS. The Olympics belonged to the amateurs and it should go back to that concept.
Hopefully the folks in Italy get their sh*t together and the players can go.
Send the Oiler ice guys like they do/used to do for the outdoor games and some previous Olympics, they’ll get it as good as it can be.
I’m pumped for it, best hockey in the world in these events. 4 Nations was great hockey, as best on best is. I get why the best guys want to play in it, how could they not? A great test and an honor IMO. And yes, somebody likely gets hurt. B’s lost McAvoy last year, for his sake I hope he’s ready by then as he has lost 20 lbs with the busted jaw from a month ago.
Go Canada!
The nationalistic, flag waving aspect of the Olympics is inherent in the concept, George. Participants are grouped by and represent their countries.
One of the three main tenets of the Olympics is excellence, according to the IOC. Taking pros out of the Olympics would go against that. It would also affect a substantial number of sports and athletes: besides hockey, basketball, track and field and (if it is a sport and not just an exercise in voyeurism) beach volleyball to just name a few.
Sure it’s great that Summer McIntosh is such a phenom, but would you prefer swimming or water polo to a Canada/US hockey matchup, best on best?
Amateur sports, for better or worse, have joined civil political discourse, apples as halloween treats and my knees as nostalgic memories of a bygone era.
I understand your view is widely accepted now, LJ. But that won’t change my mind.
Still THE most talked-about hockey victory in the Olympics – some 45 years after the event – was when a bunch of amateurs from the U.S. knocked the Soviets out of the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics to go on to win Gold over Finland 2 days later.
Great post LJ!
I am awaiting the best hockey tourney in the world! Too bad the Ruskies are banned.
Agree 1000% George. I could not care less about the Olympics or any other World tournaments. One of these days, either due to happenstance or crappy ice, somebodys Superstar is going to have a career ending injury and everybody will be “shocked”. No way in hell my employer would let me go work for some other company for a couple weeks with the possibility of an injury, not that I am anybody, but you get the point.
Totally!
Guys, if the NHL wasn’t going to the Olympics they would be having the some version of a best on best, and likely will 2 years after the Olympics anyway.
What that tells you it isn’t about injuries, it’s about the NHL getting paid. All good, business try to make money, but that is what it is about for the league.
The players want to play in the Olympics, and they are the league and why we watch. We can all wax nostalgic about the unlikely US victory and it was historic, good for them and F the Soviets.
But was that better or more entertaining than the best on best tournaments? Really? The Summitt series? Multiple Canada Cups? World Cups of Hockey? The Golden Goal by Crosby in Vancouver?
I don’t understand why we wouldn’t want more of those great moments?
Again, if it isn’t the Olympics it will be something else, so it ain’t about injuries. The players want it, they’re going, and good for them.
Pupinabox, F*** the Russians, is it possible to cheat more than they did?
Ray, it very definitely IS about injuries. I – and a Helluva lot of other fans judging by what I hear around town – are fans of an NHL team. Many fork over a good chunk of their income on season tickets and, when attending – often in the midst of foul winter weather (at least where there IS some semblance of winter) – fork over many hundreds of dollars more on beer, snacks and souvenirs.
The last thing they want to see is a player critical to the team they are financially supporting, go down in a 9-0 blowout over a team from, say, France in an early – essentially useless – Olympic match.
I understand there are many who don’t share this view and I’m under no illusion that those who look at it as I do will change other’s minds and so see a return to the past.
But we don’t have to like it.
George, if it’s about injuries, why did they have a 4 nations tourney? Why are they having the World Cup of Hockey in 2028? It’s in February, so right in the middle of the season, just like the Olympics.
I can’t square that decision with it being about injuries, but if you can, let me know how. I’m open to persuasion on this topic.
I suppose the simplistic answer is, Ray, that the wishes of those fans, who are among the throngs that are the very reason the NHL exists and, naturally, want the ultimate for their team to be the Stanley Cup, are immaterial to the profits that come from $$$ generated by such tournaments.
As one of that element of fandom – and very likely in the minority – that is what I want and expect from the pros who are making millions to do just that – in my view, anyway. That’s the very definition of “pro athlete.”
If they want “Olympic Glory” let them remain true amateurs and follow that path. As for things like The World Cup Of Hockey and The 4 Nations, if they must hold them let them do as Sr suggests – hold the bloody things in September. Injuries will still occur, but at least, if they’re not season-ending types, they can rejoin their team early in the season rather than be missing for the really critical late winter/early spring times.
But I’m not about to hold my breath – lol – at my age and circumstances, hockey – Hell, all pro sports – keep falling lower in any list of priorities I may have.
Got it George, it’s about the injuries for you and those who feel the same way. Fair enough and I get that, I was referring to the NHL.
The timing of the Olympics is just not conducive to the NHL schedule.3 weeks off in the middle of the season is ridiculous. Play a World Cup leading up to the season.Most of the players that play in the world tournament Don t play in the preseason anyway. If the players union wants this best on best play it early in September and finish it during training camp.This compressed schedule has done nothing but raise the players risk for injury.
Seems reasonable Sr.
What it also does is keep people away from NHL games because of the compressed schedule budget wise. Playing 3 games in a week at home kind of put the family of 4 out for all these games. Them you add in the risk of injury and a good team can lose it all because of this. Not fair for the fans at all. Go back to Amateurs in the games. Anyone enjoy the miracle on ice? That can’t happen ever again can it.
Good point re the compressed schedule, Fred.
The Miracle on Ice may be a glowing hockey moment for our American friends, but it doesn’t come up in my mind, ever.
The Summit Series had far more impact on hockey, and not just because it involved Canadians. The political intrigue was palpable, but as large as that was it was the irreversible effect the series had on the game of hockey.
In the early 70s we had to endure the thuggery of the Flyers and the damage that brawls did to the quality of the product. The Summit Series showed us that the most exciting thing was a great hockey game not that idiot Dave “the Half Wit” Schultz and the Broad Street Bullies punching people to win games.
It also showed us how good the Soviets were. Think of the effect on the quality of play, the cups won by the Red Wings with their Russian players, and the opening of the NHL to more Europeans.
What other event had such a transformative effect on hockey?
That series was crazy LJ. I have the 4 part VHS still, no machine to play it anymore or I would watch it again!
Clarke breaking Kharlamov’s ankle with a big backswing slash, and plenty of other rough stuff going on. Espisito was the MVP by a lot IMO. He was a beast.
And the unforgettable scene of Peter Mahovlich going over the boards to get Eagleson away from the Russian military guys dragging him off, along with the rest of the team getting in there to back him up. Crazy, and classic. You can a trip down memory lane below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJrIkPxQTyQ
In retrospect, they should have let the Russians take Eagleson – i’m sure Bobby Orr would agree.
As would the Players Association George.
Alex DeBrincat should be an Olympian.