NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – January 7, 2026
A record-setting performance by Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin, Oilers captain Connor McDavid extends his points streak, the Lightning extend their win streak, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPS OF TUESDAY’S GAMES
NHL.COM: Ilya Sorokin kicked out 44 shots to set the New York Islanders’ record for most shutouts (26) as his club crushed the New Jersey Devils 9-0. Anthony Duclair tallied a hat trick in a career-high five-point performance while Mathew Barzal, Casey Cizikas, and Tony DeAngelo each collected three points for the 24-15-2 Islanders. Jacob Markstrom gave up nine goals on 24 shots for the Devils (22-19-2).
New York Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The struggling Devils’ tumble in the standings has raised concern among the club’s fans. That’s putting pressure on general manager Tom Fitzgerald, who has come up short in his trade attempts thus far.
Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid extended his points streak to 16 games with a hat trick in a 6-2 victory over the Nashville Predators. Leon Draisaitl had a goal and two assists for the Oilers, who improved to 21-16-6. Ryan O’Reilly and Nick Blakenburg replied for the 19-19-4 Predators.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Oilers scratched forwards Andrew Mangiapane and Trent Frederic from this game. Mangiapane has been a frequent healthy scratch since last week, becoming the subject of trade rumors. He and Frederic were signed last summer to bolster the Oilers’ forward depth, but they haven’t panned out thus far. Mangiapane is in the first year of a two-year contract, while Frederic’s is an eight-year deal.
The Tampa Bay Lightning picked up their eighth straight victory by doubling up the Colorado Avalanche 4-2. Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov had two assists to extend his points streak to eight games for the 26-13-3 Lightning, who hold first place in the Eastern Conference with 55 points. Parker Kelly and Brock Nelson were the goal scorers for the league-leading Avalanche (31-4-7, 69 points), who lost consecutive games for the first time since Oct. 26.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Before the game, the Avalanche announced that captain Gabriel Landeskog and defenseman Devon Toews are week-to-week with upper-body injuries. Landeskog could miss a few weeks, but it’s too early to rule him out for the Winter Olympics in February.
Philadelphia Flyers forward Trevor Zegras scored twice against his former team in a 5-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks. Cam York and Nikita Grebenkin each had a goal and an assist for the 22-12-7 Flyers. Cutter Gauthier and Alex Killorn tallied for the Ducks (21-19-3) as they’re winless in seven games (0-6-1).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: It was Gauthier’s first goal against the club that drafted him. Flyers winger Matvei Michkov missed this game with an injured foot, while Flyers forward Bobby Brink and defenseman Jamie Drysdale left this game with injuries. As for the Ducks, they placed forward Nikita Nesterenko on waivers before this game.
The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Florida Panthers 4-1. Matthew Knies had a goal and an assist, and Auston Matthews scored his sixth goal in the last three games for the 20-15-7 Maple Leafs to extend their point streak to seven games (5-0-2). Carter Verhaeghe replied for the Panthers (22-17-3).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Panthers winger Brad Marchand tried to stir the pot before this game, telling reporters it was between the Panthers and Maple Leafs this summer before choosing to stay in Florida. He also trolled Toronto fans, claiming they drove former Maple Leafs winger Mitch Marner out of town. Marchand exited in the third period for precautionary reasons following a hit by Leafs forward Bobby McMann.
Speaking of the Maple Leafs, defenseman Brandon Carlo returned to action after being sidelined by a foot injury since Nov. 13.
An overtime goal by Tomas Hertl lifted the Vegas Golden Knights to a 4-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets, leaving the latter winless in 10 games (0-6-4). Mark Stone scored to extend his goal streak to five games for the 18-11-12 Golden Knights, who hold first place in the Pacific Division with 48 points. Cole Perfetti, Luke Schenn, and Kyle Connor replied for the 15-21-5 Jets.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Jets defenseman Haydn Fleury was stretchered from this game with a broken nose in the first period after losing his balance and crashing into the end boards.
San Jose Sharks center Macklin Celebrini scored to extend his points streak to 11 games in a 5-2 victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Alexander Wennberg had a goal and two assists for the Sharks (21-18-3), as they’ve won four of their last five games. Zach Werenski and Sean Monahan scored for the Blue Jackets (18-17-7) as they’ve dropped three of their last four contests (1-2-1).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Monahan returned to action after missing the last four games. Earlier in the day, they signed former Pittsburgh Penguins and Flyers defenseman Egor Zamula after his contract with the Penguins was terminated.
The Buffalo Sabres held off the Vancouver Canucks by a score of 5-3. Alex Tuch had a goal and an assist, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 32 shots for the Sabres (22-15-4), who’ve won 11 of their last 12 games. Brock Boeser had two assists for the Canucks (16-21-5), leaving them winless in their last four games(0-2-2).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Sabres forward Jason Zucker returned to the lineup after missing 11 games with a lower-body injury.
Carolina Hurricanes defenseman K’Andre Miller tallied twice and picked up an assist in a 6-3 victory over the Dallas Stars. Andrei Svechnikov collected four assists for the 26-14-3 Hurricanes, who hold first place in the Metropolitan Division with 55 points. Jason Robertson had a goal and two assists, and Mikko Rantanen had a goal and an assist against his former club, but the Stars (25-10-8) are winless in their last six games (0-3-3).
Seattle Kraken rookie Berkly Catton scored his first two NHL goals as his club defeated the Boston Bruins 7-4. Kaapo Kakko had two goals and an assist for the Kraken (20-14-7), who have won four straight and eight of their last nine contests. David Pastrnak tallied twice for the 22-19-2 Bruins.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Before this game, the Bruins placed defenseman Hampus Lindholm on injured reserve and activated Henri Jokiharju off IR.
IN OTHER NEWS…
SPORTSNET: International Ice Hockey Federation president Luc Tardif remains confident that construction on the main arena for the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics will be ready in time for the games.
The seating capacity is set at 11,800, which is smaller than expected. Construction on parts of the arena might not be fully finished on time, but the playing surface, practice facilities, and dressing rooms will be ready.
TSN: Speaking of the Winter Olympics, the Czech Republic named 12 NHL players to their Men’s Hockey Team. They include goaltenders Lukas Dostal of the Anaheim Ducks, Karel Vejmelka of the Utah Mammoth, and Daniel Vladar of the Philadelphia Flyers.
Forwards include David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha of the Boston Bruins, Martin Necas of the Colorado Avalanche, Tomas Hertl of the Vegas Golden Knights, Ondrej Palat of the New Jersey Devils, Radek Faksa of the Dallas Stars, and sidelined Vancouver Canucks center Filip Chytil. Defensemen included Radko Gudas of the Ducks and Filip Hronek of the Vancouver Canucks.
Latvia’s roster will feature goaltenders Elvis Merzlikins of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Arturs Silovs of the Pittsburgh Penguins, forwards Rodrigo Abols of the Philadelphia Flyers, Zemgus Girgensons of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Teddy Blueger of the Vancouver Canucks, and defenseman Uvis Balinskis of the Florida Panthers.
Montreal Canadiens forward Alexandre Texier will be part of France’s Men’s Olympic hockey roster.
NEW YORK POST: Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin (lower body) is headed to injured reserve, and defenseman Adam Fox (lower body) was placed on long-term injury reserve.
NHL.COM: Los Angeles Kings forwards Anze Kopitar (lower body) and Joel Armia (upper body) are listed as day-to-day.
DAILY FACEOFF: Calgary Flames forward John Beecher is week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
The last 4 teams to reach the 41-game half-way point were in action last night. Here are the league standings by Conference at that point (W L OT/SO Pts GF GA Differential & date each got there):
Eastern Conference
Tampa 25 13 3 53 142 110 +32 (Jan 3)
Detroit 24 14 3 51 131 138 -7 (Dec 28)
Carolina 24 14 3 51 138 127 +11 (Jan 3)
Philadelphia 22 12 7 51 129 118 +11 (Jan 6)
Montreal 22 13 6 50 137 138 -1 (Jan 3)
Pittsburgh 20 12 9 49 135 131 +4 (Jan 4)
Buffalo 22 15 4 48 130 129 +1 (Jan 6)
NYIslanders 22 15 4 48 116 117 -1 (Jan 1)
Florida 22 16 3 47 129 130 -1 (Jan 4)
Washington 21 15 5 47 133 118 +15 (Dec 31)
New Jersey 22 17 2 46 113 121 -8 (Jan 3)
Ottawa 20 16 5 45 136 134 +2 (Jan 5)
Toronto 19 15 7 45 137 138 -1 (Jan 3)
Boston 21 18 2 44 130 134 -4 (Dec 31)
NYRangers 19 17 5 43 106 110 -4 (Dec 29)
Columbus 18 16 7 43 127 137 -19 (Jan 4)
Western Conference
Colorado 31 3 7 69 165 93 +72 (Jan 4)
Dallas 25 9 7 57 143 113 +30 (Dec 31)
Minnesota 24 10 7 55 129 108 +21 (Dec 31)
Vegas 18 11 12 48 128 129 -1 (Jan 6)
Seattle 20 14 7 47 115 120 -5 (Jan 6)
Edmonton 20 15 6 46 137 138 -1 (Dec 31)
Anaheim 21 17 3 45 139 147 -7 (Jan 3)
Los Angeles 18 14 9 45 111 113 -2 (Jan 5)
San Jose 20 18 3 43 127 146 -19 (Jan 3)
Nashville 19 18 4 42 118 136 -18 (Jan 3)
Utah 19 19 3 41 126 118 +8 (Jan 1)
Calgary 18 19 4 40 111 121 -10 (Jan 3)
Chicago 16 18 7 39 115 132 -17 (Jan 3)
St. Louis 15 18 8 38 101 143 -42 (Dec 31)
Vancouver 16 20 5 37 117 143 -26 (Jan 3)
Winnipeg 15 21 5 35 118 130 -12 (Jan 6)
Half-way stats of some interest and perhaps significance in terms of potential trade action:
The 10 with the most goals scored: Colorado 165, Dallas 143, Tampa 142, Anaheim 139, Carolina 138, Montreal, Toronto & Edmonton 137 each, Ottawa 136, Pittsburgh 135 – 6 East 4 West.
The 10 with the fewest goals scored: St. Louis 101, NYR 106, Los Angeles and Calgary 111 each, New Jersey 113, Chicago and Seattle 115 each, NYI 116, Vancouver 117, Nashville & Winnipeg 118 each – 2 East 8 West.
The 10 with the fewest goals allowed: Colorado 93, Minnesota 108, NYR & Tampa 110 each, Dallas & Los Angeles 113 each, NYI 117, Philadelphia, Washington & Utah 118 each. 5 East & 5 West.
The 10 with the most goals allowed: Anaheim 147, San Jose 146, St, Louis & Vancouver 143 each, Detroit, Montreal, Toronto & Edmonton 138 each, Columbus 137, Nashville 136. 4 East 6 West
In the so-called OT-SO 3-point games where the loser gets a point, Vegas has played, by far, the most with 12, followed by Pittsburgh and Los Angeles with 9 each. The fewest to get into OT/SO are Boston & New Jersey with 2 each.
NJ Devils need to clean house. Fitzgerald gave everyone (and their mother) either NTC or NMC clause and the roster is stuck. Palat has 2G and earning $3M per goal. Dougie Hamilton is a pylon on defense and is looking like the guy who has worn our his welcome from several previous teams. Markstrom was struggling all season yet the team gave him an extention, thinking he would play better. Fitzgerald hasn’t provided any depth in the AHL for several years now while knowing that Jack Hughes gets hurt for an extended period on an annual basis.
Not sure what convinced the Leafs to get rid of Keefe, but he sure seems to be stubborn with his lineup and style. it takes him weeks before making any line changes or scratch players, and surely never scratches vet players who (Palat, Hamilton) who are struggling. Players continue with their lazy defensive play yet no one gets benched, even for a shift or two.
The team needs a housecleaning from the GM to the coaching staff, and an experience gm, who knows how to navigate cap issues, needs to be brought in.
And a coach who will crack the whip and bench players when they repeatedly make the same mistakes
“And a coach who will crack the whip and bench players when they repeatedly make the same mistakes” The only coach that comes to mind that does this is John Tortorella. lol
Torterella’s time behind the bench is over.
Bring back Deboer to NJ
He seems to be doing pretty good in Philly this season.
Never mind! I had a brain fart. Tocchet replaced him this season.
Markstroms save percentage last night was a glittering .625. I saw a post that noted that a dummy propped up in the crease with a stick and a blocker would have done better,
To add to the “no accountability”:
Devils fans were booing Luke Hughes during Sunday’s gave vs CAR after he was directly responsible for two Hurricanes goals. It was the same exact plays that he has been making for the last couple of seasons yet the coaching staff doesn’t do anything about it, such as benching/scratching him. I get it that they don’t have much else available to replace him but accountability is more important.
I think the organization is dearly afraid of upsetting the Hughes brothers (and their family) as they fear they’ll leave to join their brother, and then how will the team sell season tickets?
mikep, the Devils aren’t the only team that can’t make deals because of the ntc problems, most teams are in that dilemma. Much like college football is killing itself with NIL and the transfer portal the NHL has created it’s own monster with no trade protection.
Case in point Doug Armstrong has been trying to make deals for several weeks and can’t find a team to deal with. Kyrou has been available but with his protection no deal has happened.
Also your comments on Keefe are interesting, as a Blues fan the biggest complaint with Montgomery is the fact he won’t keep lines together not just game to game but shift to shift. The Blues lack of offense is partly a by product of lack of continuity from the forwards who never develop chemistry constantly being shuffled around.
Re last night’s games, Reaves vs Olivier was the fight of the year so far. Haymakers from both.
Kucherov is year after year as valuable as any player in hockey. Doesn’t matter who he plays with he makes them better. And Cooper as coach does the same thing. How they both haven’t won more awards is baffling.
Final thought, the NHL is crazy to allow their best players to play in an unfinished building for the Olympics. Even if the playing surface is fine the stands might not be finished? Even Arizona had a complete building in their final year.
Snold49, your valid point re trade restrictions due to NMC, No Trade Clause and Modified No Trade Clause got me curious, so I scanned through Puckpedia and came up with this as to the total combination of those restrictions by team:
14 – Caolina
13 – New Jersey, Vegas, NY Islanders
12 – Tampa, Edmonton, Toronto, Seattle, Columbus
10 – NY Rangers, Vancouver, Boston, Colorado, Los Angeles, Florida
9 – San Jose, Minnesota, St. Louis
8 – Winnipeg, Utah
7 – Dallas, Ottawa, Washington, Nashville, Calgary, Pittsburgh, Anaheim, Detroit
6 – Chicago
5 – Montreal, Buffalo, Philadelphia
George O. Thanks for the response we all here can always count on you for informative responses to various topics.
To your post not just the number of players with nmc, no trade protection but who those guys are. For instance the Blues players that would create the most interest, Binnington, Kyrou, Buchnevich, Faulk, Parayko, Schenn and most of all Thomas all have various forms of trade protection. No wonder Armstrong is moving to President position next year and handing the GM headache to Steen. Steering through this mess to try and make a deal must be exhausting. Also true for every other GM.
This NMC/NTC debate is pretty simple really.
If you don’t want to give an available UFA a NMC/NTC don’t agree to it and roll the dice to see if he signs with you.
If you have a good player who will be a UFA in a year and he won’t sign an extension without one, then trade him, or again roll the dice and try to sign him as a UFA, and still don’t give him one.
I would be curious to see how it works out for your team.
And if you want to have the league include rules against it in the next CBA, enjoy the strike and the lawsuits.
I don’t think the NIL is destroying college football, it’s made it better. Unless you only want the big school teams from the SEC and Big 10 winning almost all of the time and consider that better.
What’s wrong with Indiana and Ole Miss competing for a national title? I think it’s great. I’ll be watching.
And of course the players should get a share of the pie greater than just a scholarship. How big would the TV dollars be without them? I thought the USA was a free market capitalist society? And the athletes can’t make any money? Hence the players won in court, which of course they did.
In 2024 the University of Texas (#1) athletic program generated $332M in revenue and has a valuation of $1.4B. And all the athletes get is a scholarship?
What we can’t know for sure, of course, is if those teams at the lower end (7,6 and 5) are there because of some hard lines by the GMs concerned, OR if it’s because more players on those teams are not necessarily opposed to being open to trade and so don’t seek such “protection.”
Ya, it is hard to know George, other than what we hear/read.
Some of the younger teams, starting/middle/end of a rebuild also have younger players for their core so those players don’t qualify for a NTC or NMC.
Not 100 on this but I think you have to have the similar years of service/age to qualify as a UFA to get the NTC. Hence you see it on the last few years of a young star who signs a long term deal with the team that drafted him. Like your guy Brady, his didn’t kick in until this year.
Good points Ray!
Hearing Oilers are in on Boone Jenner anybody know how much smoke or truth there is to that subject? If the Oilers got Boone Jenner they could really turn the corner he is a strong two way center and presence…on a expiring deal !
Would love him on my Penguins don’t see that happening….LOL
We had our in division trade with Columbus and Chinakov off to a solid start young guy with a shot, speed,
I haven’t heard anything about that, but I love it! I have always liked the way he plays.
GeorgeO,those teams with almost half of their roster with trade protection could be headed for trouble. Especially those teams that are retooling and want to move some veterans. Fitzgerald and Armstrong have been tied up all year. NJ better get straightened out before the Hughes boys plan a reunion. If not it may end up in Minnesota.