NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – January 9, 2026
Red Wings forward Patrick Kane reaches a notable scoring milestone, Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon reclaims the lead in the scoring race, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPS OF THURSDAY’S GAMES
NHL.COM: Patrick Kane scored twice to become the fifth U.S.-born NHL player to reach 500 career regular-season goals as the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Vancouver Canucks 5-1. Jake DeBrusk scored for the Canucks (16-22-5), who are winless in their last five games (0-3-2). The Red Wings improved to 26-15-4.
Detroit Red Wings forward Patrick Kane (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Kane joined Mike Modano (561), Keith Tkachuk (538), Jeremy Roenick (513), and Joe Mullen (502). He’s also the first to reach that milestone since Tkachuk in April 2008.
Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and three assists to reclaim the lead in the NHL scoring race (78 points) as his club thumped the Ottawa Senators 8-2. Brock Nelson and Josh Manson each tallied two goals for the league-leading Avalanche (32-4-7, 71 points) as they snapped a two-game losing skid. Shane Pinto and Brady Tkachuk replied for the 20-18-5 Senators, who have only two wins in their last eight games (2-7-1).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Senators signed free-agent James Reimer in an effort to shore up their struggling goaltending. Reimer, 37, could join the club this weekend.
Earlier in the day, the Senators released a statement expressing extreme disappointment with social media posts regarding starting goalie Linus Ullmark. This is in response to what the club called “fabricated and false stories” regarding the reason behind Ullmark’s leave of absence for personal reasons.
Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid extended his points streak with a goal and an assist to nip the Winnipeg Jets 4-3, leaving the latter winless in their last 11 games (0-7-4). Evan Bouchard snapped a 3-3 tie midway through the third period for the Oilers (22-16-6). Kyle Connor had a goal and an assist for the Jets, who dropped to 15-22-5.
The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the New Jersey Devils 4-1. Evgeni Malkin scored in his first game since being sidelined by an upper-body injury on Dec. 4, and Sidney Crosby had two assists to push his points streak to eight games for the 21-12-9 Penguins, extending their winning streak to six games. Luke Hughes scored for the Devils (22-20-2), who are 2-6-1 in their last eight contests.
Montreal Canadiens winger Alexandre Texier netted his first NHL hat trick in a 6-2 victory over the Florida Panthers. Oliver Kapanen had a goal and two assists as the Canadiens (25-13-6) picked up their third straight win and sit in first place in the Atlantic Division with 56 points. Sam Bennett tallied both goals for the 22-18-3 Panthers, who have dropped seven straight games to the Canadiens since the 2023-24 season.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Panthers winger Brad Marchand missed this game as he’s day-to-day with an undisclosed ailment. Meanwhile, TSN’s Chris Johnston said the chances were pretty high for sidelined Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov (knee) to return to action this season, most likely during the playoffs.
Boston Bruins goaltender Joonas Korpisalo stopped 28 shots to douse the Calgary Flames 4-1. Sean Kuraly had a goal and an assist for the 23-19-2 Bruins, who have three wins in their last four games. Connor Zary scored for the Flames (18-22-4) as their losing skid reached four games.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Flames winger Blake Coleman left this game in the third period with an undisclosed injury. Earlier in the day, the Flames announced that rookie defenseman Zayne Perekh is day-to-day with an upper-body injury suffered during the recent World Junior Championship.
The Buffalo Sabres picked up their 12th win in their last 13 games by dropping the New York Rangers 5-2. Mattias Samuelsson, Jason Zucker, and Ryan McLeod each had a goal and an assist for the 23-15-4 Sabres. Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck scored for the Rangers (20-19-6).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Rangers captain J.T. Miller returned to action after missing the last two weeks with an upper-body injury.
An overtime goal by Easton Cowan lifted the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. Scott Laughton scored against his former club, and Dennis Hildeby made 22 saves for the Maple Leafs (21-15-7) as they extended their points streak to eight games (6-0-2). Travis Konecny scored for the 22-12-8 Flyers.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Konecny left the game at the end of the second period with an upper-body injury.
The Carolina Hurricanes picked up their third straight win by downing the Anaheim Ducks 5-2. Jalen Chatfield, Logan Stankoven, and Taylor Hall each had a goal and an assist for the Hurricanes (27-14-3), who sit in first place in the Eastern Conference with 57 points. Ryan Poehling and Mikael Granlund replied for the Ducks (21-20-3), who are 0-7-1 in their last eight games.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Ducks winger Troy Terry missed this game as he’s day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
Vegas Golden Knights captain Mark Stone scored to extend his goal streak to six games in a 5-3 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Stone finished with three points, and Reilly Smith tallied twice for the Golden Knights (19-11-12), who hold first place in the Pacific Division with 50 points. Boone Jenner and Sean Monahan each had two points for the Blue Jackets, who dropped to 18-18-7.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Golden Knights goaltender Carter Hart left this game in the first period with a lower-body injury. Earlier in the day, they placed defenseman Brayden McNabb (upper body) on injured reserve. Meanwhile, Blue Jackets defenseman Brendan Smith will be sidelined for three to four months after undergoing knee surgery on Jan. 6.
The Minnesota Wild got an overtime goal from Mats Zuccarello to defeat the Seattle Kraken 3-2. Kirill Kaprizov had two assists for the 26-11-8 Wild. Adam Larsson and Matty Beniers scored for the Kraken (20-14-8), who extended their points streak to 10 games (8-0-2).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Kraken winger Jordan Eberle missed this game with an undisclosed injury.
Nashville Predators goalie Juuse Saros stopped 30 shots, and Filip Forsberg scored in the shootout for a 2-1 victory over the New York Islanders. Ryan O’Reilly scored in regulation for the Predators (20-19-4). Simon Holmstrom tallied for the 24-15-5 Islanders.
IN OTHER NEWS…
TSN: Seven NHL players will be part of Slovakia’s roster for the 2026 Winter Olympics Men’s hockey tournament. Forwards include Juraj Slafkovsky of the Montreal Canadiens, Dalibor Dvorsky of the St. Louis Blues, Martin Pospisil of the Calgary Flames, and Pavol Regenda of the San Jose Sharks. Defensemen include Erik Cernak of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Martin Fehervary of the St. Louis Blues, and Simon Nemec of the New Jersey Devils.
THE ATHLETIC: St. Louis Blues head coach Jim Montgomery denied that starting goalie Jordan Binnington refused to be pulled from their 7-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday. He also denied that backup Joel Hofer appeared to be hiding in the tunnel behind the Blues’ bench.
Montgomery explained that he attempted to pull Binnington after Chicago scored its seventh goal, and Binnington was waiting for Hofer to replace him before heading to the bench. However, Hofer was not fully dressed because he had to watch the game from the dressing room due to a lack of room on the St. Louis bench. Play had resumed by the time Hofer was ready to go.
SAN JOSE HOCKEY NOW: The Sharks acquired backup goaltender Laurent Brossoit, depth defenseman Nolan Allen, and a 2028 seventh-round pick from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for the contract of permanently sidelined defenseman Ryan Ellis, minor-league defenseman Jake Furlong, and a 2028 fourth-round pick.
TRIBLIVE.COM: Jack McGregor, a former Pennsylvania state senator who founded the Pittsburgh Penguins, died on Tuesday at age 91. He was the team’s first president and chief executive officer from 1967 to 1970.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: My condolences to McGregor’s family, colleagues, and the Penguins’ organization.
Canes fans, I notice that Kotkaniemi has missed the part few games. Is he injured or a healthy scratch?
According to this Howard he’s been a healthy scratch
https://www.nhl.com/hurricanes/news/projected-lineup-january-6-vs-dallas
Well, with another dazzling effort last night (3 goals on Merilainen on 15 shots – 5 on Sogaard on 18 shots), the Senators have managed to work their way to the top of the bottom 10 in the league, and just 3 ahead of the 4th draft spot, currently held by St. Louis.
Losers of their past 3 and 4-5-1 over their past 10, they have been exceeded in futility in that span by 3 teams below them (Anaheim 1-8-1 and losers of their past 4, Winnipeg 0-7-3 and Vancouver 3-5-2), and 2 above them in the league standings (Boston 3-5-2) & New Jersey (3-6-1), while sharing identical 4-5-1 results with Florida and Los Angeles (currently above them) and Columbus below them.
Probably the most imminent result of this will be the firing of Travis Green … which, as usual, will be manifestly unfair but the only option open to a GM who, wanting to be seen to be doing SOMETHING to right the ship, unfortunately can’t swing any trades of significance due to many factors, not the least of which is the plethora of restricting no movement/no-go trade clauses around the league. At least Staios met Dark G’s suggestion a few days ago that they sign veteran James Reimer. A veteran goalie who played well for Buffalo over the past 2 seasons, he should at least give them a bit of a boost there until (or IF) Ullmark gets back. And even then, should become the back-up for the rest of this season anyway .
And, of course, there’s the looming egg on his face that will be plastered all over his kisser if they finish in lottery range … and no 1st round pick thanks to his short-sighted decision.
If anyone’s job needs to be sacrificed to offset rising fan impatience it should be that of Staios.
too early to pass judgement on Steady Steve…the coach annoys me. The constant switching of lines especially the d pairs. Like. Yes. Things go sideways. You don’t throw it all at a wall and see what sticks. This game is all about consistency. I think the no-pick this year decision hurts with all out 20/20 hindsight vision. In a perfect world (Steve’s world) the goaltending was fine, the captain was healthy, the defense firmed up in the bottom 4 and his signings started to click…(Zetterlund has finally started to click) The rest of it has gone sideways spectacularly. Had it not..the pick issue wouldn’t be an issue. AND they may yet make the playoffs and all of this becomes alarmist and hysteria.
I don’t know about the rest of the rumors. But I know of some of them, and new of some of them before yesterday’s toxic reveal.
I don’t know that it was anything “alarmist” or “hysterics” when I initially voiced my concerns over his choice of last year’s over this year’s draft pick Dark G.
More in the nature of better to relinquish a 23rd overall (who we won’t see in Ottawa anyway for at least two more seasons) than to take a chance on where this year’s pick could fall.
It wasn’t like he would have been forfeiting a top 10 or anything of that nature. It’s just that you just never know for certain how things will unfold heading into a new season, and as Forrest Gump allegedly coined “s*^t happens.” Instead, he chose to rely on Bettman eventually lifting the penalty.
To Ron’s views and the Buffalo comparison, an endless firing of coaches over 14 years did nothing to turn that team around … until they decided to keep Ruff and instead fired the GM and brought in Kekalainen (to some ridicule).
He hasn’t (yet) made any roster moves, but did in other positions, and it seems just the change in who runs the show there has filtered down to the team.
Not suggesting the Senators could respond similarly, and I suppose we have no way of knowing for sure if a coach with a different approach could make an immediate difference.
But clearly doing nothing is slowly changing a silk purse back into a sow’s ear. We should find out soon enough if Reimer’s veteran presence on a starting roster can make a positive difference.
Green is not the problem imo. I agree with George that Staois caused this by not correctly identifying that teams are only as good as their goaltending. Last year was the only year the Sens had average goaltending and they made the playoffs. They had Ullmark, a quality vet in Forsberg, and Levi to come in and fill in when one got injured.
Staois knew ullmarks history of injury and low amount of games on average played and so should have gotten a quality, veteran back up. Instead he took a huge gamble with a young unproven goaltender and it has completely destroyed the team’s confidence.
Confidence in hockey starts from the net out, everyone knows this. When the team in front doesn’t have trust that their goalie can make a save it affects the whole chemistry, they hold their stick tighter and I believe this is the big problem the team is facing. What can Green do about poor goaltending? Nothing, that was the GMs job. And now Staois is scrambling and got a goalie who hasn’t played in a year, whose only two games last year were 2 losses with a 4.50 gaa. Sens are hooped on his shortsightedness.
@George
I find it interesting that so many Staios firing predictions related to his handling of that pick hilarious… do you REALLY think that Andlauer wasn’t part of that ENTIRE decision making process??? No way he can fire Staios for what he most assuredly told him to do.
I’m not sure I would agree that Andlauer made the call.
As a guy who communicates upwards with the “C Suite” on occasion, you don’t ask those types of people what should you do in this situation.
What you do is make recommendations and ask there approval when it is a decision that requires it. Or why do they need you?
And I’m not even sure this decision would require it? And if Staois wanted to ask for his approval, my guess is Andlauer deferred to him. As he should.
Andlauer owns and operates multiple large companies. Does he need to be in the loop on the big decisions, ya, like spending $100M of his money on a player, I’m just skeptical this would qualify. He has a GM for a reason, he’s a busy guy who didn’t get where he is micromanaging his managers.
IMO
@RAY
I am definitely not implying this would be a regular occurrence, but this loss of the draft pick has been quite the public gripe from Andlauer. On this one thing I could see him having a large say in when Staios was allowed to make that call.
Bottom line … I’m not about to get into a discussion on which of the two – or both – made/agreed to – the decision, Whichever way it went, it was not a wise approach.
And this will be driven home at the next draft if they fall to the bottom 5 and Bettman holds firm.
I don’t George, the only thing I can think of is that the team looks like it doesn’t have a system where the whole team has bought in and more a coaching or systemic issue where the players aren’t buying in or it’s one not good for this current team make up.
They are like the where Sabers were – good team, good players but wasn’t working but is now. Don’t know what or how they turned it around but suspect the Sens could get things right before it’s too late which won’t be long.
Ron Moore, I watched an interview with Tage Thompson on the NHL network shortly after Jarmo took over as gm. He told the players that nobody was safe and if they didn’t start playing the right way changes would be made. Don’t know that it’s that simple but the win streak and resurgence happened right after that meeting.
The Sens should have hired Jay Woodcroft. Luckily enough it’s not to late 😉
GeorgeO,what seems to be the underlining cause to your Sens recent demise. The Ullmark situation is unfortunate since there is never a good time for that. Travis Green might have the same fate as Jim Montgomery after his record setting season in Boston. Should your GM get the same treatment as theBuffaloGM especially after not saving that first round pick. In any event if you had a schedule where you could play Boston you would be all set.
Heh Sr. On the other hand, if they had a schedule where they played the Sabres they’d be the first team to go winless!
Interesting that, since 2011 – the last year the Sabres made the playoffs – both Ottawa and Buffalo have had 8 coaches each and, until Adams’ recent firing, 4 GMs in Buffalo and 3 in Ottawa.
Buffalo coaches: Lindy Ruff (1997 into 2013), Ron Rolston (2013), Ted Nolan (2013-15), Dan Bylsma (2015-17), Phil Housely (2017-19), Ralph Krueger (2019-21), Don Granato (2021-2024), Lindy Ruff (2024-present).
Buffalo GMs: Darcy Regier 1997 into 2013 – 8 playoff appearances), Tim Murray (2014-17 – no playoffs), Jason Botterill 2017-2020 – no playoffs), Kevyn Adams (2020-Dec 25 – no playoffs); Jarmo Kekalainen (Dec 2025-present – playoffs looming?).
Ottawa coaches: Corey Clouston (2009-11), Paul MacLean (2011-14), Dave Cameron (2024-16), Guy Boucher (2016-19), Marc Crawford (2019), D.J. Smith (2019-23), Jacques Martin (2023-24), Travis Green (2034-present)
Ottawa GMs: Bryan Murray (2007-2016 – 5 playoffs), Pierre Dorion (2016-23 – 1 playoff), Steve Staios (2023-present – 1 playoff).
GeorgeO ,I saw an NHL publication that had power ratings and the Sens were 18 th. I like their forward group and if Reimer gives them a lift they will be right there with the cluster in the east this year
That’s the positivity I needed. I have always liked Reimber since his Toronto days. One of the few Leafs that handled the Toronto media. Which, of course, meant that he’d run out of town–and he was.
Can’t understand pinning your hopes on Reimer who the Leafs released from his PTO this year or was he run out of town…LOL I wish I could think like you.
“Senators GM Steve Staios even released a controversial statement Thursday night to deny the rumors, but that did absolutely nothing to calm the situation. In fact, many say it made it worse.”
Some notable insiders are quoted here:
https://www.nhltraderumors.me/2026/01/insider-reports-tension-between-ullmark.html
Johnny, no idea what the rumor is, and don’t care as it is likely total BS click bate.
My policy is until someone with standards of accuracy reports it, why even look. And they won’t until they are sure in this type of situation, and even then, why is it our business?
It’s his personal life, anybody trying to make a buck off guessing or making stuff up is a total POS in my books, and the last thing I want to do is help him make $$ off doing it.