NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – February 18, 2026
The quarterfinal matchups are set for Olympic Men’s hockey, Jeff Skinner becomes a free agent, Patrik Laine is injured again, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
QUARTERFINAL MATCHUPS SET FOLLOWING QUALIFICATION ROUND ACTION
NHL.COM: Switzerland blanked Italy 3-0 in qualification round action on Tuesday to advance to the quarterfinal round against Finland.
Nico Hischier had a goal and two assists while goaltender Leonardo Genoni made 20 saves for the shutout. Damian Clara stopped 48 shots for Italy.
Sweden will meet the United States in the quarterfinal after defeating Latvia 5-1.
Team Sweden winger Lucas Raymond (The Hockey News).
Lucas Raymond had three assists, while William Nylander, Mika Zibanejad, and Gabriel Landeskog each had a goal and an assist for the Swedes. Eduards Tralmaks replied for Latvia.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Following Tuesday’s action, Raymond sat second to Canada’s Connor McDavid in tournament scoring with eight points. The Swedes raised eyebrows by scratching defenseman Rasmus Andersson and Jesper Bratt from this game. Some observers believe they’re saving them for the quarterfinal.
Germany beat France 5-1 to face Slovakia in the quarterfinal.
Leon Draisaitl had a goal and two assists, and Philipp Grubauer stopped 30 shots for the Germans. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored for France in what proved to be his final game as the former NHL forward announced his retirement following this contest.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: As I write this, Germany is down 4-1 to Slovakia after two periods in their quarterfinal game.
Bellemare’s teammate Pierre Crinon faces prosecution back home in France for punching a goaltender in the face during a game last November. Earlier this week, he was suspended from the remainder of the tournament by the French National Olympic and Sports Committee for fighting Canada’s Tom Wilson during Sunday’s games between the two nations.
Czechia will face Canada for the second time in this tournament after holding off Denmark by a score of 3-2.
Martin Necas and Roman Cervenka each had a goal and an assist while Lukas Dostal turned aside 24 shots for Czechia. Frederik Andersen made 28 saves for Denmark.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Czechia forward Radek Faksa suffered an upper-body injury in this game and will not be in the lineup for today’s game against Canada.
OLYMPIC MEN’S HOCKEY NOTES
TSN: Team Canada forwards Nathan MacKinnon and Sam Bennett skipped practice on Tuesday. Head coach Jon Cooper said they were taking time for maintenance, adding that there wasn’t any cause for concern. Both players are expected to be in the lineup for their quarterfinal game against Czechia.
DAILY FACEOFF: Team USA winger Kyle Connor is expected to be a healthy scratch from today’s game against Sweden. His ice time steadily diminished in his first two games, and he was scratched from their game against Germany.
IN NHL NEWS…
SAN JOSE HOCKEY NOW: Jeff Skinner is no longer with the Sharks. He cleared unconditional waivers on Tuesday, resulting in his contract being terminated by mutual agreement. The 33-year-old winger is now an unrestricted free agent.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: It’ll be interesting to see if he signs with another NHL club this season. He’ll have to do so before the March 6 trade deadline to be eligible to skate in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
DETROIT HOCKEY NOW: Red Wings defenseman Simon Edvinsson resumed practice with his teammates on Tuesday. He’d missed their last seven games before the Olympic break with a lower-body injury.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Edvinsson, 23, has been an invaluable part of the Red Wings’ blueline. As the article observed, they’re 3-5-2 in the 10 games he’s missed during this season.
TSN: Patrik Laine missed practice on Tuesday as he’s listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. The 27-year-old Montreal Canadiens winger has been sidelined since Oct. 16 after undergoing core muscle surgery.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Laine has surfaced recently in the rumor mill as a trade candidate. However, his ongoing injury issues could ensure that he finishes the season in Montreal.
Probably the one factor that would likely cause teams to exercise extreme caution in dealing for Patrik Laine is his all-too frequent visits to the IR – and seemingly always for something different.
https://www.flashscore.ca/player/laine-patrik/hKLVBmEn/injury-history/
An AI summary of his recent injury history says: “Patrik Laine has missed a significant number of games due to injury and illness throughout his NHL career, with his recent seasons being heavily impacted. Based on reports, he has missed over 117 games in the past three seasons (2022-2025) alone. Key injury milestones in his career include:
• 2023-24 Season: Missed the last 51 regular-season games due to a broken collarbone/shoulder surgery and other, as well as personal reasons, ending his season in December 2023.
• 2022-23 Season: Missed time with ankle, elbow, and triceps injuries.
• 2021-22 Season: Missed 19 games with an abdominal strain.
• 2016-17 Season: Missed 8 games due to a concussion.
• 2024-25 Season: Initially missed time with a knee injury, and later missed time with illness.
• 2025-26 Season: Underwent core muscle surgery in October 2025, with a 3-4 month recovery time.
Over the last four seasons (up to early 2025-26), Laine played in only 181 out of a possible 328 games, indicating roughly 147 missed games in that period alone (or 45%).
So he’s well rested going into the playoffs?🤷♂️🙂
Heh. That’s one way of looking at it, I suppose. But then, he was always “well rested” after returning from each one and that never stopped the next one from popping up.
France going a little ape crap over Crinon no? Fine the guy and move on. A little crazy even for a smaller less knowledgeable hockey country. Wow.
Gotta agree Kinger. I’m not a lawyer, and sure as heck not familiar with French law. But, after going on the link and watching the video, my guess is nothing else comes of it and it gets dropped. Or at least it would in Canada.
Flippin’ tenders who stick their nose in the scrums and start poking guys with their blocker while wearing a mask and full body armor, then complain when the guy rips your mask off and gives it back to you. This dickwad filed a formal complaint after that. WTF dude?
The game was out of hand, guys were pissed off, and if what Crinan did was illegal, how isn’t all the other stuff? That was one of many just in that 5 minute clip.
IMO the goalie had it coming, and got it. Goalies can fight goalies, and if you decide to get into it with the other guys you best take your mask off or your full of sh*t.
Or, shut up and stop the puck.
Can’t stand mouthy, fake tough guy, tenders. Most of the time one of their team mates ends up fighting a guy because that’s how it works. Let me at him! Let me at him!
Seriously , what an A-hole. Still gets me fired up!
Laine is UFA at the end of the year, the pro-rated pay of roughly $2m is peanuts if he goes to a team like LA Kings who have no powerplay to speak of and they lost Fiala.
Is that really a gamble?
If he does nothing, don’t re-sign him.
If he pops in 5-6 pp goals that might tip them into the playoffs.
The question is what would it cost? Warren Foegele would do it for me.
High risk high ceiling for low risk low reward.
My rationale being Habs have scoring without Laine, Foegele is strong defensively, pk, energy guy.
hanfan30
Do you really want Montreal adding an asset to rid themselves of Laine? Just put him on LTIR and use the cap space if necessary.
He’s damaged goods. UFA or not, max Montreal can retain is 50% and there is no guarantee he’ll finish the regular season.
High risk, no reward?
Lyle, Swedens win yesterday over Latvia was 5-1, not 3-2.
Fixed
Lyle PEB of France is not a defenseman. Most of his career, flyers, Avalanche, lightning has been as a forward.unless on team France he was fulfilling that role, maybe he was? .
Rooting for landeskog, just being able to do what he is doing is incredible. Should be talked about more what a captain this guy is. The main reason the Avalanche are really a serious threat
Once the season resumes, and based upon records since the 41-game half-way point, the final order of the draft lottery looks to be a “race” between these teams if that second-half pace persists – showing % odds to win # 1 if they finish in this order – current seasonal % pace – record & % pace since the half-way point:
32. Vancouver 25.1% – .368 – 2-13-1 5pts.156
31. NY Rangers 13.6% – .439 – 3-12-1 7pts .219
30. Philadelphia 11.6 – .545 – 3-8-4 10pts .333
29. St. Louis 9.5%- .430 – 5-10-1 11pts .344
28. New Jersey 8.5% – .509 – 6-10-1 13pts .382
27. Calgary 7.5% – .464 – 5-8-2 12pts .400
26. Florida 6.5% – .535 7-9-0 14pts .438
25. Chicago 6.0% – .465 6-8-2 14pts .438
24. San Jose 5.0% – .527 – 7-9-1 15pts .441
23. Los Angeles 3.5% – .549 – 5-5-5 15pts .500
22. Nashville 3.0% – .518 – 7-6-3 17pts .531
2-1 Czechia over Canada end of the 1st.
Wouldn’t it be something to see an upset there as well as in the Sweden-U.S. game, and so have the 2 overwhelming favourites playing for the brass … err … bronze?