NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – February 27, 2026
Oilers captain Connor McDavid reaches another scoring milestone, Islanders rookie Matthew Schaefer sets a league record, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines
NHL.COM: Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist to reach the 100-point plateau for the ninth time as his Edmonton Oilers ended a four-game losing skid by crushing the Los Angeles Kings 8-1. Leon Draisaitl had a goal and three assists, Zach Hyman had a goal and two assists, and Jake Walman tallied twice for the 29-23-8 Oilers. Warren Foegele replied for the Kings (23-21-14), who are winless in their last five games (0-4-1).
Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid (NHL Images)
SPECTOR’S NOTE: McDavid moved past Marcel Dionne into third place for the most 100-point seasons. Wayne Gretzky is the leader with 15, followed by Mario Lemieux with 10. He currently sits atop this season’s scoring race with 100 points, five points ahead of Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov and Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon.
Kings defenseman Drew Doughty suffered a lower-body injury, and winger Joel Armia suffered an upper-body injury in this game. Meanwhile, the Oilers were without forward Mattias Janmark, who is sidelined long-term with a chronic injury that requires rest.
New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer scored twice to set an NHL record for most goals by a rookie defenseman (18) as his club nipped the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 on an overtime goal by Jean-Gabriel Pageau. Noah Dobson scored twice, and Cole Caufield netted his 33rd goal of the season as the Canadiens (32-17-9) took 2-0 and 3-2 leads, but the Islanders (33-21-5) battled back with Anders Lee scoring late in the third period to force overtime.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Canadiens continue to struggle holding leads. It’s something they must improve as they try to clinch a playoff berth.
The Minnesota Wild collected their sixth straight win by defeating the Colorado Avalanche 5-2. Matt Boldy had two goals and two assists, Joel Eriksson Ek scored twice, and goaltender Filip Gustavsson kicked out 44 shots for the 35-14-10 Wild. Martin Necas tallied both goals for the Avalanche (38-10-9), who sit first overall with 85 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: It was a gutty effort by Gustavsson, who is battling an illness. He left this game with a minute left in the third period after throwing up in his crease.
A power-play goal by Sebastian Aho gave the Carolina Hurricanes a 5-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Logan Stankoven, Taylor Hall, and Seth Jarvis each had a goal and an assist for the Metropolitan Division-leading Hurricanes (37-15-6), who extended their points streak to 11 games. Jake Guentzel had three assists and Brayden Point collected a goal and an assist for the Eastern Conference-leading Lightning (38-15-4) as their six-game win streak ended.
Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin scored the tying goal and the overtime winner to lift his team over the Ottawa Senators by a score of 2-1. Lucas Raymond picked up two assists, and John Gibson stopped 26 shots for the Red Wings (34-19-6). Brady Tkachuk scored, and Tim Stutzle had an assist to extend his points streak to eight games for the 28-22-8 Senators.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Earlier in the day, the NHL announced it had cleared Ottawa forward Arthur Kaliyev of gambling allegations. He was called up from the Senators’ AHL affiliate for precautionary reasons, as Tim Stutzle was a game-time decision to play against the Red Wings.
Boston Bruins goaltender Joonas Korpisalo made 37 saves to backstop his club to a 4-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, snapping the latter’s seven-game win streak. Viktor Arvidsson scored two goals for the Bruins (33-20-5) as they extended their points streak to eight games. Adam Fantilli and Mason Marchment each had two points for the 29-21-7 Blue Jackets.
First-period goals by Brad Marchand, Carter Verhaeghe, and Evan Rodrigues powered the Florida Panthers to a 5-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs. Marchand finished with two goals for the 30-25-3 Panthers. John Tavares replied for the 27-23-9 Maple Leafs, who sit last in the Atlantic Division with 63 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Earlier this week, it was reported that Maple Leafs management would take three or four games to decide on their plans for the March 6 trade deadline. After watching their last two games, it’s obvious they should be sellers by next Friday.
The Pittsburgh Penguins got three unanswered third-period goals by Connor Clifton, Egor Chinakhov, and Blake Lizotte to down the New Jersey Devils 4-1. Evgeni Malkin collected two assists, and Arturs Silovs made 28 saves for the 30-15-12 Penguins. Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who have lost five straight games and dropped to 28-29-2.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Speaking of potential sellers, the Devils could be joining that club as they continue to flounder in the standings.
Philadelphia Flyers winger Matvei Michkov scored twice, including the winner in overtime, to lift his club to a 3-2 win over the New York Rangers. Alexis Lafreniere and Sam Carrick replied for the Rangers. The Flyers improved to 26-21-11, while the Rangers (22-29-7) sit last in the Eastern Conference with 51 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Rangers welcomed back goaltender Igor Shesterkin and defenseman Adam Fox. Both players had been sidelined since Jan. 5.
St. Louis Blues winger Dylan Holloway had a hat trick and picked up an assist to beat the Seattle Kraken 5-1. Pius Suter had a goal and two assists for the 21-28-9 Blues, who sit last in the Central Division with 51 points. Kaapo Kakko replied for the 27-22-9 Kraken.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Earlier in the day, Blues forward Mathieu Joseph and Kraken forward Tye Kartye were placed on waivers.
Third-period goals by Matthew Wood, Ryan O’Reilly, and Steven Stamkos gave the Nashville Predators (27-24-7) a 4-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks. Connor Bedard and Tyler Bertuzzi scored for the 22-27-9 Blackhawks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Predators have 61 points, putting them two points behind the Kraken for the final Western wild-card spot.
The Calgary Flames defeated the San Jose Sharks 4-1. Dustin Wolf turned aside 34 shots, and Nazem Kadri tallied twice for the 24-27-6 Flames. Tyler Toffoli scored for the Sharks (27-25-4), who are 0-4-1 in their last five games.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Sharks remain five points out of the final Western Conference wild-card spot with 58 points.
Can I ask the readers for some clarification on a trade topic? Georege O you might be the best resource. In Bostons trade last year for Carlo.they received Minten and a first round protected pick. My question is,is it top 5 or top 10 protected? With Toronto stumbling through the season and Ottawa at this time not having a first round pick this could become very interesting.
Can I ask the readers for some clarification on a trade topic? Georege O you might be the best resource. In Bostons trade last year for Carlo.they received Minten and a first round protected pick. My question is,is it top 5 or top 10 protected? With Toronto stumbling through the season and Ottawa at this time not having a first round pick this could become very interesting.
As per PuckPedia:
Top 5 protected, slides to 2027. The 2027 pick goes to Philadelphia (as part of Laughton trade) if it is outside the top 10, which converts this pick to Boston to a 2028 unprotected 1st Round Pick. If this Pick slides to 2027 and is in the top 10, TOR can either transfer it to BOS to satisfy this trade and then give PHI the 2028 unprotected, or transfer it to PHI and give BOS the 2028 unprotected 1st Round Pick.
I’ll only answer it once despite it being asked twice 🙂 – just kidding Sr … I’ve had that happen to me frequently, although Pengy used to have it down to a fine art.
When the Leafs dealt their 2026 1st-rd pick, prospect Minten, and a 2025 4th-rd pick for Carlo back in March 2025, it was predicated on the 1st being top-5 protected. If the pick does fall within the top 5 (1-5), it slides to 2027 and, if it turns out to be top-10 in 2027, then it converts to a 2028 unprotected 1st-round pick.
Bruins faithful… how are the Bruins winning these games and staying in the playoff hunt
They spend a large amount of time of time per game in their own D Zone .. they have given up 200 more SOG this season than they have .. their PK is worst in league or very close it and have taken the most penalties in league . all this with only 2 legit goal scorers any ideas ?
Joe, I have only watched about a third of the Bruins games and the eye test matches the data when I have.
What the data shows is they have the 3rd worst expected goals for %. Far from a perfect stat, but a general idea. So ya, they give up way more chances than they generate, especially the high danger variety.
Why they are winning is they have the 3rd highest shooting %, and excellent save % on high danger shots, and overall tending has been very solid.
That usually isn’t sustainable long term, but the B’s have been doing it all year. So who the heck knows if it continues.
I thought the tending would be better this year as it sucked last year, but I sure didn’t see them being one of the best teams in the NHL at finishing their chances.
Good news is we get to find out!
You could ask the same/opposite how are the Sens losing. OR How are the Wings still in this, being the only negative Eastern team in the playoffs. Goaltending is the easy answer. Gibson was lights out. Ullmark wasn’t.
The Sens shot suppression is SO good poor Linus has little to do for long stretches then BAM it’s in the net. Goalies need work to stay warm.
playoff chances for NJD are dead, time to start moving vets.
(1) Dougie Hamilton, time to make a deal now, which will include time to get him to waive his NTC. Luke Hughes can return this weekend so Hamilton won’t have a secure spot in the lineup anyways
(2) for a losing team it’s a waste to have so much cap space on veteran goalies. they should trade Jake Allen and bring up one of their young goalies to split with Markstrom
(3) wasted/unproductive vets like Glendening and Dadonov will probably get the team a 5th or 6th round pick, time to scuttle them and open spots for young players
the overall team’s confidence is just shot, it shows the team needs a coaching change.
and none of Fitzgerald’s recent moves have paid off, seems like he is over his head as GM, if the Devils ownership is wise they’d look into a thorough management housecleaning this offseason.
It may have happened around the league, I honestly do not know, but I thought it was really cool at the Bell Centre last night that each hockey Olympian on both the Habs and NYI got announced and recognized one by one by name and country they represented to applause.
Happened in Ottawa last night as well, habfan30
https://www.facebook.com/TSN/videos/ottawa-gives-their-olympians-a-warm-welcome-back-/1592761008817971/
Boston missed out on an opportunity to single out Zach Werenski who then went out and played about 30 minutes against the Bruins.