NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – March 10, 2026
Recapping Tuesday night’s action, the three stars of the week, Lightning forward Brandon Hagel fined, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPS OF TUESDAY’S GAMES
NHL.COM: Los Angeles Kings winger Adrian Kempe scored twice, including the game-winner in overtime, in a 5-4 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Brian Dumoulin had a goal and two assists, while Artemi Panarin and Scott Laughton each had a goal and an assist for the 26-23-14 Kings (66 points), who are one point behind the Seattle Kraken for the final Western Conference wild-card berth. Conor Garland tallied twice for the Blues Jackets (32-21-10, 74 points), who are two points behind the Boston Bruins for the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot.
Los Angeles Kings winger Adrian Kempe (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Blue Jackets defenseman Erik Gudbranson left this game in the first period with an upper-body injury.
The Ottawa Senators got a 16-save shutout from James Reimer to blank the Vancouver Canucks 2-0. Ridly Grieg and Brady Tkachuk scored, and Tim Stutzle extended his assist streak to 13 games. The Senators improved to 32-22-9, sitting three points back of the Bruins. Kevin Lankinen stopped 22 of 23 shots for the 19-37-8 Canucks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Senators have won three straight and seven of their last 10 games. They got this victory without top defenseman Jake Sanderson, who is week-to-week after injuring his right shoulder during Saturday’s game against the Kraken.
An overtime goal by Frank Nazar lifted the Chicago Blackhawks to a 3-2 win over the Utah Mammoth. Andrew Mangiapane and Andre Burakovsky scored for the 24-29-11 Blackhawks. Dylan Guenther tallied his 30th goal of the season for the 34-25-5 Mammoth, who hold the first Western wild-card berth with 73 points.
Washington Capitals forward Connor McMichael tallied two goals in a 7-3 drubbing of the Calgary Flames. Justin Sourdif had a goal and two assists for the 32-26-7 Capitals (71 points), who are five points out of the final Eastern wild card. Matvei Gridin, Blake Coleman, and Yegor Sharangovich replied for the 25-31-7 Flames.
The New York Rangers downed the Philadelphia Flyers 6-2. Mika Zibanejad scored two goals and picked up an assist while Vincent Trocheck had three assists for the 25-30-8 Rangers. Matvei Michkov and Sean Couturier replied for the 29-23-11 Flyers.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Rangers forward Taylor Raddysh missed this game and will miss his club’s next game as he attends the funeral of his father, Dwayne, who passed away last Tuesday from pancreatic cancer. My condolences to the Raddysh family for their loss.
HEADLINES
NHL.COM: Winnipeg Jets center Mark Scheifele, Colorado Avalanche winger Martin Necas, and Buffalo Sabres center Tage Thompson are the league’s three stars for the week ending March 8, 2026.
SPORTSNET: Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brandon Hagel was fined $5,000 for being the aggressor in an altercation with Buffalo Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin on Sunday.
DAILY FACEOFF: Seattle Kraken winger Jaden Schwartz is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury. He was accidentally struck in the face by the skate of Senators forward Nick Cousins during Saturday’s game between the two clubs.
SPORTSNET: During Monday’s episode of “32 Thoughts: The Podcast”, Elliotte Friedman reported there was “a lot of talk” about Edmonton Oilers goaltender Tristan Jarry clashing with some of his teammates during a practice last week.
Friedman didn’t elaborate further, but went on to say it was symptomatic of a frustrating season for the club, pointing to comments made by former Oilers Troy Stecher and Andrew Mangiapane.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Oilers hold third place in the Pacific Division with 70 points, but they have only four wins in their last 10 games. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks are only four points behind them in the playoff race.
You know I’m thinking if Hagens is as good as they say he is, Fluto compares him to
Tyler Seguin in talent that’s pretty high praise from Fluto who doesn’t lavish praise like that on anyone, but if Hagens makes the team they bring up Dipietro and Brunet
One of the best defenseman in ahl they might have a crack at the playoffs.
If they Don t start winning some games on the road they won t be in the playoffs no matter who they bring in to play .
I have no issue with guys not getting along or having some tension in practice so long as they are on the same page as to the team goals.
After calling out the team defensive play in the media as a new team member no less..well he had to know that wouldn’t be well recieved especially since by any metric including eye test says his own play was as bad or worse than the defense he called out.
A big test for them vs the Avs. A win on the road would be nice but I would call it a successful road game if they get a point out of it.
That Western Conference log-jam around the 7th – 8th spots is fast becoming tight-collar time 1Oilerfan and, with anywhere from 18 to 21 games left in the schedule involving those teams (or 36 to 42 potential points), the last thing a team’s fan base wants to see is players at each other’s throat. Especially when one is your goalie.
From 4th-place Anaheim (38 potential points left) down to 8th-place Seattle (40 potential points left) the gap is just 6 points, and the Kraken have 1 hand in Anaheim, and 2 in hand on each of Utah, Vegas and Edmonton – currently sitting 5th, 6th and 7th.
Then there are San Jose and Los Angeles, now 9th and 10th, just 6 and 7 points b/o Anaheim, Utah, Vegas and Edmonton and the Sharks with upwards of 3 games in hand and L.A. 1 in hand on 3 of them.
And they’re ALL in action tonight that sees 13 games. Things could be a LOT tighter by this time tomorrow.
George O it is tight for sure. In terms of the oilers internal issues we will see what comes of it but there are enough examples where friction when boiled over helped make teams better for it. We will see how the cookie crumbles. I much rather players acknowledge and hash out the issues rather than pretending they dont exist. As I said so long as it is about achieving team goals not individual markers.
Of course you would rather not have captured in public at all but why they open practice up to media or public is beyond me anyways.
Hopefully they can turn this into a positive 1Oilerfan. Jarry F’d up when he started whining to the media and criticizing his own team mates, who he just joined. Pretty sure that isn’t in the first chapter of How to Make Friends and Influence People.
And then he has played brutal, to your point. People in glass houses.
This problem goes away if he plays better and starts to become a good team mate instead of a whiny b*tch publicly.
Your right, this needs to be we not me, and the one who made it about himself was Jarry.
If he doesn’t, send him to Bakersfield and bring up Pickard, who is the opposite of Jarry and a great team mate. A lot of the guys talk very highly of him as a person and team mate, that type of “glue guy” is important IMO.
Not like he has played worse than Jarry as the bar is pretty low, might as well bring him back into the room.
In the off season Bowman can spend assets getting rid of Jarry to like he did with Mangiapane.
Reminds me a bit of that so-called “money-ball” era of the Oakland A’s with all their open-to-the-public squabbling led by GM Billy Beane. But they kept confounding everyone by winning … although never to World Series level.
Ray Bark – agree with the Jarry/Pickard comments.
Ingram has outplayed Jarry in their short times and Pickard is capable as back up, battle tested and beloved.
Have to think that is on the table if Jarry doesnt turn his game around quickly
And that Pacific Division has to be the biggest collection of “weak sisters” as ever seen at this late stage of a season in a long time!
6 of the 8 teams all have goal differentials in the minus category – ranging from the -10 of 1st-place Anaheim to the -73 of last-place Vancouver – and Anaheim, in fact, would be languishing around 6th in the other 3 Divisions.
Dahlin is a dirty player at the moment. It’s not an accident that guys are seeing Player Safety for going after him. Hagel took a couple of crosschecks and a stick to the face before asking Dahlin to dance; Dahlin turned turtle and “earned” a game changing double minor. So he’s getting plaudits for “helping his team win”. He has the talent to be great if, like, say, Marchand, he learns the line between antagonizing someone and doing something nasty: BM hasn’t licked anyone in years.
Continued high sticks will get one hurt.
Funny you forgot to mention he hit Tage Thompson from behind into the boards early in the 1st. Or the fact that Hagel instigated with Dahlin by throwing despite only clutching and grabbing. Or the fact that he landed sucker-punches to the back of Dahlin’s head.
Yeah, great take there 🤣
Richard, I see Dahlin as a certainly aggressive – leaning towards “chaotic” – player who approaches every game with an “edge” as opposed to being “dirty.” He does whatever it takes to win.
He does, however, need to reduce the “aggressive” use of his stick to cross-check, which is most likely responsible for most of the 62 penalty minutes accrued so far this season.
That lack of discipline could ultimately hurt them big-time in the playoffs.