NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – March 13, 2026
Lightning stars Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy reach notable career milestones, Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews is injured by a knee-on-knee hit, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPS OF THURSDAY’S GAMES
NHL.COM: Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov collected two assists to reach the 1,100 regular-season points milestone in a 4-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings. Jake Guentzel and Gage Goncalves each scored twice for the Lightning (40-20-4, 84 points), who moved within two points of the Buffalo Sabres for first place in the Atlantic Division. J.T. Compher replied for the 36-23-7 Red Wings, who’ve dropped four of their last five games and cling to the first Eastern Conference wild-card berth with 79 points.
Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy became the second netminder in NHL history to record nine consecutive 30-win seasons. Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur holds the record with 12 consecutive seasons.
The slumping Red Wings were without Dylan Larkin and Andrew Copp. Both centers will be sidelined by injuries for at least the next two weeks.
Speaking of the Sabres, their eight-game win streak ended as they dropped a 2-1 decision to the Washington Capitals. Jakob Chychrun snapped a 1-1 tie late in the third period while Logan Thompson stopped 29 shots for the 33-27-7 Capitals. Sam Carrick scored for the 40-20-6 Sabres, who sit second in the Eastern Conference with 86 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Sabres winger Alex Tuch missed this game with a lower-body injury. He’s considered day-to-day.
The Toronto Maple Leafs’ 6-4 victory over the Anaheim Ducks was overshadowed by an injury to Auston Matthews. The Maple Leafs captain left the game in the second period following a knee-on-knee hit from Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas, who received a major penalty and a game misconduct.
Matthew Knies had a goal and three assists, and winger Matias Maccelli had a goal and two assists for the Maple Leafs (28-27-11). Cutter Gauthier tallied his team-leading 33rd goal of the season for the 36-26-3 Ducks, who hold first place in the Pacific Division with 75 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Gudas could receive supplemental discipline for that hit on Matthews, who may have suffered a serious injury to his left knee. The Ducks blueliner has had four suspensions in his NHL career, with the last being in 2019.
Dallas Stars winger Jason Robertson scored twice and collected two assists in a 7-2 drubbing of the Edmonton Oilers. Wyatt Johnston had a goal and two assists, Miro Heiskanen collected three assists, and Jamie Benn scored two goals for the Stars (41-14-10), who hold second place in the Western Conference with 92 points. Evan Bouchard and Jason Dickinson scored for the Oilers (32-26-8), who hold third place in the Pacific Division with 72 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Stars extended their points streak to 14 games.
Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and three assists to lead his club over the Seattle Kraken 5-1. Martin Necas tallied his 30th goal of the season, and Nazem Kadri scored his first goal with the Avalanche since being acquired from the Calgary Flames last Friday. Ryker Evans replied for the 29-26-9 Kraken, who’ve lost four straight games and slipped out of the final Western Conference wild-card berth with 67 points. The Avalanche (44-11-9) holds first place in the overall standings with 97 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Before this game, the league announced it had rescinded the game misconduct penalty handed to MacKinnon during Tuesday’s game against the Oilers.
The San Jose Sharks vaulted over the Kraken into the final Western wild card by doubling up the Boston Bruins 4-2, handing the latter its first home loss since December. Goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic kicked out 39 shots while William Eklund, Tyler Toffoli, and Michael Misa each had a goal and an assist for the 31-26-6 Sharks, who sit one point ahead of the Kraken. David Pastrnak had a goal and an assist for the Bruins (36-23-6), who cling to the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot with 78 points.
An overtime power-play goal by Sam Reinhart gave the Florida Panthers a 2-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Sam Bennett also scored, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 saves for the 33-29-3 Panthers. Adam Fantilli scored for the 33-21-11 Blue Jackets, who extended their points streak to eight games, sitting one point behind the Bruins.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Fantilli was unhappy about being whistled for tripping Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk in overtime. He and his teammates believe Tkachuk dove after losing control of the puck to draw the penalty.
The Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-2. Pavel Dorofeyev scored twice and collected an assist while Mitch Marner had a goal and an assist for the 30-22-14 Golden Knights, who sit second in the Pacific Division with 74 points. Rickard Rakell and Ben Kindel replied for the Penguins (32-18-15), who hold second place in the Metropolitan Division with 79 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Golden Knights captain Mark Stone returned to action after missing the last five games with an upper-body injury. Earlier in the day, Marner told reporters that Penguins captain Sidney Crosby suffered a Grade 2 MCL sprain while playing for Canada in the 2026 Winter Olympics. Crosby remains sidelined but is expected to return to action before the end of March.
St. Louis Blues winger Jimmy Snuggerud tallied two goals while Jordan Binnington turned aside 31 shots for a 3-1 upset of the Carolina Hurricanes. Pavel Buchnevich also scored, and Dylan Holloway collected two assists for the 26-29-10 Blues, who are 5-0-1 in their last six games. Mark Jankowski scored for the Hurricanes (41-18-6), who hold first place in the Eastern Conference with 88 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon sold a portion of the club to three new minority owners. One of them is former NHL winger Bobby Farnham, who had eight goals and 10 points in 67 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins, New Jersey Devils, and Montreal Canadiens from 2014-15 to 2016-17. He went on to Harvard Business School and co-founded the investment group Fourth Line Capital.
The Philadelphia Flyers nipped the Minnesota Wild 3-2 on a shootout goal by Travis Konecny. Owen Tippett tied the game for the Flyers (31-23-11) with a shorthanded goal. Matt Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov scored for the 38-16-17 Wild, who sit third in the Central Division with 88 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Wild’s Quinn Hughes collected two assists, becoming the first defenseman to collect 60 assists in 60 games since Hall of Famer Paul Coffey in 1992-93.
Chicago Blackhawks center Connor Bedard scored in overtime to defeat the Utah Mammoth 3-2. Frank Nazar and Tyler Bertuzzi each had a goal and an assist for the 25-29-11 Blackhawks. Dylan Guenther and JJ Peterka scored for the 34-26-6 Mammoth, who hold the first Western wild-card spot with 74 points, but are winless in their last three games (0-1-2).
The Vancouver Canucks nipped the Nashville Predators 4-3. Jake DeBrusk scored the shootout winner, Marco Rossi had a goal and two assists, and Brock Boeser and Filip Hronek each had a goal and an assist for the 20-37-8 Canucks. Tyson Jost scored twice for the Predators (29-27-9), who remain one point out of the Western wild-card berth with 67 points.
New York Rangers winger Alexis Lafreniere scored for the third straight game as his club downed the Winnipeg Jets 6-3. Gabe Perreault had his third straight multipoint game with a goal and an assist for the Rangers (27-30-8). Isak Rosen scored his first goal with the Jets (26-28-10) since being acquired from the Buffalo Sabres last Friday.
The Calgary Flames nipped the New Jersey Devils 5-4. John Beecher scored twice for his first NHL multi-goal game while Dustin Wolf made 28 saves for the 26-32-7 Flames. Jack and Luke Hughes each had a goal and an assist for the Devils (32-31-2).
IN OTHER NEWS…
NHL.COM: The Ottawa Senators will receive the 32nd overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft after the league modified the disciplinary sanction originally imposed on the club for a botched trade involving Evgenii Dadonov by former Senators management in 2022.
Just put Lohrei on the forward line as a forward he will easily get you 20 plus goals bring up brunet he’s better on defense and just as good offensively. Next they have to bring up Dipietro he’s earned it and I think he’s better than Korpisalo and Swayman.nif they don’t do something they will miss the playoffs. You can t count on Pastrnak and Geekie to score every night even Orr couldn’t do that.
Lohrei is fine where he is. Let the kid develop. DiPietro isn’t gonna do any better than Korpisalo.they don’t count on Geekie and Pasta to score they have been top 10 in offense all season. The back end and team D is the issue 100%
DiPietro is an interesting option, but bottom line they have Korpisalo and he is a little expensive for a backup who has average, which makes him hard to trade. I can see Dipietro getting claimed on waivers to start next season, all the guy has done is play very well for his entire AHL career. He is deemed small by some is why it hasn’t happened yet.
Paul.Ray Bark,JA,I have seen enough of Elias Lindholm.What does he do other than win face offs.He has 12 goals his last being an empty netter. He plays with a top5 RW in the game. What other NHL team has a first line center with that few goals. Put Minten with Pasta and Geekie and let it play out.
SR
Here’s the thing they literally got the best option available and remains the best option. Not sure who you’d replace him with but for a retooling team it’s not the rookie. He’s been good on the PP and he’s good in his own zone. 5 games ago he was close to a point a game player and has been cold since. All players go tho streaks.if he finishes the season with 60-70 points you got the same production out of him to what Bergeron provided. Not saying he’s anywhere close to Bergy, but he filled the role and did his job.
It’s shocking to see players like Lafrenière and Perreault shine when given opportunities. It only took 5 coaches to figure it out.
The best part of the Panarin trade may be Lafrenière. 12 points in 9 games since the trade.
Captain, the lack of pressure playing on a team that has been pretty much eliminated from playoff contention can certainly help a player pad his stats. But I’ve long felt that it’s been too early to give up on him. We’ll see how he does next season when he starts the year as a central part of the Rangers offense.
Hellebuyck allowed 5 goals last night on 16 shots. Why couldn’t he have played that way in the gold medal game.
Maybe because he had one helluva lot better team in front of him at the Olympics than he’ll ever see again in his time left in Winnipeg.
Last night during the Sharks/Bruins tilt colorman Drew Remenda started a remark with ‘As Captain Obvious says……’.
I prefer to think it was our very own captain he referred to.
Coach didn’t figure it out. Panarin got traded and JT Miller is on IR. His hand was forced to finally give top deployment to the kids.
Hopefully this new deployment sticks when JT returns this weekend, especially regarding the PP.
Both Laf and Gabe are better players when they are controlling and passing the puck. Both players seemed to always defer and give up the puck too quickly earlier in the year.
If both Laf and Gabe can become 60+ point players next year and if the NYR can secure a true 2nd line RW to play with Troch & JT (maybe its Greentree? maybe new draft pick?) then they can be right back in the playoff mix next year.
With at least some semblance of a 1st Round pick restored, whether or not Staios can or will attempt to also get a 2nd round pick (theirs was dealt in the Chychrun trade) ,,, and maybe even another 1st somewhere further up the ladder … will now demand largely on how how their remaining 18 games turn out.
IF they somehow do well enough overall to get back into the playoff picture, there probably won’t be any major off-season deals … although that partially dependent upon how they perform in the first round. Missing the playoffs … or an embarrassing blow-out in Round 1 if they make it … could result in at least a couple of off-season significant deals, including one pre-draft to get a higher 1st rounder and maybe a second-rounder depending upon the player being offered.
As a fan looking for the best results possible, I would hope that, if it does come down to the “making deals” situation described above, that NO ONE is regarded as “untouchable” should any offer received be perceived as ultimately improving the team. There is NO room for “sentiment.”
That so, George, how do you feel about the Sens trading Brady to the Habs?
In an idle moment I wondered whether the Habs – if they were in on Knies – might look at other power forward options. Wilson’s not the right age and has too many years left on his contract so I wondered about a Sens/Habs deal,
As I say, LJ, NO ONE should be regarded as untouchable IF the offer is deemed to be in the best ongoing interest of a team’s development in the estimation of a GM. That, after all, is his basic job. How it ultimately turns out, of course, will dictate whether or not he keeps his job.
And I’ll leave it at that. I’m not getting into specifics … that’s for fantasy leagues.
Brady is 27 y/o next season and signed for only 2 years after this one.
He’s the heart and soul of the Sens and it would take an overpayment to get him.
The cost would be something like Guhle, Demidov, 2026 1st and 2027 1st and I wouldn’t do it.
Heh. neither would I.
Jarry was brutal again. The first goal was a bit of a fortunate bounce for Dallas.
The 2nd goal, I didnt like because despite a 2 on 1 there seemed little attempt come across and even try to make a save but this one is not on him. I just didnt feel he gave 100% but what do I know?
Third goal unlike the 2 on 1 before if he plays the shooter he has to make the save. it wasn’t like it was a snipe by any means. And the fourth goal make a save dude..I went to bed being on the east coast at that point.
On the flip side…the forwards have to learn it is ok to just chuck something at the net. They were outshot 10 to 4 after 1 but most of dallas’ shots were outside…but i think they score on everyone that wasn’t lol. But I am screaming at my TV when mcdavid and nuge skate through the slot area and spin vs just throwing a blind backhand or a wrister at the net now and again especially in a period where you only had 2 shots from a forward….get some small gains.
Oh well…4 pts out of 6 on the road trip despite the horrible showing last night…get 2 in stl tonight and it will be a successful trip all the same.
I’m so sick of Toronto’s mismanagement of assets and giving away top prospects for soft players or rentals that actually change the culture but then are allowed to walk in the summer.
First it was Kyle Dubas now it’s Brad traveling. Scott Pelley’s inability to hire a real team president when he knows nothing about hockey and giving all power to a GM that can’t do anything of relevance is dangerous.
Now Treveling is trying to recoup assets by trading away players that have the DNA the Toronto needs will continue to protect a bunch of spoiled brats.
Whois left to get rid of now other than Matthew Knies and Easton Cowan What’s left get rid of those two to continue to keep players like Morgan Rielly?
One heck of a dirty hit on Matthews. Gudas trucked him flying in knee first. That’s two super star knee injuries by him.
All you need to know about this team is its reaction of the hit…to their captain and best player. Sad.
Gudas is, was and always will be a cheap-shot, gutless predator. And deliberate knee-on-knee is the epitome of “dirty hits.” He should get at least 10 games for that. Or better still … make him sit until Matthews returns to action. Whenever that might be.
Ron Moore,the entire team should be ashamed of themselves. Carlo at 6:5 is one of the softest players in the NHL.He was insulated his entire time in Boston..That trade alone should be enough to get that GM fired.
That hit summed up the entire last 10 years of this Leafs team since the Matthews draft.
No push back immediately. You can see the players watch the knee on knee and then after the game say what?
…
I have a hard time calling a guy like Carlo soft, when I know full well he could knock my teeth out in 10 seconds or less. Guessing that is true for 99% of the folks who post on this site.
I don’t think he plays soft either for a d-man in todays NHL. He battles hard for pucks and position. He’s no Zadorov, but hardly anyone is.
Big guys like Hampus and Hedman hit fewer guys than Carlo, don’t hear them called soft, because they’re not.
A non star forwards job is to chase down the d on dump ins and pound him, separate the puck. So they get more hits in. The D-mans job is to turn fast and motor to get their first, absorb the hit and make a play, or make the play and then absorb the hit. Either way, they get hit.
Carlo has done that his whole career, because he can skate and can take the hits, which is why he made the NHL so soon in his career.
Soft people don’t do that job 82 games per year plus playoffs.
Having said that, yes someone should have stepped up and engaged Gudas. Not a good look.
If he isn’t yet suspended and tries that on one of the Ottawa Fs tomorrow they’ll be on him like a pack of wolves.
He ended Johann Franzen’s career with a spin move punch to the jaw!!! Told the Ref he was just turning around quickly!
“Brad traveling.” I like the suggestion in the name misspelling 🙂
4th line capital. That’s spectacular
And probably has more money now than if he’d kept on playing….on the fourth line.
So.
Toronto Maple Leafs. I don’t like the team. I don’t like (generally) their fans. They’re absolutely the Dallas Cowboys of the NHL. They operate in a corporate universe. Their business model is to be somewhere between a very expensive club, and subscription service model. And that subscription club always has the hope and the promise of delivering a return to past glory – but (by design) never does. Winning the Stanley Cup is BAD for business. Keeping people on the hook thinking this could be our year, paying just a little more, hoping….that’s good business. That’s the Leafs. (Still. Gudas is a donkey. 5-10 games)
I was worried the Blue Jays were also going that route after gutting their stadium, remodelling it in that corporate first style. But John Schneider and the boys didn’t get the memo. AND nearly winning—made them a lot of money. But built up the hope of millions. Who will once again pay to subscribe to that hope.
I agreed with most of this until the winning cups is bad for business. It’s not like if they won the majority of the fans we say
Well we did it. Time to find something else to spend our money on.
But the first part is accurate. Only way it changes is if the fans make sure butts are not in the seats. Until the fan base can truly show how good of fans they are and NOT show up the leafs have minimal incentive to change.
Yeah … logical and only truly effective “fan” approach.
But THE over-riding problem, Chrisms, is what I keep harping on. In virtually every market the vast BULK of the fan base is not made up of those like us who, let’s be honest, spend an inordinately larger amount of time than the “average” fan does dissecting and discussing roster strengths and weaknesses, coaching/GM styles/results – good and bad.
Rather, the bulk is made up of those who – in effect – have a fawning adoration of their team of choice, spending large chunks on sweaters, hats and other paraphernalia while painting their faces (and other body parts for all we know) in team colours. And who stand outside arenas in all kinds of crappy weather to show their support and who hang on every encouraging word to come out of their local media and team executives.
Now, let me hasten to add that their money is as good as ours and if that’s how they choose to express their support, that’s their prerogative.
But in the final analysis they are more apt to swallow their annual disappointment than our element is, and keep going to games. And if some of our element does quit buying tickets, the vacancies will only last as long as word spreads that tickets are available.
I don’t have a problem with TML fans or players as a matter of fact I liked the players in the rivalry days.
A lot of good guys, Armstrong, Keon, Horton, Bower, Ellis, Ullman, Henderson, players that it was hard to dislike. Later on Sittler, Salming, Sundin, respected players.
I’m deliberately skipping this iteration of TML players only because we talk a lot about them as it is.
The fans stick to the team despite the yearly heartache, I can’t help but feel for them in general.
It’s the media that pushes “their product” so relentlessly like the centre of the universe that pisses people off all over Canada.
man, tough to be a leafs fan. i used to like them a lot back in the sittler, salming, etc. days too. my younger brother actually more than me because i liked the bruins; especially, don cherry bruins. but i respected the leafs especially foligno and tiger williams, errol thompson i think was on that team. they were good and fun to watch. i feel for their fans as well