NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – March 27, 2026
Connor McDavid reaches another milestone as he regains the scoring lead, the Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin and the Ducks’ Mikael Granlund have hat-trick performances, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
NHL.COM: Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists to regain the lead in the scoring race in a 4-3 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights. Evan Bouchard scored in overtime and collected an assist while Zach Hyman netted his 30th goal of the season for the 36-28-9 Oilers, who sit second in the Pacific Division with 81 points. Mark Stone tallied twice for the Golden Knights (32-26-15), who sit two points behind the Oilers in third place.
Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid (NHL Images)
SPECTOR’S NOTE: McDavid is tied with Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov with 121 points, but he holds the lead with 41 goals. He also became the third-fastest player in NHL history to reach the 800-assist plateau, doing so in 785 regular-season games. He’s behind Wayne Gretzky (527 games) and Mario Lemieux (661 games)
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin set a league record by tallying a hat trick against his 21st NHL team to lead his club over the Utah Mammoth 7-4. Ivan Miroshnichenko scored two goals for the Capitals (36-28-9). Dylan Guenther tallied twice while Clayton Keller collected three assists for the 37-30-6 Mammoth, who hold the first Western Conference wild-card berth with 80 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: With 29 goals, Ovechkin is poised to reach the 30-goal mark for what will be a league-record 20th time. He also has 34 career hat tricks, passing Brett Hull for fourth place on the all-time list behind Gretzky (50), Lemieux (40), and Mike Bossy (39).
Mammoth forward Barrett Hayton missed this game as he’s considered week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
Speaking of hat tricks, Mikael Granlund had one in the Anaheim Ducks’ 3-2 overtime win over the Calgary Flames. John Carlson picked up two assists for the 41-27-4 Ducks as they hold first place in the Pacific Division with 86 points. Blake Coleman and Matvei Gridin replied for the Flames (30-34-8).
Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon scored twice to widen his lead in the goal-scoring race as his club downed the Winnipeg Jets 3-2. The Avalanche (48-13-10) extended its win streak to four games as they hold first place in the overall standings with 106 points. Mark Scheifele scored both goals for the Jets (30-30-12) as they sit five points out of the final Western wild-card spot with 72 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: MacKinnon has 48 goals, sitting four ahead of Montreal Canadiens winger Cole Caufield. With 117 points, he’s third in the race for the Art Ross Trophy behind McDavid and Kucherov. Meanwhile, Avalanche forward Artturi Lehkonen collected an assist as he returned to action after being sidelined for 11 games with an upper-body injury.
Speaking of Kucherov, he had an assist as the Tampa Bay Lightning dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the Seattle Kraken. Defenseman Brandon Montour scored twice (including the game-winner) while Kaapo Kakko and Bobby McMann each had a goal and an assist for the 32-29-10 Kraken (74 points), who are three points out of the final Western wild card. Jake Guentzel had a goal and an assist for the Lightning (44-21-6), who hold second place in the Atlantic Division with 94 points.
The Montreal Canadiens nipped the Columbus Blue Jackets by a score of 2-1. Jayden Struble and Zach Bolduc snapped their lengthy scoring droughts for the Canadiens (40-21-10), who picked up their third straight win and sit third in the Atlantic Division with 90 points. Damon Severson replied for the 38-23-11 Blue Jackets, who hold third place in the Metropolitan Division with 87 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Canadiens forward Alexandre Texier missed this game with a lower-body injury and is considered day-to-day.
New York Islanders rookie defenseman Matthew Schaefer collected two assists in a 2-1 victory over the Dallas Stars. Bo Horvat tallied his 30th goal of the season, and Calum Ritchie also scored for the 41-27-5 Islanders, who regained the final Eastern Conference wild-card berth with 87 points. Matt Duchene replied for the Stars (43-18-11), who remain in second place in the overall standings with 97 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Islanders played without defenseman Tony DeAngelo, who will be out for one to two weeks with a lower-body injury.
A shootout goal by rookie forward Ben Kindel lifted the Pittsburgh Penguins over the Ottawa Senators 4-3. Rickard Rakell had two goals and an assist, and Erik Karlsson had a goal and two assists for the 36-20-16 Penguins, who moved back into second place in the Metropolitan Division with 88 points. Drake Batherson tallied twice for the Senators (38-24-10), as they slipped out of the final Eastern wild card by one point behind the Islanders.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Penguins captain Sidney Crosby left this game early in the second period with a lower-body injury. There was no post-game update regarding his condition. Crosby recently returned to action after missing 11 games with a torn MCL in his right knee.
The Senators will be without Thomas Chabot for the next six to eight weeks after he suffered a broken forearm during Monday’s win against the New York Rangers.
Minnesota Wild center Joel Eriksson Ek snapped a 2-2 tie with five seconds remaining in the third period to give his club a 3-2 win over the Florida Panthers. Marcus Foligno and Ryan Hartman also scored for the Wild (41-20-12) as they hold third place in the Central Division with 94 points. Daniil Tarasov kicked out 47 shots, and Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and an assist for the 35-33-3 Panthers.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Foligno returned to action after missing the last 12 games with a lower-body injury. Meanwhile, Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues left this game after suffering a broken finger and could be out for the remainder of the season.
The New Jersey Devils doubled up the Nashville Predators 4-2, snapping the latter’s five-game win streak. Nico Hischier scored two goals, and Jesper Bratt had a goal and two assists for the 37-32-2 Devils. Steven Stamkos scored his 36th goal of the season for the Predators (34-29-9) as they cling to the final Western Conference wild-card spot with 77 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Devils forward Arseny Gritsyuk is out for the rest of this week after suffering an undisclosed injury during their 6-4 win over the Stars on Tuesday.
Los Angeles Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 19 saves to shut out the Vancouver Canucks 4-0. Quinton Byfield and Trevor Moore each had a goal and an assist for the Kings (29-25-18), who remain one point behind the Predators. Kevin Lankinen stopped 34 of 37 shots for the 21-42-8 Canucks.
The Philadelphia Flyers kept their playoff hopes alive with a 5-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. Alex Bump, Christian Dvorak, and Noah Cates each had a goal and an assist for the 35-24-12 Flyers (82 points), leaving them five points out of the final Eastern wild card. Connor Bedard netted his 30th goal of the season for the 27-32-13 Blackhawks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Flyers forward Nikita Grebenkin missed this game as he’s out for at least a week with an upper-body injury.
An overtime goal by Dylan Holloway gave the St. Louis Blues a 2-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks. Holloway also collected the primary assist on Dalibor Dvorsky’s second-period goal for the 30-30-11 Blues. Alexander Wennberg scored for the Sharks (32-31-7), who are 0-5-1 in their last six games.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Blues center Robert Thomas missed this game as he’s day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Sharks goaltender Yaroslav Askarov left this game in the second period with an upper-body injury.
Kucherov is my pick for the most underrated player in the nhl to keep up with Mcdavid is almost impossible but being tied with Connor for the scoring title this far in the season in remarkable. My picks for the wild cards, no offense George are the bruins, The Isles, Seattle and the preds
I too feel Kuch is remarkably under appreciated. I think some of it is is the market he plays in, Some of it is because he is Russian. And I think some of it is because his first half dozen years in the league were solid but not near what he has done in the last 3 or 4 years so people have slept on jim a bit and likely felt that his break out was an outlier…vs being the real deal.
I love watching him.
LOL. None taken John. Both quite valid picks.
That was a helluva fun game to watch last in Ottawa vs Pittsburgh, especially that OT session. Both goalies (Skinner and Ullmark) made unbelievable saves to send it to that moronic SO. The Penguins – who played a strong road game throughout – prevailed (unfortunately :), and along with the Islanders win over Dallas and Habs over Columbus, that Eastern Conference logjam looks more and more like the possibility of seeing 5 or 6 teams with identical points after 82gp requiring a mathematician to sort out all the tie-breaker formulas.
This morning, 5th and 6th in the Conference (Boston & Pittsburgh – 88 pts each) to 12th (Washington – 81 pts) are separated by just 7 points, with 2 of the teams in the mix – the Flyers and Red Wings – each having 11 games (22 potential points) left, 3 – Boston, Pittsburgh, Ottawa and Columbus – each having 10 (20 points) to go, and the Islanders and Capitals down to 9 (18 points) each.
These head to head games left between those teams will go a long way to deciding who finishes where: March 28 – Flyers @ Detroit; March 29 – Boston @ Columbus; March 30 – Pitt @ NYI; March 31 – Flyers @ Washington and Detroit @ Pitt; April 2 – Detroit @ Flyers; April 3 – Flyers @ NYI; April 5 – Boston @ Flyers; April 7 – Columbus @ Detroit; April 9 – Flyers @ Detroit; April 11 – Capitals @ Pitt and Ottawa @ BYI; April 12 – Pitt @ Capitals and Boston @ Columbus; April 13 Flyers @ NYI; April 14 Capitals @ Columbus.
Note that these are JUST the head-to-head confrontations between the 8 teams currently ranked from 5th to 12th in the Conference and not all their remaining games.