NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – March 3, 2026
Recaps of Monday’s games, the three stars of the week, the Oilers acquire Connor Murphy from the Blackhawks, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPPING MONDAY’S ACTION
NHL.COM: The Dallas Stars and Jason Robertson achieved notable milestones in their 6-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks. The Stars picked up their franchise-record ninth straight win, while Robertson had a goal and an assist to reach the 70-point plateau for the fifth consecutive season. With a record of 37-14-9, the Stars are second in the overall standings with 83 points. Evander Kane scored for the 18-35-7 Canucks.
Dallas Stars winger Jason Robertson (NHL Images).
Gabriel Landeskog and Martin Necas each had a goal and two assists for the Colorado Avalanche as they doubled up the Los Angeles Kings 4-2. With the win, the Avalanche (40-10-9, 89 points) holds a six-point lead over the Stars for first place in the overall standings. Brandt Clarke and Angus Booth replied for the Kings (24-12-14), who are 1-5-1 in their last seven games and four points out of the final Western Conference wild-card berth with 62 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Avalanche forward Artturi Lehkonen left this game with an upper-body injury. Kings center Quinton Byfield missed this game with an upper-body injury. The Kings also placed forward Joel Armia (upper body) on injured reserve.
Seattle Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord made 35 saves as his club held off the Carolina Hurricanes by a score of 2-1. Kaapo Kakko and Ben Meyers scored for the 29-22-9 Kraken, who moved into third place in the Pacific Division with 67 points. Nikolaj Ehlers tallied for the Hurricanes (38-16-6), who sit first overall in the Eastern Conference with 82 points.
Detroit Red Wings forwards Lucas Raymond and Alex DeBrincat each had a goal and an assist in a 4-2 win over the Nashville Predators. Detroit goaltender Cam Talbot made 18 saves in relief of John Gibson, who left the game after the first period with an upper-body injury. With the win, the Red Wings (35-20-6) moved into third place in the Atlantic Division with 76 points. Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored for the 27-25-8 Predators (62 points), who are four points out of the final Western Conference wild-card spot.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Raymond reached the 20-goal plateau for the fourth time in his five-season NHL career. He also collected his 200th regular-season assist. Before the game, the Red Wings placed defenseman Erik Gustafsson on waivers.
The Columbus Blue Jackets blew a 4-0 lead but defeated the New York Rangers 5-4 on an overtime goal by Kirill Marchenko, who finished with two goals and an assist. Gabe Perreault also had two goals and an assist for the 23-29-8 Rangers. With the win, the Blue Jackets improved to 30-21-8 (68 points), moving within three points of the idle Boston Bruins for the final Eastern Conference wild-card berth.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: An illness kept Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski out of this game.
A shootout goal by Trevor Zegras lifted the Philadelphia Flyers over the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2. Noah Cates had a goal and an assist for the 28-21-7 Flyers (67 points), who are four points back of an Eastern wild-card spot. William Nylander netted his 20th goal of the season for the 27-24-10 Maple Leafs, who are seven points out of that wild-card berth.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Flyers winger Travis Konecny missed this game with an upper-body injury and is listed as day-to-day. Defenseman Nick Seeler left this contest with a lower-body injury.
HEADLINES
NHL.COM: New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer, Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Arturs Silovs, and Minnesota Wild forward Matt Boldy are the league’s three stars for the week ending March 1.
EDMONTON JOURNAL/CHICAGO HOCKEY NOW: The Edmonton Oilers acquired defenseman Connor Murphy from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for a second-round pick in 2028. The Blackhawks retained half of Murphy’s $4.4 million salary-cap hit.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Oilers had to shore up the depth on the right side of their defense corps. They’ve addressed that issue with Murphy, who was acquired by Oilers general manager Stan Bowman during his tenure as the Blackhawks GM.
Bowman freed up additional cap space for this move by sending Andrew Mangiapane and Alec Regula to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield, and placing winger Mattias Janmark (shoulder) on long-term injury reserve. Janmark will undergo surgery and is expected to be finished for the season.
The Oilers might not be done making moves before Friday’s trade deadline. I’ll have more about that in today’s NHL Rumor Mill.
SPORTSNET: Vegas Golden Knights captain Mark Stone is day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
DAILY FACEOFF: Winnipeg Jets winger Nino Niederreiter will be sidelined for four to six weeks following surgery for a lower-body injury.
CBS SPORTS: Minnesota Wild forward Marcus Foligno was placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: The Wild claimed winger Robby Fabbri off waivers from the St. Louis Blues.
If Ottawa – as expected – begins and continues their relentless fore-check game developed under Green tonight against the Oilers, fans there should be able to get an immediate sense as to what to expect from Murphy and whoever they pair him with in defensive-zone coverage, as he’s expected to be in the line-up.
I expect the Sens to be relentless. Good teams (carolina, tampa) weathered the storm for the first period and coached around it in the 2nd and 3rd. Slow lazy teams get exhausted and fall victim to what the Sens are trying to do.
On another news topic, after a pretty decent Major Junior career with Guelph Storm of the OHL, being drafted in the 2014 1st Round (21st overall) by St. Louis, 3 ACL-tears, 2 trades and being a UFA pick-up, and two stints with the team that drafted him, C/W Robbi Fabbri is on the move again, this time to the Wild through waivers.
With 457 NHL gp under his belt and 82-game averages of 19g 20a 39pts, and although obviously seen as a useful, diverse-type F, he just can’t seem to find a permanent home anywhere.
He joins a long list of similar NHLers who led nomadic careers.
The “relentless forecheck” doesn’t get to a player like Murphy who has gone under the radar on account of poor Chicago teams and the arrival of Bedard.
The guy is a brick s**t house, comes out on top in collisions, good first pass, used to top pairing and doesn’t get rattled.
Edmonton hit a home-run.
Oh, I have no doubt they did that, and that he’ll handle himself well. I merely pointed out Ottawa’s expected game approach and that Oilers’s fans will quickly get an immediate sense of what they’ve acquired. I wasn’t suggesting they’ll witness a collapse on his part.
It will take a while for Murphy to settle in with a new team, and the Oil’s defensive issues are not simply with the D core, they don’t defend well as a team and turn the puck over too often by trying to make plays that have low odds of success. That and they don’t get enough saves.
But to George’s point, that type of game is exactly what gives the Oilers fits. It’s what Florida does to great success for the last 3 years. They are the only team to beat the Oil in the playoffs each of the last 2 years, and did pretty handily last season.
Murphy plugs a hole, but this problem requires more than one player. The Oil have figured it out each of the last 2 seasons, why they haven’t yet this year? Who the F knows, just like I can’t understand why they fall back into this same pattern for long stretches every year.
Should be interesting, and don’t look now but they are only 4 points up on the Sharks for the last WC spot and who also have 3 games in hand.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: They’ve addressed that issue with Murphy, who was drafted by Oilers general manager Stan Bowman during his tenure as the Blackhawks GM. –
This is false.
You’re right, I meant that he was acquired by Bowman when he was GM of the Blackhawks. I’ve amended it accordingly.
Tuna,
You’re right, Murphy was drafted by Arizona, but Chicago traded FOR Murphy during Bowman’s tenure as GM.
It would not have appeared quite as “snarky” if you had just pointed out that he had been drafted in 2011 by then Phoenix Coyotes GM Don Maloney when the team was under NHL ownership.