NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – March 31, 2026
Recaps of Monday’s action, the Maple Leafs fire general manager Brad Treliving, the three stars of the week are revealed, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPPING MONDAY’S GAMES
NHL.COM: San Jose Sharks center Macklin Celebrini became the sixth teenager in NHL history to record a 100-point season in a 5-4 win over the St. Louis Blues. Celebrini had two goals and an assist, and Adam Gaudette scored the winning goal with 22 seconds remaining in the third period for the 34-31-7 Sharks (75 points), who moved within two points of the Nashville Predators for the final Western Conference wild-card berth. Jake Neighbours picked up two assists for the Blues (31-31-11), who are four points out of that wild-card spot.
San Jose Sharks center Macklin Celebrini (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Celebrini joined Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby, Jimmy Carson, Mario Lemieux, Dale Hawerchuk, and Wayne Gretzky among the teenage 100-point players, with Crosby the only one to do it twice. Celebrini is also the third player in Sharks history to reach the 100-point plateau, joining Joe Thornton and Erik Karlsson.
An eight-goal second period between the New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins resulted in the latter overcoming a 3-1 deficit for an 8-3 victory. Anthony Mantha scored twice and collected an assist, Rickard Rakell tallied two goals, and Justin Brazeau picked up three assists for the 37-21-16 Penguins, who vaulted over the Islanders into second place in the Metropolitan Division. Mathew Barzal had a goal and an assist for the Isles (42-28-5), who sit one point behind the Penguins.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Penguins captain Sidney Crosby picked up two assists in his return to action after missing a game with a lower-body injury. It was his 1,100th career regular-season assist, joining Hall of Famer Raymond Bourque as the only players to reach that milestone with one team.
A five-goal first period carried the Colorado Avalanche to a 9-2 drubbing of the Calgary Flames. Colorado center Nazem Kadri scored twice against his former club while Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Martin Necas, Jack Drury, and Parker Kelly each collected three points for the Avalanche (49-14-10), who lead the league with 108 points. Brennan Othmann and Ryan Strome replied for the 31-35-8 Flames.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Makar left this game after the second period with an upper-body injury. An update on his condition is expected on Tuesday.
The Vegas Golden Knights doubled up the Vancouver Canucks 4-2, giving interim coach John Tortorella his first win with his new club. Shea Theodore and Rielly Smith scored 1:17 minutes apart in the second period to give the 33-26-16 Golden Knights the win. With 82 points, they hold third place in the Pacific Division. Evander Kane scored in his 1,000th NHL regular-season game as the 21-44-8 Canucks sit last in the overall standings.
An overtime goal by John Tavares lifted the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 5-4 win over the Anaheim Ducks. Tavares finished with two goals and an assist, and William Nylander had a goal and three assists for the Maple Leafs (32-30-13). Leo Carlsson tallied twice for the 41-28-5 Ducks, who sit in first place in the Pacific Division with 87 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Maple Leafs forward Max Domi got a measure of revenge for sidelined captain Auston Matthews by beating Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas in a first-period fight. Gudas injured Matthews earlier this month with a knee-on-knee hit. The Ducks blueliner seemed resigned to his fate, not bothering to throw any punches while Domi landed 12. Maple Leafs forward Michael Pezzetta was handed a game misconduct in the second period for shoving a linesman.
Ducks winger Cutter Gauthier left this game midway through the first period with an upper-body injury. He will be reevaluated on Tuesday. Gauthier leads the Ducks with 38 goals and 65 points this season.
HEADLINES
TORONTO SUN: Before last night’s game, the Maple Leafs announced that they relieved Brad Treliving of his duties as general manager.
Treliving had been in the role since May 2023. He had a record of 139-92-27, and a 10-10 postseason record.
The fate of head coach Craig Berube is unknown, but it’s expected that Treliving’s replacement will want to hire their own bench boss.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Treliving was in the final season of his contract. Given the club’s disappointing downturn this season, it’s not surprising that he was given his walking papers.
The Maple Leafs’ decline this season was mostly Treliving’s fault. He failed to re-sign Mitch Marner, resulting in the winger’s departure last summer, and didn’t find any suitable replacement. He also didn’t improve the Maple Leafs’ defensive depth, especially on the right side of their blueline.
Treliving made a pair of short-sighted moves at last year’s trade deadline that will hamper the Leafs’ efforts to restock their prospect pipeline. He shipped top prospect Fraser Minten and the Leafs’ 2026 first-round pick to Boston for struggling defenseman Brandon Carlo at last year’s trade deadline. He gave up the Leafs’ 2027 first-rounder to Philadelphia as part of the return for Scott Laughton, who now plays for the Los Angeles Kings.
It’s rumored that the Maple Leafs could attempt to woo Doug Armstrong away from the St. Louis Blues. He’s indicated that he intends to hand over the management role to Alexander Steen and remain with the Blues as team president.
NHL.COM: Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jakub Dobes, Boston Bruins center Pavel Zacha, and Anaheim Ducks defenseman John Carlson are the league’s three stars for the week ending March. 29, 2026.
Well we knew a change in the GM’s office was coming. Now we have to see who wants the job – not the easiest GM job to handle in the NHL.
I’m not defending Treliving. He obviously did a poor job with the Leafs. But the main problem is poor roster construction which happened long before he got there. And the groundwork for Marner’s exit was also laid before he got there. Quite obviously the Leafs cap structure could not continue. There was no realistic way Treliving could replace Marner overnight. Building a competitive and winning roster will take time and a GM with patience and a plan is needed. Along with a patient ownership and fan base. The rosters core is aging and will slowly need to be replaced.
I’ll go with a poker analogy as it is a great game.
Agree that Tre was dealt a bad hand, the problem is he kept putting more chips into the pot in what he had to know wasn’t a good enough hand to take the pot. Everybody’s cards are up, so not like he thought the other guys were bluffing.
He was trying to hit an inside straight and bet too much on that long shot when he was up against a flush and full house. So even if he wins a TDL deal and Carlo or Laughton was what they needed to be better, you still lose.
Is that due to media/fan pressure or the idea that you need to try and go for it every year when you have a playoff team? Not very pragmatic IMO.
The whole you just gotta get in stuff is a pipe dream 95% of the time. In what other business does that make sense? Doesn’t sound like acceptable risk to me.
Now they don’t even have hope for the future for a couple years and the rebuild tanking isn’t even an option for next year. And then you need to make a decision on Matthews, and he needs to make one on the Leafs.
So the new guy tries the same thing or??
To STP’s point, who wants the job? Somebody will, plus the Leafs can pay more than anyone. So what does Pelley think is a reasonable path forward?
I will go on a limb (not really) and suggest the Leafs won’t win a cup for another 9-10 years.
IMO opinion this is gonna suck for a while Leaf fans. Not trolling, I actually believe that.
A great game only if you know when to fold ’em! 🙂
Man… talk about adding insult to injury. Takes out the captain then lets domi whale on him like a dude giving another guy freebies in a fight. I can’t imagine a more patronizing response. “Awww. The widdle maple weaf is getting revenge… how adorable “.
Yep. If Domi had ANY moxie at all he’d have skated away laughing and pointing after the 1st or 2nd punch when it was obvious Gudas was offering himself as a punching bag.
I don’t respect the reckless hit on Matthews, but respect how Gudas handled it after. He knew he F’d up and owned it.
Played hurt so he could eat punches. It’s like he accepted his penance, and getting hit by Domi or whoever else was it.
Domi ain’t a big fella, but he can throw em without fear. I can’t stand him because he sucker punches guys.
In that regard, a carbon-copy of his Old Man.
Well, since you’re all not aware, Domi is very close friends with Matthews. Domi also wasn’t on the ice the time of the kneeing. So…I guess by the comments, unlike you, I would have done the same as Domi and Gudas, who has been a cheap shot player, a guy who plays on the edge hard and seems to cross it quite often, doing what Gudas did, to me, is gutless. That’s not owning up to anything.
Owning it is stating something like, “I play on the edge, I play hard, sometimes I take it too far and my actions cause accidents which unintentionally have resulted with injured players. Not like what he did, I want to show up and accept my punishment, BS. For that, he deserves more.
I’m glad and hope the team treats him the same way every time they meet until he retires.
I hope this was a farewell game to this current Leafs team. As a helpless fan, I can only hope they get the right management in…something like they had with Hunter, Dubas and of course Lou.
Some of the bloopers Brads done one immediately comes to mind 1st rounder Fraser Minton to Boston for Carlo. You pull off these kind blunders and your team struggles that’s usually the end of the line. About a month ago I would have been worried about Boston facing Dallas but the way the bruins have been playing looking forward to the game they are playing great hockey.
And you’re catching the Stars as they play extremely mediocre hockey lately. It’s fairly apparent that they won’t catch Colorado and Minnesota probably won’t catch them.
I never understood why Treliving was hired in the first place. It’s not like he turned Calgary into a powerhouse. Plus he let Johnny Hockey walk away for nothing (Thanks from Columbus). He’s also responsible for Monahan and Matthew Tkachuk being elsewhere. Not a great recommendation.
Paul, I agree with your overall view on Treliving but in fairness to him, he tried to resign Gaudreau.
Gaudreau stated he wanted to sign in Columbus for family reasons. That decision was based in part on the travel restrictions Canada had during covid, which complicated family visits.
The unrelenting pressure in Toronto from both the media and the fan base (including umpteen blogs) stands in stark contrast to another Canadian market – Winnipeg. Since Cheveldayoff became GM of the Jets just before the 2011-2012 season, despite some eye-popping regular seasons, Winnipeg has been only marginally better than the Leafs over the past 14 seasons (during which time Toronto has gone through 5 GMs, bordering now on their 6th) when it comes to playoff success, including reaching the Conference final once … in 14 seasons.
This season the two teams are on the verge of posting the biggest drop-off in points seen in quite a while, with the Jets, who had 116 last season, currently showing a 42-point collapse, and the Leafs dropping 31 so far from their 108-point pinnacle last season. And yet, while since about the half-way mark the demands for the heads of Berube and Treleving have been constant, we hear virtually nothing out of Manitoba regarding Cheveldayoff or Arniel!
I posted this in Rumors by mistake, so moving it here:
It wouldn’t surprise me if TML hired Don Meehan or
pat Brisson to be GM.
Pierre Lacroix was an agent for 20 years before becoming GM of Nordiques/Avalanche
Bill Zito, Kent Hughes, and others have made the transition with success.
Those guys might just find the politics of dealing with a board easier on top of having established and respected relations with players and team management throughout the league.
Fair point, HF30. But the Leafs cannot screw this hire up. Whoever they hire has to be a success. No suggestions on who that might be, but a miss will surely start to erode the fan base.
Toronto made the move, why hasn’t Vancouver fired the Management Team that iced the worst team in the league. I sincerely hope they’re not going to be trusted with the rebuild.
My theory, admittedly worth not a lot, is that Pelley wanted to hire Bruce Cassidy and Treliving balked.
Now, if that theory holds water, Pelley should announce Cassidy as the new head coach at 2 pm.
Oh, if only.