NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – April 1, 2026
No April fooling here, as the Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin reaches another scoring milestone, the Sabres reclaim first place in the Eastern Conference, the Stars re-sign general manager Jim Nill, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPS OF TUESDAY’S GAMES
NHL.COM: Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin tallied twice to reach the 30-goal plateau for the 20th time in a 6-4 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. Tom Wilson also scored two goals, Pierre-Luc Dubois collected four assists, and Jakob Chychrun had a goal and two assists for the 38-28-9 Capitals (85 points), who are three points out of the final Eastern Conference wild-card berth. Travis Sanheim and Christian Dvorak each had a goal and an assist for the Flyers (37-25-12), who are two points out of that Eastern wild-card spot.
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Ovechkin tied Gordie Howe and Teemu Selanne for the third-most goals (31) by a player age 40 or older. He’s behind Howe (44 goals) and Johnny Bucyk (36) for the most goals by a player in that age category.
The Buffalo Sabres reclaimed first place in the Eastern Conference by holding off the New York Islanders by a score of 4-3. Tage Thompson and Jack Quinn each had a goal and an assist for the Sabres (46-21-8), who reached the 100-point plateau for the first time since 2009-10. Bo Horvat picked up three assists, and Mathew Barzal had a goal and an assist for the 42-29-5 Islanders, who cling to third place in the Metropolitan Division with 89 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Sabres forward Sam Carrick left this game with an injured left arm after a fight with Islanders captain Anders Lee in the third period. The Islanders played without forward Simon Holmstrom, who suffered an upper-body injury during Monday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Montreal Canadiens winger Cole Caufield netted his 47th goal of the season and collected an assist in a 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Juraj Slafkovsky and Mike Matheson each had a goal and an assist while Jakub Dobes stopped 36 shots for the 43-21-10 Canadiens, who picked up their sixth straight victory and remain in third place in the Atlantic Division with 96 points. Jake Guentzel replied for the Lightning (46-22-6), who are two points up on the Canadiens in the Atlantic.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Caufield sits two goals behind Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon in the race for the Maurice Richard Trophy as this season’s top goal scorer. Canadiens defenseman Alexandre Carrier missed this game as he’s out two to four weeks with an upper-body injury.
A four-goal third period by the Boston Bruins lifted them to a 6-3 victory over the Dallas Stars. Viktor Arvidsson had a hat trick while David Pastrnak had three assists for the Bruins (43-24-8), who got their fourth straight win to sit two points behind the Canadiens in the first Eastern wild-card spot. Wyatt Johnston and Jason Robertson each had two points for the 44-19-12 Stars, who have dropped six of their last seven games but continue to hold second place in the Western Conference with 100 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Before this game, the Stars announced the signing of general manager Jim Nill to a two-year contract extension. He’s held the job since April 2013 and is the reigning holder of the Jim Gregory GM of the Year Award, which he’s won three consecutive times as the Stars reached the Western Conference Final in each of those seasons.
The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Detroit Red Wings 5-1. Egor Chinakhov had a goal and an assist while Anthony Mantha reached the 30-goal plateau for the first time for the 38-21-16 Penguins, who sit in second place in the Metropolitan Division with 92 points. Dylan Larkin replied for the struggling Red Wings (39-27-8), who remain two points out of the final Eastern wild-card spot.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Evgeni Malkin collected an assist as he returned to action since being sidelined on March 22 with an injured hand. Before the game, the Red Wings announced that prospect goaltender Trey Augustine had signed a three-year entry-level contract and reported to their AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids for the remainder of the season.
Carolina Hurricanes winger Nikolaj Ehlers scored the game-winning goal and picked up two assists in a 5-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, who are 1-4-1 in their last six games. Andrei Svechnikov had a goal and an assist for the Hurricanes (47-21-6), who hold first place in the Eastern Conference with 100 points. Kirill Marchenko had a goal and an assist for the Blue Jackets (38-25-12), who cling to the final Eastern wild card with 88 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Hurricanes and Sabres are tied in points, but the former holds first place in the conference based on a game in hand. Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets are struggling to regain the winning form that propelled them from last place in the conference in mid-January into second place in the Metropolitan Division by March 25.
The Florida Panthers scored five straight goals in the first period to defeat the Ottawa Senators 6-3. Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and three assists while Carter Verhaeghe scored twice and collected an assist for the 35-32-3 Panthers. Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark was pulled in the first period after giving up those five goals as his club remains two points behind the Blue Jackets.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Panthers forward Noah Gregor set a franchise record for the fastest game-opening goal as he found the back of the net in the first eight seconds. Gregor also received a match penalty in the third period for knocking Senators rookie defenseman Carter Yakemchuk out of the game with a high hit.
Edmonton Oilers goaltender Connor Ingram made 27 saves to shut out the Seattle Kraken 3-0. Max Jones, Kasper Kapanen, and Connor McDavid scored for the 38-28-9 Oilers, who sit in second place in the Pacific Division with 85 points. Philipp Grubauer stopped 21 of 23 shots for the Kraken (32-30-11), who are two points out of the final Western Conference wild-card berth with 75 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Kraken center Shane Wright missed this game with an upper-body injury.
The Winnipeg Jets moved one point behind the Nashville Predators (77 points) for the final Western wild card by nipping the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 on an overtime goal by Kyle Connor. Mark Scheifele collected three assists for the Jets (32-30-12). Tyler Bertuzzi scored two goals for the 27-34-14 Blackhawks, who overcame a 3-1 deficit to force overtime.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Before this game, the Blackhawks announced that defensemen Artyom Levshunov and Matt Grzelcyk have been sidelined by injuries for the remainder of the season.
New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin made 22 saves for a 4-1 win over the New Jersey Devils. J.T. Miller scored what proved to be the game-winner for the 31-35-9 Rangers. Connor Brown replied for the 38-34-2 Devils.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The main highlight of this contest was a third-period fight between Shesterkin and Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom, which Shesterkin won handily.
HEADLINES
TORONTO STAR/TORONTO SUN: Keith Pelley, the President and COO of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, met with the media yesterday to outline his plans to find a new general manager for the Maple Leafs, and the club’s plans going forward.
Among the notable points from Pelley’s word salad of a press conference is the intention to build a new hockey department in time for the NHL Draft combine in early June. He expects the next GM will be required to make data-driven decisions.
Meanwhile, Pelley expects the club to build around foundational players Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares, and Matthew Knies.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Basically, the roles of team president and general manager will not be held by one person; they’re focusing more on analytics, and they will be retooling around their foundation rather than tearing everything down and rebuilding.
I’ll have more about the potential candidates for the role of Maple Leafs general manager in today’s Rumor Mill.
TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reported Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar’s injury isn’t considered serious. However, he’ll likely miss a few games over the remainder of this season to ensure he’s ready for the upcoming playoffs.
DAILY FACEOFF: Anaheim Ducks winger Cutter Gauthier is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Forward Jansen Harkins underwent surgery on his hand and is expected to be out for four weeks.
So it’ll be business as usual for the Leafs. Once again, doing the same thing over again expecting a different result. Definition of insanity. Might as well schedule the 2029 word salad now.
Not to nitpik Howard, but will anyway, just a pet peeve, it isn’t the definition of insanity.
But we agree on the spirit of your post, not sure why they would expect a different result. They already have an analytic department, and supposedly some quality people in it. Dubas is a data driven guy.
So it took this long to figure out using data for decisions is a good idea? I doubt that, but maybe Tre didn’t, how would I know.
If they start now it won’t hurt, but still gotta find the guys who perform and deliver the results your data suggests you need. And if they aren’t UFA’s or waiver wire, you need assets to acquire them. Short supply in TOR outside their core, but do have some.
If they pull it off, great for Leaf fans, if they don’t unfortunate for Leaf fans as your going to be waiting longer now for the ultimate goal.
I don’t think they want to miss the playoffs again next year, and fair enough, it means huge cake for Rogers, at the gate, on the broadcasts, online and streaming.
I believe it was Charlie Munger who said “show me the incentive and I’ll show you the result”. Smart guy that Charlie.
Dubas moonlighting for the leafs still?
I don’t know the Leafs well enough to say: business as usual, but in Friedmann’s article on Sportsnet he says:
“So, what he’s (Pelly) saying is the Maple Leafs’ next Hockey Operations leader must be someone who can explain their vision to ownership in a way they understand and will want to follow. Then do it again and again and again with all of the decisions that must be made.”
Sure sounds like micro managing to me. Pelly apparently had to go to MLSE to get permission to fire Treliving. Who’s going to want to be the GM in this situation.
IMO, hire someone who has a plan based vision, and let him make the decisions within its scope. Exception: coming to a decision to move or not resign a franchise player (Matthews). Otherwise, get out of the way.
LJ didn’t see that from Friedman only that they were “eyeing Mike Gillis” 🤯
As for micro managing, we don’t know to what extent and under what circumstances or conditions would be cause for it but I’m sure anyone in his position won’t just sit there as things go to s#it.
You also have to remember that the Leafs are just one asset to MLSE who also owns other sports franchises, properties and who knows what else.
Now that big billion dollar company is only a small part of a mega media corporation, Rogers Communications. That company bought the rights to broadcast nhl games for billions.
I doubt there will be time for meddling or any micro managing, that will be on the president of hockey ops, not a CEO of a much bigger company who reports to an even bigger one, like a board – there you might find a meddler. 🤣
Yeah, Ron. We don’t truly know the behind the scene dynamics, so who knows? And it would not be just the Leafs were there any top down direction, Tom Dundon in Carolina had a reputation for being an “engaged” owner, as does Aquilini in Vancouver.
And you are probably right, anyone who is qualified to be hired as President or GM would not accept being micromanaged. So, yeah, pass the popcorn.
Lyle, the Habs are 43-21-10
The snes pulled an early April fools joke last night on my playoff hopes. It was an April fools thing right?….we will make it….right……..
snes = sportsnet???
I think he typo’d sens.
Thanks Ray
Should have seen that.
that makes snese
“Mika Zibanejad is the 2025-26 recipient of the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award, presented annually to the New York Rangers player who “goes above and beyond the call of duty.”
The award is named after Steven McDonald, a New York City Police Detective, who was also a lifelong Rangers fan. McDonald was shot and injured in the line of duty July 12, 1986, was courageous and forgiving in his recovery, and always made an appearance at Madison Square Garden to announce the winner of the award bearing his name after the Rangers established it before the 1987-88 season.”
When I first heard about what Ovie was eating I was a bit surprised were close in age I workout and watch what I eat. Alex apparently loves junk food. That guy is built differently than most of us and if ever there were two hockey players born to play the game Orr was one Ovechkin is another what an amazing athlete. Once again the bruins have proven they are here to stay Marco’s got them believing in themselves and if you’ve got some talent confidence is everything most teams would not want to play Boston in the playoffs the b’s hot goaltending and total team commitment.
Not sure what Orr has to do with the conversation… did he have a junk food jones too?
Just read it over again you’ll eventually get it
Nope. Orr didn’t even play into his 40’s due to injury. Did Orr have unique dietary habits?
JA the schedule worked in favor of the big Bruins win with Ottawa,CBJ,Islanders,Red Wings all losing in regulation.Still a big road trip coming for the B s this week!
There was considerable consternation here during Ovechkin’s chase of the all-time goals title about the empty-net goals he has scored.
My curiosity is piqued regarding this year’s goal scoring title and scoring to date:
McKinnon – 49 goals- 5 empty net goals
Caufield – 47 goals- 0 empty net goals
McDavid – 43 goals- 5 empty net goals
Do they not trust Caufield to close out the games? How many times did each respective team have empty net opportunities?
Hf30 interesting note on empty net goals. Last year Hagel and Rantanen led the NHL with 9 empty net goals.
Sr,
Hagel’s leading again this year with 7 eng.