NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – April 16, 2026
The Golden Knights will face the Mammoth in the first round, Blue Jackets players respond to their coach’s criticism, the Blackhawks re-sign GM Kyle Davidson, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPS OF WEDNESDAY’S GAMES
NHL.COM: The Vegas Golden Knights clinched the Pacific Division title by defeating the Seattle Kraken 4-1. Reilly Smith scored twice for the 39-26-17 Golden Knights, who hold first place in the division with 95 points. Shane Wright scored for the Kraken.
Vegas Golden Knights winger Mitch Marner (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Golden Knights will face the Utah Mammoth in the opening round of the upcoming Stanley Cup Playoffs. Golden Knights winger Mitch Marner scored to reach the 80-point plateau for the fifth consecutive season.
The Ottawa Senators finished the regular season with a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs. Claude Giroux collected two assists for the playoff-bound Senators, who will face the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round. William Nylander scored his 30th goal of the season for the Maple Leafs.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: With this season-ending loss, the Maple Leafs finish 28th in the overall standings, putting them in the top five for the NHL Draft Lottery on May 5. They had traded their 2026 first-round pick to the Boston Bruins last season, but it was top-five protected, meaning they should retain it.
However, the Leafs aren’t out of the woods yet. If a non-playoff team higher than them in the standings wins the lottery, they move up a maximum of 10 spots, which would knock the Leafs out of the top five, sending that pick to the Bruins. The exception is the Washington Capitals, who would move up into the sixth spot.
A shootout goal by Wyatt Johnston lifted the Dallas Stars over the Buffalo Sabres 4-3. Esa Lindell had a goal and an assist for the Stars, who will face the Minnesota Wild in the upcoming playoffs. Zach Benson had a goal and an assist for the Sabres, who meet the Boston Bruins in the first round.
New York Rangers forward Tye Kartye tallied twice to double up the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2. Oliver Bjorkstrand and Corey Perry scored for the Lightning, who meet the Montreal Canadiens in their first-round playoff series.
Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Louis Crevier scored two goals as his club overcame a 2-0 deficit for a 5-2 win over the San Jose Sharks. Kiefer Sherwood picked up two assists for the Sharks.
The Florida Panthers crushed the Detroit Red Wings 8-1. Luke Kunin and Mike Benning each scored twice for the Panthers. Justin Faulk replied for the Red Wings.
HEADLINES
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH: Blue Jackets players pushed back against interim head coach Rick Bowness’ rant about them not caring enough following their season-ending loss to the Washington Capitals.
Zach Werenski, Sean Monahan, and Adam Fantilli appreciated Bowness’ frustration and emotion in the heat of the moment, but they disagreed with his assessment that they didn’t care and were comfortable with losing.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Whether Bowness returns as head coach or not, he wasn’t wrong about the lack of effort by the Blue Jackets over their final 13 games of this season.
The Jackets rose from last place in the Eastern Conference at the time of Bowness’ hiring in mid-January to second in the Metropolitan Division by March 25, only to go 3-9-1 to finish outside the postseason picture.
It’s now up to general manager Don Waddell to assess his roster and make some changes to address what Bowness believes is a culture of losing.
CHICAGO HOCKEY NOW: The Blackhawks signed general manager Kyle Davidson to a multi-year contract extension.
Hired in 2022, Davidson has been attempting to rebuild the roster around young talent such as Connor Bedar, Frank Nazar, and Anton Frondell, but there’s some frustration among Blackhawks fans over the pace of the rebuilding process.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Under Davidson, the Blackhawks have a well-stocked prospect pool, recently ranked by The Athletic as the best in the league. However, those efforts have not resulted in any significant improvement for this rebuilding club, which is starting to test the fans’ patience.
TSN: New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer said he’s open to playing for Canada in the 2026 IIHF World Championships next month in Switzerland. Schaefer’s Islanders were eliminated from the NHL postseason race. The 18-year-old blueliner is considered the favorite to win the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year.
SPORTSNET: Edmonton Oilers winger Zach Hyman will return to the lineup for their final regular-season game against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday. He missed the last five games with an undisclosed injury. The Oilers clinched a playoff berth earlier this week.
TORONTO SUN: Lance Hornby weighed in on an article by The Athletic on the collapse of the Maple Leafs, in which it revealed how much involvement Keith Pelley, the CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, had in the club’s pre-trade deadline meetings.
During those meetings, Pelley was reportedly “armed with in-house AI figures on possible deals and offering strong opinions.” Hornby believes that will raise questions about how much autonomy the next Leafs general manager will have under Pelley.
The story also raises questions about how much AI will influence the Maple Leafs’ roster decisions, and how much other NHL front offices are using AI to build and maintain their teams.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Pelley indicated that the next Maple Leafs GM must be “data-driven”, which had fans and pundits automatically assuming he was referring to analytics. There’s no doubt analytics will be a big part of it, but AI will likely also play a significant role.
Whether it will reverse the Leafs’ fortunes this summer, and in the long term, remains to be seen. Like analytics, AI could be a useful tool, but it shouldn’t be the primary one for building and maintaining a competitive team.
NESN: Boston Bruins forward Fraser Minten won the NESN 7th Player Award. It is an annual award to the club’s unsung hero, as voted by Bruins fans.
George and Keith Pelley using AI to assess hockey markets and players! Who would have thought!😯
Heh. I don’t use it to assess anything Johnny z. But I do use it to show the facts and consensus analyst positions as they exist … it’s up to individuals as to how to “assess the details.”
However, I may agree – or even disagree – with the findings in certain cases depending upon underlying circumstances.
Hey glad Kyle cleared up the draft situation I watched that game lastnight leafs just seem to have lost the will to win kind of akin to NJ.
The bs still have a small chance to get that high pick. Boy if you can’t get excited for this weekend this is what it’s all about. I’d be happy if the bruins can take this to six or 7 games but I feel this is one of the teams the bruins have a chance to beat hope they can split the wins in Buffalo.
Sabres’ players are entering unknown territory.
While that’s true, Toronto St Pats (Ottawa last year is a good example), there is precedence for doing well after long playoff droughts:
in 2003 Anaheim entered the playoffs after 6 straight absences and went to the Cup finals;
in 2019 Carolina, after missing 9 straight times, reached the Conference finals.
Agreed George, but this is much more than just a drought. Players have come up through this organization that have not known playoffs for years. Other than Lindy, there are no other players left that even knew what playoffs were. Tyler Myers is the only ex-Sabre in the league that has had playoff experience in a Buffalo uniform.
The team does have alot of confidence at both ends of the rink. They learned how to protect a lead during the regular season, which did not exist last year.
Let’s see if this carries over into the playoffs.
Good points.
maybe the Leafs can replace Matthews, Nylander and Tavares with Claude, ChatGPT and Alexa, and see how many more wins the team can get.
Pelley can purchase a robot to stand behind the bench.
surely the would appeal to all Leafs fans, no?
Interesting thought mikep, but a little flawed………Alexa plays goal, and the Leafs already have a very crowded crease. 😉
they can sign Grok on to be their “enforcer”
🙂
Bruins … calling it now .. two UFA signings this offseason
Jacob Trouba $ Alex Tuch
Bruins .. two UFA signing needs in the offseason
Jacob Trouba & Alex Tuch .. they should have plenty of cap to get this done
I think Trouba will resign will the Ducks. has actually looked like he enjoyed playing again this year.
We should be in for a fantastic night of games.
Oilers Ducks and Kings will be doing their best to avoid a match up vs the Avs…and you have to think, last game of the year that the Canucks, Preds and Flames will be looking to play spoiler.
Mcdavid has locked down the art ross…I’d like to see him get 2 for 50 goals…but i would be happier if Podkolzin nabs one for his first 20 goal season. Of course the win is most important. But as nice to haves, that would be nice.
Read a column today about Detroit’s slide from “in the playoffs” to “out of the playoffs” again and the coach’s comments were pretty well identical to those coming out of Columbus.
Could be quite an offseason.
What teams tops your most surprising disappointment this year… lots to choose from. You can pick the Jackets, started slow, caved, then after a coaching change surged to only collapse again?
Or Winnipeg, from being the top team in the league to missing the playoffs and really never getting their footing?
Or could you look at Detroit. Finally looking like the team they should be only to trip over themselves when games got harder to win – perhaps not built correctly?
I don’t think anyone expected the Panthers after three consecutive cup finals to be completely out of the playoffs, however they did have many injuries helping them collapse…you can say the same for a few other teams like the Devils but in NJ’s case, it seems a bit more than just missing some key guys.
For me, the only surprise I had when it comes to the Leafs is not so such missing the playoffs – as the numbers last season pointed at how unsustainable their play was, but actually finishing bottom five after a 100pt season and being tops in the east.
This has been one crazy season and for fans that have teams going in for the real season, enjoy….while you can.
Ron -for me it has to be the Jets getting the nod because their finish last regular.season. Leafs fall in at #2.
Without going back and looking both teams lost a 1st line winger, did little to replace them but I would say very few penciled either of them outside looking in on the playoffs.
My biggest surprise has to be the flyers as a playoff team. I mean, we can talk about the Sabres and where they are in the standings…and it is hard to ignore, but i gave no time to the flyers making the post season at all. Zero.
I’m picking the flyers to upset the pens as well. Just a gut feel.
Yeah, Ron, there are plenty of candidates for “most disappointing,” whether based upon failure to meet fan expectations or performance comparisons over the past 2 seasons and/or the first and second halves of this season.
Where Detroit is concerned, their final finish this season compared to last is more or less exactly the same – they finished 10th in the Conference in 2023-25 with 86 pts – 5 pts out of a play off spot, scoring 238g and giving up 259 for a -21 differential. This season they finished 10th with 92 pts – again 5 pts out, scoring 240 and giving up 250 for a -10 differential – everything up slightly but then so did most others in the East improve. Their glaring disappointment was their performances over the two season halves this season. In the first half they ranked 5th in the league with a 24-14-3 51pts record and a sparkling .622 pace marred only by a minus 7 goal differential (131 – 138). Over the 2nd half, however, they dropped to 25th with a 17-17-7 41pts .500 pace, again with a minus in goals differential (111 – 120).
Columbus last season finished 9th in their Conference with 89pts, just missing by 2 pts while scoring 273 abd relinquishing 268, for a +5 differential, and although they dropped to 11th this season, again they came close with 92pts. Missing by 5pts, while scoring 253 and giving up the same number for an E differential. This season their downfall originated in the first half when they ranked 25th in the league with an 18-16-7 43pts record, a .524 pace, scoring 127 and giving up 137 for a -19 differential. Not horrible, but with the East so incredibly competitive, not even a % improvement of .598 over the second half – where they ranked 11th in the league going 22-14-5 49 pts, scoring 126 and giving up 116 for +10 differential – could nudge them into a playoff spot.
Washington has to be a strong candidate for “most disappointing” when you compare their being 1st in the Conference last season with 111 pts, while scoring 288 goals and giving up 232 for a healthy +56 goal differential, only to fall to 9th this season after finishing with 95pts – just 2pts out – scoring 263 and giving up 244 for a +19. At least they were consistent over the two halves this season, but again the increased level of competition in the East was their undoing as well. In the first half they ranked 14th in the league with a 21-15-5 47pts .573 record, scoring 133 and giving up 118 for a +15, while in the second half they ranked 13th with a 22-15-4 48pts .585 record, scoring 130 and relinquishing 136 for a minus 6 differential.
New Jersey made it last season by finishing in third place in the Metro with 91 points, scoring 242 and giving up 222 for a +20, but this season dropped to 13th in the Conference with 89pts, 10 b/o the last WC while scoring 230 and giving up 254, for a -24. Over the first half this season they ranked 16th in the league with a respectable and competitive 22-17-2 46pts .561 record, albeit a warning signal being their 113 goal scored and 121 against for a -8. Unfortunately, they did nothing at the deadline to address that warning and so, over the second half dropped to # 23 in the league with a 20-20-1 41pts .500 record, scoring 117 nd giving up133 for an even worse -16.
Two-in-a-row Cup champion Florida’s dramatic drop from being 5th in the Conference last season to out of the playoffs is probably a combination of Cup fatigue and a crippling series of key injuries. Last season ended with 98 pts while scoring 252 and giving up 223 for a +29 and that combination dropped them to 13th in the Conference with 82pts, some 15 out of a playoff spot, scoring 243 and giving up 275 for a -32. They managed to hang around over the first half this season with a decent 22-16-3 47pts .573 pace record, scoring 129 and giving up 130 for a negligible -1. But their injuries and fatigue were too much to overcome in the second half where they finished at # 26 in the league with an 18-22-1 37pts .451 record, scoring 122 and relinquishing 146 for a -24.
Toronto’s claim to “most disappointing” begins with their drop from # 2 in the Conference last season with 108pts, 268 goals scored and 231 goals against for a +57, to second-last in the Conference (by 1 point) with 78pts, some 10pts out while sporting a -44, thanks to their 252 goals for being dwarfed by the 296 relinquished. Over the first half of this season there was some hope when they ranked at # 20 in the league with a 19-15-7 45pts .539 pace record, scoring 137 and giving up 138 for a -1. The second half, however, was pure disaster, falling to # 29 in the league with a 13-21-7 33pts .402 pace record, scoring 116 while giving up a whopping161 for a -45.
An then there’s Winnipeg, who fell from the top spot in the Conference with 116pts, 277gf 191ga for a sparkling +86 to 12th with 82 pts. 7 out of a playoff spot while scoring 230 and giving up 254 for a -24. They did make a move over the second half this year, but the hole they dug in the first half when they ranked at the bottom of the league with a 15-21-5 35pts .427 pace record was too much to overcome. But they did rise to # 16 in the league with a 20-13-7 47pts .573 record.
I do not see how Rick Bowness can come back to the Jackets after his rant. The truth hurts sometime.
Well, HEEEEEEE’S BAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!!!!😉
Bownes was extended today!
Bowness did the same thing at the end of his first season in Winnipeg. Ripped the players for lack of compete after the last game to give them and management something to chew on through the summer. Wheeler was traded away, Lowry named captain, culture changed.
Bowness coached the next season, the team played progressively better defense that lasted until midway through last season that Arniel coached. Old habits began to return and it was back to garbage team defense that made for two memorable playoff rounds.
Bowness can return to Columbus and be effective for at least another year. His legacy will be leaving the team with the ability to play the best defensive hockey in the NHL. see his past work in Winnipeg, Dallas and Tampa. The players in Winnipeg apparently have a ton of respect for him as a player and a person.
Every team gives out awards to their players at the end of the year so I was surprised to read about an obscure award given out by one club? Does it have special significance that we should be aware of?
I think it was just to add a little salt to the wound of Leaf fans. Giving up their 1st was pain enough for a player that didn’t move the needle for them. But seeing Minten flourish with the B’s this year makes it much worse.
Thanks for the context.
No, it was something that appeared in my feed and I felt it worthy to add to today’s headlines. No dig intended at the Maple Leafs at all.
AI Harrold Ballard. Type in a question, Harrold answers back. Fire all the pudgy women! Make a kid’s parents pay a thousand bucks to swing a flag!
If this isn’t funny.. it’s because it’s not funny.