NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – April 20, 2026
The Avalanche, Canadiens, Sabres, and Golden Knights win the opening games of their first-round series, plus the latest on the Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl, the Ducks’ Lukas Dostal, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPS OF SUNDAY’S PLAYOFF ACTION
NHL.COM: Montreal Canadiens winger Juraj Slafkovsky scored in overtime to complete his first NHL playoff hat trick in a 4-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of their best-of-seven first-round series. Josh Anderson also scored while Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield each collected two assists for the Canadiens. Brandon Hagel tallied twice, and Jake Guentzel had three assists for the Lightning. Game 2 is Tuesday in Tampa Bay at 7 pm ET.
Montreal Canadiens winger Juraj Slafkovsky (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Slafkovsky became the first player in Canadiens history to score three power-play goals in a postseason game.
This was a hard-hitting, fast-paced contest, resulting in both clubs taking costly penalties. Following this game, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper blamed his team’s “stupidity” for taking four penalties in the offensive zone.
The Buffalo Sabres overcame a 2-0 deficit late in the third period to defeat the Boston Bruins 4-3 in Game 1 of their first-round series. Tage Thompson scored the first two goals, Mattias Samuelsson put the Sabres up 3-2, and Alex Tuch’s empty-netter proved to be the game-winner. David Pastrnak had a goal and two assists for the Bruins. Game 2 is in Buffalo on Tuesday at 7:30 pm ET.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This was the first playoff game in Buffalo since 2011, and to say Sabres fans were excited would be an understatement. They had little to cheer about for most of this game as the Bruins were doing a good job containing the Sabres’ offense until Thompson finally broke through, opening the floodgates for the comeback win.
Colorado Avalanche goaltender Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves for a 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings in Game 1 of their opening-round series. Artturi Lehkonen and Logan O’Connor were the goal scorers for the Avalanche. Kings winger Artemi Panarin scored late in the third period while teammate Anton Forsberg stopped 28 of 30 shots. Game 2 is Tuesday in Denver at 10 pm ET.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Kings employed a tight-checking, physical defensive style to hamper the Avalanche’s potent scoring punch, but the latter’s depth made the difference to go up 2-0, a lead they held until Panarin scored to make it interesting.
Three unanswered third-period goals by Mark Stone, Nic Dowd, and Ivan Barbashev lifted the Vegas Golden Knights over the Utah Mammoth in Game 1 of their first-round series. Logan Cooley and Kevin Stenlund gave the Mammoth a 2-1 lead heading into the third, but they were unable to stem the Golden Knights’ offence in the final frame. Game 2 is Tuesday in Las Vegas at 9:30 ET.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Mammoth gave a good account of themselves in their first playoff game in their short franchise history, but the Golden Knights’ postseason experience made the difference. Stone set the Golden Knights’ record for most postseason goals with 37, surpassing former teammate Jonathan Marchessault.
HEADLINES
NHL.COM: Edmonton Oilers center Leon Draisaitl could be ready to return to action in Game 1 of their opening-round series against the Anaheim Ducks on Monday. Draisaitl missed the last 14 games of the regular season with a knee injury.
THE ATHLETIC: Anaheim Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal is looking forward to his first-ever NHL playoff game when his club faces off against the Oilers in Edmonton on Monday.
THE ORANGE COUNTRY REGISTER: Speaking of the Ducks, they signed prospect Roger McQueen to a three-year entry-level contract on Saturday. The 19-year-old center was chosen 10th overall in last year’s NHL Draft.
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS: The Stars will need a better effort from winger Mikko Rantanen if they hope to win Game 2 of their first-round series with the Minnesota Wild. Rantanen was held off the scoresheet as the Stars were thumped 6-1 by the Wild in Game 1.
Rantanen had only eight points in 11 games after returning from an injury suffered during the Olympics in February. Before that, he had 20 goals and 69 points in 54 games. Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan insisted that Rantanen is now at 100 percent.
OTTAWA SUN: The Senators offered no update on the status of Artem Zub after the big-minute defenseman was injured in Game 1 of their series with the Carolina Hurricanes.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Senators called up six players from their AHL affiliate on Sunday, with young defenseman Carter Yakemchuk among them. He’ll likely replace Zub if the latter remains sidelined for Game 2.
THE WINNIPEG SUN: The Jets signed forward Cole Koepke to a two-year contract extension
NHLPA: If the NHL expands again, over 34 percent of NHL players polled would like to see a franchise in Houston. 16.9 percent chose Quebec City, 9.8 percent chose Atlanta, 8.9 percent selected Scottsdale, and 5 percent picked Austin.
That was a singularly nifty snap-shot OT goal by Slafkovsky. Given their history, it’s also hard to believe that his was the first 3-pp hat-trick in playoff hockey!
With that he takes the early lead anyway in the Conn Smythe Award derby.
Apparently that was the first such hat -trick since Jonathan Toews did it in in 2010, and he joins a group that includes such other lofty company as Jari Kurri and Mike Bossy.
My apologies Juraj. I was screaming for the Habs to pick Wright, the center. I never should have doubted you. Glad I was wrong.
Amazing playoff games so far. Fasten your seat belts folks. We’re in for two more months of this!
If the bruins had scored a third goal I don’t think Buff. would have come back. But watching that game the Sabres looked too quick for Boston. Any team if they can’t stop the opposition from continually crossing over the blue line and spend that much time in your own end well it was just a matter of time. Must win Tuesday Buffalo is a very good team.
The one stat that stands out in that one, John, was the 37 shots on Swayman and just 20 on Luukkonen … with both giving up 3 goals.
As you correctly point out “if they can’t stop the opposition from continually crossing over the blue line and spend that much time in your own end” …
If that margin of shots continues Boston will be hard-pressed to win this series.
Can their overall defensive system tighten things up?
Quite a late comeback for Buffalo. After the game I saw a comment someone had posted elsewhere saying that he had texted his son earlier saying that the Bruins are a Cup contender for 55 minutes and then they manage to throw up all over themselves the last 5. That proved true last night.
Talking about the game with two friends this morning. One of them asked me “Was that really Boston? Are you sure it wasn’t the Leafs?”
I thought the B’s might just pull of the goalie steal last night.
They got dominated in chances, zone time etc, but Swayman played really well and the B’s kept home plate pretty clean given how many shots Buffalo had.
As Mr Apple said, you can only do that for so long before you pay the price.
I thought Boston would try and pound the Sabres, and they probably did try, but it was the Sabres that came out hitting and pounding the Bruins D. Out hit Boston by a wide margin.
The gap in talent across the roster was evident last night. When folks debate what a cup contender vs a playoff contender looks like, watch that game.
Not saying Buffalo gets to the cup, they lack the normal experience required, but they have the talent to become one soon.
We’ll see if the B’s can shut them down defensively going forward, if they don’t, outcome will be the same.
Sabres came in waves. Out hit the bruins Swayman kept them in the game 2nd line seemed overwhelmed. Third line didn’t do much. 4th line was ok. 1st line was it. Pk was excellent pp was not. I had bad feeling when Geekie didn’t look at open net and tried to pass instead of making a simple open net score. I also think Marco . Should have called timeout. After 2nd goal to settle them I. To game 2
Boston had a chance to steal a game with Swayman! Didn’t happen! How slow has Hampus Lindholm become?Boston,Utah,LA and Ottawa look like teams that were happy to get there,but Don t have the firepower to advance!
The Tampa/Montreal series and this first game is eerily reminiscent to the 1981 NHL playoffs when the Oilers upset a veteran Habs team.
It defined a changing of the guard, rise of the young bloods, Dave Hunter shadowing and shutting down Guy Lafleur.
Three years later they’d win the Stanley Cup and go on their run.
Oilers avg age 1981 25
Habs avg age 2026 25.3
Don’t plan the parade yet, it will be a long and hard fought series!
lol of course it’s only one game, one game more than Detroit has played.
The Sabres, Flyers, Wild and Habs served notice in game 1, they aren’t rolling over and have what it takes to be in the mix.
As did … in a way …Utah and L.A. by making the opening games at home for Colorado and Vegas a lot tighter than anyone expected.
George O,my description of some of these close games is teams play just well enough to lose!Utah,Boston,,LA and your Sens fall into that category!
We’re talking ONE game here Sr. Relax.
Did you – or anyone else – predict that none among Utah, Boston, L.A. or Ottawa wouldn’t lose a game along the way? Of course not. Let’s at least wait until each series is over before we start dissecting the corpses.
For the playoffs every team elevates it’s game to the next level, some more than others. You expect the same effort from the networks covering the sport. Not ESPN who ruins everything it covers. For yesterday’s historic return to the playoffs for Buffalo we were treated to Messier and Subban both being unable to pronounce Luukkonen’s name correctly and Leah Hextall beginning her post game interview with Thompson saying he’s played his whole career Buffalo there by erasing the O’Reilly trade which led to the Blues cup. And don’t get me started on Emily Kaplan who begins every sentence sounding like someone is sticking a feather up her rear end.
The Stanley Cup playoffs are the best in any sport and deserve to be presented with reverence, top notch presentation and respect. Instead we get the inevitable ESPN clown show complete with Subban’s clown pants. If you didn’t see it Google it for a good laugh. I wish I had access to the Canadian coverage.
Snold49, that’s the feed we had on Sportsnet360 in Edmonton, so saw the goofy pants. If PK is getting fashion advise, stop it. If he isn’t get it, start and listen to them.
Just for folks who were complaining about the Canadian broadcasts, you should watch that and accept that it isn’t that bad, or at very least, it can always be worse.
At least the Canadian broadcast teams take their job seriously. Snold is right, it’s like their just clippin’ coupons and no effort put in.
There definitely room for improvement.
Someone – can’t recall who exactly – said his pants resembled “blackout drapes.”
They can ditch Leah and Suban’s flamboyance (good luck with that, incedingly that is why Montreal traded him), but I find the rest of the crew acceptable. I don’t like the crowd noise being loader than the broadcaster’s voices though….it really makes it harder for a hearing-impaired guy to follow the game.
I’ll eat crow if I’m wrong but I’d be wildly surprised if it’s Yakemchuk. On the road with matchups unable to shield him.
Kleving, Thompson…Yak is probably last on the list.
I agree. Barring another rash of D injuries, Yakemchuk is there to “absorb the atmosphere” as it were.
San Diego for expansion!