NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – May 11, 2026
The Canadiens take a 2-1 series lead over the Sabres, the Ducks tie their series with the Golden Knights, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines
RECAPS OF SUNDAY’S PLAYOFF ACTION
NHL.COM: The Montreal Canadiens took a 2-1 lead over the Buffalo Sabres in their second-round series with a convincing 6-2 victory in Game 3. Alex Newhook tallied two goals for the second straight game, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky ended their goal-scoring droughts with assists from Lane Hutson, and Jakub Dobes stopped 26 shots for the Canadiens.
Montreal Canadiens forward Alex Newhook (NHL Images)
Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin replied for the Sabres. Game 4 is Tuesday in Montreal at 7 pm ET.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Since the third period of Game 1, Montreal has dominated Buffalo. While they’ve outscored the Sabres 11-3 during that stretch, it’s been their defensive game that has made the difference.
The Canadiens have taken to heart the lessons they learned against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round. They aren’t giving the Sabres time and space to operate, they’re forcing turnovers, and they’re moving the puck well in all three zones. They’re also getting superb goaltending from Dobes, who has been their MVP of this postseason thus far.
The Sabres are a very good team, and they have the skill to reverse their fortunes. A win in Game 4 on Tuesday could change the complexion of this series heading back to Buffalo for Game 5. However, a loss in their next game, especially one as lopsided as the last two games, would be demoralizing.
The Anaheim Ducks nipped the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3 to square their second-round series at two games apiece. Cutter Gauthier collected three assists, Beckett Sennecke and Alex Killorn tallied power-play goals, and Ian Moore’s first NHL playoff goal was the game-winner for the Ducks.
Mitch Marner also had three assists, Jack Eichel had two, and Brett Howden scored his seventh goal of the postseason for the Golden Knights.
Game 5 will be in Las Vegas on Tuesday at 9:30 pm ET.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Ducks finally broke through on the power play after being stymied through the first three games. They also outshot and outhit the Golden Knights in this contest. Those three assists by Gauthier were his first points of this series and couldn’t have come at a better time for his club.
The Golden Knights played this game without team captain Mark Stone. The two-way winger was sidelined by an undisclosed injury suffered during Game 3 on Friday. There was no word as to whether he’ll return to action for Game 5.
IN OTHER NEWS…
COLORADO HOCKEY NOW: Lineup changes could be coming for the Colorado Avalanche in Game 4 of their second-round series with the Minnesota Wild on Monday night.
The Avalanche hold a 2-1 lead in the series, but they haven’t received much production from second-line forwards Valeri Nichushkin and Brock Nelson. They each have one empty-net goal in the past seven games.
Sidelined defenseman Josh Manson and forward Joel Kiviranta might be ready to return to the lineup.
NHL.COM’s Bill Meltzer reports hearing that Philadelphia Flyers winger Owen Tippett was dealing with a sports hernia during their series against the Carolina Hurricanes. Defenseman Cam York played through a rib fracture, and center Christian Dvorak had a separated shoulder.
SPORTSNET: San Jose Sharks center Macklin Celebrini was named captain of Team Canada in the upcoming IIHF World Championship. Toronto Maple Leafs center John Tavares and Nashville Predators center Ryan O’Reilly will serve as alternate captains.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: That’s quite an honor for the 20-year-old Celebrini. He established himself as an elite player in just two NHL seasons.
DAILY FACEOFF: Detroit Red Wings defenseman Justin Faulk was named captain of Team USA in the IIHF World Championship. Seattle Kraken blueliner Ryan Lindgren and Mathieu Olivier of the Columbus Blue Jackets are the alternates.
I know there’s lots of hockey left in this series but I think the dreaded Habs are going to win the buff series. They can match the sabres for speed and they look hungrier Martin one of the best coaches in hockey. The bruins have got to get rid of Korpisalo, package him in a deal but give Dipietro a chance they’ve already lost Bussi and Vladar.
The series is far from over but the Habs have been dominant. Even in the first period Lyon kept the Sabres in the game. We need another two games like this.
Kudos to Kirby Dach. He’s finally playing the way the Habs expected when they traded for him. His lazy play in OT cost them Game 2 against Tampa. Most Habs fans, myself included, were saying he should not play another game for the team. But credit St. Louis for standing by him.
Ya, guessing we will see Buffalo’s best in game 4. If not, they have a problem and they know that.
I thought the 2nd period was when MTL took over the game.
Dobes has been outstanding all playoff long. So the question is can Buffalo beat him?
5th rd pick, just goes to show that tenders are really hard to predict, especially at the draft. The guy looks legit and has been since they drafted him. At every stop by the looks of it.
They need to get traffic to the net like all teams do, but that play by Malenstyn was overboard to the extreme. It’s been a long time since I have seen a tender get run like that and was surprised no major penalty was called. Didn’t even try to change direction or hit the brakes.
Didn’t rattle Dobes in the least.
MTL is winning the possession game as well and Buffalo needs to sustain some pressure in the offensive end.
You got that right, Ray. Watching the Sabres it’s like seeing on some of their faces an expression that suggests they might be thinking “are we really in round TWO of the Stanley Cup playoffs??”
But, hey, let’s see how they come out in the next one tomorrow. Lindy Ruff is a savvy coach and I expect to see a LOT less of the face-washing, shoving, cross-checking, goalie-bumping crap – even in retaliation – and more of a tight-checking and relentless fore-checking approach.
They better, or the Habs will dominate the scoresheet again. St. Louis is no dummy either.
The Sabres limited themselves to the defense zone for the majority of the game. That strategy loses games when the puck cannot move to the neutral and attack zones.
Officiating left more to be desired.
Hey Knight
just out of curiosity, what exactly do you mean by the officiating left more to be desired?
The majority of the calls favored Montreal.
The bounces favored them also.
And Habs goaltending has been stellar!
But they also had more will to win.
JohnnyZ, I agree with everything you said except for the calls being favorable for the Habs.
Bolduc’s accidentally on purpose hit on Lyon was minor compared to the hit on Dobes. Yet, Bolduc received a major, whereas Malenstyn’s hit was clearly not an accident and a lot of contact with the head, yet only received a minor.
Three players (that’s 3) were punching Guhle, while only 1 was penalized from Buff.
And we all saw that Boston / Buff series, where Greig sucker punched Walker while being in a headlock from another player. Well, that happened again last night, but a Buff player doing it to a Hab. I only saw a glimpse of it at the end of the game. I would imagine the NHL will be looking at it today.
You’re exactly right Chris.
The only thing I would add, in fairness, is that Xhejak punched Carrick at the end of the game and got no penalty.
But yeah, there were some bad non calls last night. Inexplicably so.
People are complaining about arber’s punch on carrick- go watch the game and benson does it all game long even with the Habs player is already engaged with someone else.
Do on to them as they do on to you.
Chris………
18:44
Pen
Zachary Bolduc (Roughing – 2 min) drawn by Alex Lyon served by Ivan Demidov
Clearly not a major
After a little bit of googling, it was Tage Thomson who did the Greig punch, and apparently the league is looking into it.
Sabres had 5 offensive zone penalties against a Habs team with a great power play. Poor back back checking and turnovers amount to a loss. It might be time to change the 3rd pair defenseman. The Habs speed is too much for Stanley.
The most impressive thing to me so far, parcularly in game 2 and 3 is how sloppy the Habs are making the Sabres look in their own zone. Whether it’s keeping the puck in, reviving broken plays, or just their active sticks….they are not giving the Sabres much time and Sabres are not able to adjust to it.
Plain and simple,Montreal was much quicker to the puck taking away time and space. Tired of Greenway. Saw him playing at BU in his college days. He s fake tough!
The Habs are showing the difference between fast skating and fast play.
Sabres structured play is being picked apart by the Habs motion.
Skating plus motion plus mixed passing has Sabres usually a step behind.
Buffalo forwards are coming back into the dzone negating the fast breaks they are used to.
Ruff needs a different gameplan, he has the horses but isn’t giving them the tools to handle MSL system.
The other thing that I see is that the Sabres activate their D a lot, turn over the puck, and then get caught up ice.
They are leaking scoring chances, and while this series is certainly not over it is hard to change one’s season long style of play.
Agree LJ, that part of their game won’t change. Plus they were playing from behind most of that game. So pressing perhaps.
They generate offence from the backend as that is where they have a lot of talent, might as well use it. They aren’t a sit back and counter punch type of team.
But, they could do it better than they have been for the last 2 games, including the forwards on the ice when the D does jump in.
Need to play with a little more patience, easier said than done when you haven’t been there for 14 years and facing a team as talented as you are. If not more.
Sabres are activating their D because they can’t handle the Habs breakout.
Folks here think of Buffalo having a bigger more mobile D but it isn’t the case, Habs D is.
Fun fact, go to NHL edge and compare Buffalo D to Arber Xhekaj.
Dahlin- max speed- 20.74 mph
Byram- max speed- 21.88 mph
Power- max speed- 20.69 mph
Samuelsson- max speed- 21.23 mph
Stanley- max speed- 20.26 mph
Kesselring- max speed- 18.94 mph
Timmins- max speed- 20.10 mph
Xhekaj- max speed- 21.41 mph
He beats them all except Byram.
Shane Doan and the Leafs have mutually agreed to part ways
https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/article/doan-maple-leafs-mutually-part-ways/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-ca