NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – May 4, 2026
The Canadiens advance to the second round, the Avalanche draw first blood in their second-round series against the Wild, the Maple Leafs hire Mats Sundin and John Chayka, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPS OF SUNDAY’S PLAYOFF ACTION
NHL.COM: The Montreal Canadiens nipped the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 to win Game 7 of their first-round series to advance to the second round. Nick Suzuki and Alex Newhook scored, and Jakub Dobes made 28 saves for the Canadiens, who set a playoff record for the fewest shots on goal (nine!) in a playoff win. Dominic James netted the only goal for the Lightning.
Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jakub Dobes (NHL Images).
The Canadiens will face the Buffalo Sabres in the second round starting on Wednesday, May 6, in Buffalo.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: That was perhaps the ugliest performance by a winning team in a Game 7 situation that I’ve ever seen. It’s certainly the ugliest I’ve seen by the Canadiens, and I’ve been watching them since 1971.
The Canadiens were the better team for most of this series, but the Lightning dominated them in this contest. Dobes was the difference with a goaltending performance that ranks among the very best in franchise history. Their blueline got a boost with the return of Noah Dobson, who’d miss the first six games with an injured thumb.
Luck was also on the Canadiens’ side in this game. Both goals were flukes, with Suzuki’s puck tip deflecting off Lightning defenseman JJ Moser, and Newhook’s whack at a bouncing puck going into the net off the pants of Bolts goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Nevertheless, the Canadiens’ skill, speed, hard work, and physical play during the first six games put them in a position to win Game 7. It wasn’t pretty, and the bounces went their way, but Dobes’ goaltending got them over the finish line and into the second round for the first time in five years.
The Colorado Avalanche drew first blood in their second-round series with the Minnesota Wild with a 9-6 victory in Game 1. Cale Makar scored twice and collected an assist, Devon Toews had a goal and three assists, Nathan MacKinnon tallied a goal and two assists, and Martin Necas collected three assists for the Avalanche, who blew an early 3-0 lead before finally pulling away for the win in the third period. Quinn Hughes had a goal and two assists for the Wild. Game 2 of this series is Tuesday, May 5, in Denver.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: It was ’80s night in Denver, as this resembled one of those high-scoring postseason tilts from 40 years ago. The Avalanche seemed on the verge of rolling to an easy win, but the Wild pushed back, with the score knotted at 5-5 after two periods. Hughes’ performance moved him into first place among this year’s postseason scorers with 11 points.
This high-scoring game was entertaining, but don’t expect to see more like this as this series goes on. Both clubs will likely improve their defensive play after this.
Both teams were missing key players from their lineup. Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson remains sidelined with an upper-body injury. Wild center Joel Eriksson Ek and blueliner Jonas Brodin will miss the first two games of this series with lower-body injuries.
HEADLINES
SPORTSNET: The Toronto Maple Leafs have hired former captain Mats Sundin as vice president of hockey operations and former Arizona Coyotes general manager John Chayka as their new GM. A press conference to officially announce their hiring is expected to be held on Monday.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: These hirings have elicited largely negative reactions from some pundits and Leafs fans on social media. Most of the negativity is aimed at Chayka, who had an underwhelming record with the Coyotes before re-signing in 2020 and being suspended by the league for one year for attempting to pursue job opportunities with other teams while still employed by the Coyotes.
Maybe Sundin and Chayka will have better luck in their roles than their predecessors over the past 20 years, but most of the club’s critics aren’t giving them the benefit of the doubt. It will be interesting to see what they’ve got in store for this franchise.
THE PROVINCE: Vancouver Canucks legends Daniel and Henrik Sedin will represent the team at the 2026 NHL Draft Lottery on Tuesday. The Canucks hold the best odds of winning the first-overall pick, something they’ve never had before.
SPORTSNET: Speaking of the Canucks, they interviewed former Ottawa Senators GM Pierre Dorion for their vacant general manager position.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Looking forward to reaction from our Senators fans in the comments section about this story. However, that doesn’t mean Dorion is getting the job. Unlike the Maple Leafs, the Canucks have cast a wide net in their search for a new general manager, speaking with several former NHL general managers and assistant GMs.
BUFFALO HOCKEY BEAT: Sabres centers Sam Carrick and Noah Ostlund will be sidelined for their upcoming second-round series against the Canadiens.
NEW YORK POST: The Rangers have fired the coaching staff of their AHL affiliate in Hartford.
Roll over Ken Dryden for Jakub Dobes!
Ya, thought the same thing Johnny. Is another Rookie tender legend being born in Montreal?
Juts F***ing great.
Made me laugh out loud, Ray.
In a Hockey News article by Pat Maguire dated November 1, 2023, shortly after Dorion’s firing by Ottawa, he lists 9 of his better moves that mostly get over-shadowed by his difficulties with the cap:
“1) Brady Tkachuk is on his way to being one of the best captains in the league.
2) Adding Claude Giroux in free agency brought skill and leadership to the room.
3) Adding Jacob Chychrun gave the Senators a top-four defense to rival any in the league.
4) All but two players on the active roster have cost certainty beyond the end of this season.
5) Extending Stutzle and Sanderson a year early saved the Senators millions of dollars.
6) All three first-round picks from the 2020 draft are impact players in the lineup.
7) The centre ice depth in the organization is an embarrassment of riches.
8) Depth at the goaltending position has been rebuilt.
9) The Senators will be competitive for the rest of this decade.
Dorion did all of that. He did most of it with a skeleton operations department and a shoestring budget.”
Yeah, # 8 went south in a hurry … but with goalies it’s always finger-crossing time. Vancouver could do (and have done) a LOT worse.
He did do all of that. But his misses can’t be dis-counted. For someone who’s strength was apparently minor league/amateur draft scouting – some of his misses were huge. And his PRO scouting was abysmal. Oh and some goofy goings-on while he was in charge.
I wouldn’t hire him.
That was certainly not how you draw it up on the board as the game plan to win a game 7 (or any game really) but they got it done.
As someone with no bias or preference in the series…I was hoping the winning goal to be a beauty…I mean great eye hand by newhook but I’d rather a nice one time or break away to decide the game but it’s real life and not the movies eh.
I did have visions of Patrick Stefan and Ales Hemsky when Slaf failed to bury it into the open net.
Buffalo should be a fun series as well. Will the relatively smaller forwards of Mtl be able to navigate the much larger and mobile D of Buffalo? Should be fun!!
1Oilerfan: I am not a fan of smaller players either, and tend to be conscious of size with Hutson and Caulfield getting prominent ice time; but the Habs actually have 11 forwards over 6′ and 2 at 5″11.
LJ – funny how we continue with a bias, particularly of teams we dont primarily follow. I still think of the habs as a small and fast forward group though as you state not nearly as small as i thought.
Still though…for what its worth even those 6ft 1 fellas are going to look small next to Powers, Stanley and Samuelsson. But so too are most rosters id wager.
I just find it to be an intriguing match up. Should be fun.
And so one of the best series in the history of professional sports has come to a happy ending. A great series. Tight and closely played all the way through. After a close late season game between these teams many were saying they were looking forward to seven games like this. They got their wish.
I prefer to use the term gritty rather than ugly. A tough young Habs team gritted out a tough win. Good teams are supposed to find a way to win games and series like these. And they did. And while they played horribly and were dominated in the second period, the first and third periods were closely played. And I’m quite skeptical of the shot counts for those two periods. There seemed to be some shots the Habs had that weren’t recorded. I think the scorekeeper was swayed by the home town crowd.
A deserving series win. Now on to the next.
Shot counts are reviewed extensively by gambling interests by computer and AI and the Mounties. So they are infallible.
Lyle: you predicted the Habs in 6. You sure got that wrong!
This leafs hater is thrilled with their new management team. Chayka will be worse than Treliving. A thin resume as a mediocre GM with a losing team. In answer to Jonas Siegel’s rhetorical question about why no other team has hired him in the four years since his suspension ended, it’s because he’s not a good hockey executive and he cannot be trusted. And Sundin, with no management experience and no connection to the team in years, is a mere PR ploy.
Difficult to argue with Howard’s assessment here. If this goes sideways, the Leafs will head into another dark era, and it will sully Sundin’s good name.
When you hire a used car salesman, you’re bound to get a lemon….just sayin’
Didn’t Chaka also have some draft candidates work out prior to the draft which broke the rules of the draft combine. I think he lost a 1st and a 2nd round pick as punishment.
That’s correct Gored. As you state, the team lost picks because of that. And his personal suspension was for seeking out other jobs while still under contract to the Yotes. As Obe notes below he’s a snake. He obviously thinks the rules don’t apply to him
It is a huge gamble that could definitely go one of two polar-opposite directions for the Leafs, Howard. South if Chayka, who has had 6 years to ruminate on his well-documented past errors in Arizona, hasn’t learned from those mistakes.
But everyone – as they say – deserves a second chance, and since Pelley and the Committee are convinced that the application of a data-driver “moneyball” approach to management is the wave of the future, Chayka certainly has the credentials. He is, in fact, a recognized pioneer in what has become known as “hockey analytics,” including the founding of Stathletes. So, this could also turn the franchise north. Let’s at least adopt a wait-and-see attitude before dumping on them
Bringing in a hugely-popular ex-player like Sundin to help improve team culture and player development isn’t a negative in any way. Other franchises have brought back their more illustrious alumni in similar roles, such as Nicklas Lidstrom, Niklas Kronwall and Chris Draper in Detroit, Adam McQuaid abd Chris Kelly in Boston and Patrick Marleau & Joe Thornton in San Jose.
Good points but the fact is, it’s still an executives gamble which if it doesn’t work out, will cost Pelley his job.
It’s rather dumb, but in day and age – normal, to quickly make your thoughts known even though they are not based on current information since there isn’t any due to the fact, they haven’t started their jobs yet. Historically speaking, it’s honestly a mixed bag of results. Both Chayka and Sundin are in the spotlight and has many supporters and non-supporters watching and already claiming failure. I, myself, am not too confident about the hire, not that I could have anything to do about it, so I’ll wait to see what they do before I can make any proper opinions or thoughts on work. We’ll find out soon enough.
Ron, it’s fair to say they will be judged on what they will do, not what they have done.
But the judgement about the hire itself is based on current information, ie what Chayka has done up to this point.
If one looks at his record as GM and gives time for his decisions to demonstrate results, from 2019 on the Coyotes made the playoffs once, missing 4 years in a row. So it’s not dumb at all to question Chayka’s hiring.
Here is what the Athletic wrote about the decision:
“This is not a serious hockey team. That’s what this decision suggests. A serious team, determined to win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup title in almost 60 years at any cost, with the biggest financial muscles in the sport, would have pursued and landed the most credentialed front-office talent possible.
This is not that.”
I too am surprised that such important hirings include a decidedly checkered past and a player with no manaagement experience.
But Leafs never asked me either.
If Chayka does a worse job than Tree I’d be shocked even though I’m quite negative on the hire also.The Laughton and Carlo trades all but rendered them unable to do a rebuild. I could go on and on about older, slower, dumber.
No assets to retool this team into a contender unless they keep their pick tomorrow and the player they pick turns into the second coming. The team is just left in a bad spot. Just my opinion. I’ve been wrong 106 times.
Yeah, Kinger … every time I look at their roster and try to comprehend how Chayka is expected to only engage in a re-tool, given the very limited UFA pool AND the move limitations dictated by the roister he inherits, I go back to my earlier contention that there is virtually no one on that ownership “committee” who understands the game – especially their “spokesperson” Pelley.
Chayka now has 6 players he can’t move anywhere without their specific approval: Matthews, Nylander, Tavares, Rielly, Tanev and McCabe.
Then there are 6 more with modified no-trade clauses whose lists of “no-go” sites makes finding trade partners all the more problematic – assuming he could even find anyone remotely interested in several of them: Domi, Joshua, Ekman-Larsson, Carlo and Stolarz.
That’s just over half his 23-man roster. Those without such protection include Knies, Woll, Cowan (none of whom you’d want to deal in a re-tool – unless the return was significant), along with Macelli, Robertson, Lorentz, Pezzetta, Benoit, Myers, Stecher, Villeneuve and Hildeby – a few of whom could probably be moved easily enough … but the returns aren’t apt to be any appreciably better.
Talk about having a tough row to hoe!
Maybe they brought in Sundin to be the lovable face of the franchise while they use Chayka as a scapegoat. He’ll likely oversee the departure of Matthews, so they’ll need someone to throw under the bus for that.
Saw the presser introducing Chayka and Sundin to the Toronto media. Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun roasted Pelley to his face. He said he spoke to 20 people around the league, and only one supported the Chayka hiring. The rest said it was a “sham” and called Chayka a “con artist,” “liar,” and a “salesman.” Pelley meekly replied that “we must have been talking to different people,” insisting they did due diligence with the hiring process.
Saw that too. Why do I get the impression that Chayka is being set up to fail?
In Tampa that was painful. Like beating a guy for sixteen holes, then he drains a 40 footer on 17 and chips in from the sand on 18 to beat you. But!
The Bolts have themselves to blame for the ugliness of game 5. Good luck to #26 and his team; hope he joins the exclusive club of Cup winners as both player and coach. Montreal has built through the draft, and a series win on top of a 106 point season is not a fluke. This division sure is a tough place to try to win, and shows no sign of getting easier in the future.
Bruins… Boone Jenner & Connor Murphy would be nice UFA adds … The UFA forwards are lacking the UFA Dmen have some nice players available… not many if any of the RFA players are going anywhere
Murphy would be a nice add Joe. Kinda like getting Carlo back. He stated publicly he would like to re-sign in Edmonton, but that doesn’t mean he will.
Jenner makes me nervous because of what makes him a good player. He is a physical go hard guy. Those guys generally don’t age well and he turns 33 in June.
He is the Jacket’s captain, and he hasn’t re-signed. Makes you wonder why. Contract demands or??
Caufield didn’t do much. They will need him to chip in some Buts to get past Buffalo.
Suzuki is a prototypical hockey player. Blocking that shot at the end puts an exclamation mark on the series win.
WTF B. Point ? Must be hurt. He has led the playoffs twice in goals and did virtually nothing.
Montreal got awful lucky two fluke goals and out played 3-1 but their goalie was unreal. Makar and Hughes are prime time wow what an exhibition I’d still take Makar first little bigger and faster. Leafs signing Chayka in my opinion is embarrassing the guy is a snake.
On another topic, isn’t it high time to do away the long-standing “assist bias”?
The player with the most goals is always among the top contenders for the Art Ross Trophy (total points), and yet even has a separate Rocket Richard Trophy for most goals scored. Isn’t it logical, therefore, to provide a trophy for the player with the most assists since that player, too, is also always among the Art Ross consideration? Goal-scoring is, of course, much more “prestigious” in the eyes of most fans and pundits … but no one scores the vast majority of what they do without someone setting them up.
Since Gretzky is the all-time leader in assists with 1,963 – a record that, if it ever is broken, won’t be for a long, long time – why not a Gretzky Award for the assists leader?
This season it would have gone to McDavid, who had 90, followed by Kucherov (86), MacKinnon and Evan Bouchard (74 each), and Nick Suzuki (72).
The problem might be secondary assists vs primary ones…plus, you can’t win the Ross without having many assists to go along the goals you potted.
Awards are dumb. All these players are great, some are better than others. I guess the casual fan will recognize a player’s specific skills once they win an award, maybe?
Ron, the “secondary” assist is also factored into considerations for the Art Ross. They’re looking at things like “total points” – and not “total points minus secondary assists.”
If they truly think it’s immaterial, why award 2 assists in the first place? Just give the one that immediately preceded the goal.
But I think that would fly in the face of history and tradition. You give up to 2 assists, then credit them equally.
Agree 100% George.
I don’t view goals as more “prestigious”, and I might be in the minority. No idea.
I value the play drivers, the guys who create the offence. Those guys aren’t reliant on other players to generate scoring chances.
Example – Kucherov was and still is more valuable than Stamkos who was banging in one-timers at a rapid pace.
And I don’t really care for Kucherov after that blatant dive in the series against Montreal. And then the I’m in pain act afterwards.
Some guys can do both, like McDavid, Draisaitl, Pasta, Kucherov, MacKinnon, Cellebrini. Those are the elite guys.
I recall an old ad showing some of Craig Janney’s setups and, to paraphrase, the voiceover of “you don’t have to be a rocket scientist but it helps”. I love a good setup as much as the solo rush going through a couple of guys and the goalie.
Vancouver ..Grab Dorion ….he was doing a great job til new owner came in and brought his management team from his OHL team
He was certainly doing better than just OK UNKBUCK … but Andlauer wanted an excuse to install his buddy Staios as GM, and so jumped on what amounted to a careless clerical error in a trade (probably made by a secretary-type employee but, admittedly, should have been picked up by Dorion before finalizing) to fire him and create the opening.
That was 3 years ago, and in comparison to Chayka’s indiscretions, hardly calling for ongoing symbolic crucifixion around the league.
I had game 7 all wrong, mea culpa.
It was nice to see that Dobson didn’t miss a beat, you’d never know he was injured.
Newhook found his game this year, started the season well and despite a bad injury and long layoff, he returned just as strong, poetic justice that he scored the winning goal.
The post game celebrating with Montembeault giving Dobes the pie in the face , laughing and whooping it up for him shows what a great teammate he is and the camaraderie on the team.
Buffalo will be a bigger challenge in my mind, also a young team, more speed than Tampa, with a streaky goalie, Alex Lyons can be lights out like he was vs Boston or a sieve. He’s played on five different teams and was never involved in a trade.
Historically Lyon is 4-4 gaa 3.14 sv% .884 but I recall him having some great games vs Habs in the past.
The two teams are feelgood stories which is refreshing after the past few playoffs.
Yep. Although I’ll be pulling for the Habs to move on into Round 3, I won’t be disappointed if it’s the other way around.
Last season I began tooting the Sabres horn after the way they slowly began to put things together following that early season 14-game winless streak, to the point where they pulled to within 12 points of the last WC spot, and just 2/3 back of Pittsburgh and the NYI.
Some questioned my sanity, but every time I saw them in action down the stretch in that 2024-25 season I could sense that they were going to be, not only a playoff contender, but a major factor this past season.