NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – September 30, 2026
Recaps of the season-opening games, the Senators name a new captain, Wild defenseman Brock Faber sidelined indefinitely, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPPING THE SEASON-OPENING GAMES
NHL.COM: The Vancouver Canucks blew a three-goal lead but still upset the Edmonton Oilers 6-5 in overtime. Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard had a hat trick and two assists, becoming the first defenseman in NHL history to open the season with five points. Paul Cotter scored twice for the Canucks, including the winning goal.
Edmonton Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Canucks goaltender Kevin Lankinen gave up five goals on 32 shots, but Oilers netminder Tristan Jarry allowed six goals on 23 shots. The Oilers played without versatile two-way forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who is out until mid-October with a lower-body injury.
Florida Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling scored with 4.3 seconds remaining in overtime to nip the Carolina Hurricanes 1-0, spoiling the defending Stanley Cup champions’ home opener. Panthers goaltender Jacob Markstrom had a 15-save shutout, and Brandon Bussi stopped 19 shots for the Hurricanes.
The Boston Bruins got goals from Fraser Minten, JJ Peterka, and Mark Kastelic within a 1:15 span in the third period to blank the New York Rangers 3-0. Jeremy Swayman got the shutout with a 24-save performance. Rangers netminder Igor Shesterkin allowed two goals on 22 shots.
Montreal Canadiens winger Josh Anderson and defenseman Alexandre Carrier each had a goal and an assist to hold off the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2. Jakub Dobes turned aside 26 shots for the Canadiens. William Nylander scored both goals for the Maple Leafs.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Winger Kirill Marchenko picked up an assist in his first game with the Maple Leafs since being acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets in a trade on Monday. Before the game, Leafs general manager John Chayka said goalie Elvis Merzlikins (shoulder surgery) is out three to five months, and forward Miles Wood would start this season with their AHL affiliate. Both players were part of the trade that brought Marchenko to Toronto.
Patrick Kane scored in his first game back with the Chicago Blackhawks, but they dropped a 5-2 decision to the Vegas Golden Knights. Jack Eichel had a goal and two assists, and rookie forward Trevor Connelly scored his first NHL goal for the Golden Knights.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Blackhawks winger Teuvo Teravainen was a healthy scratch for this game.
HEADLINES
OTTAWA SUN: The Senators named defenseman Thomas Chabot as their new captain, becoming the 11th player in franchise history to fill that role. He’s the first Canadian captain for the Senators since Jason Spezza in 2013-14.
TWINCITIES.COM: Minnesota Wild defenseman Brock Faber is sidelined indefinitely with a fractured skull after taking a puck to the ear during the club’s final preseason game against the Dallas Stars on Friday.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This is a serious blow for the Wild. Faber is a core player who skates on the top defense pairing with superstar Quinn Hughes. Team captain Jared Spurgeon will replace Faber alongside Hughes.
GM Bill Guerin wouldn’t say whether the injury is season-ending or if he’ll trade for a short-term replacement.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: Sophomore defenseman Matthew Schaefer is among the New York Islanders’ four alternate captains, joining blueliner Ryan Pulock and forwards Kyle Palmieri and Brayden Schenn. Earlier this month, the Isles named Bo Horvat as their new captain.
TSN: The Columbus Blue Jackets signed free-agent defenseman Carson Soucy to a one-year, $1.15 million contract. He had attended their training camp on a professional tryout offer.
DAILY FACEOFF: Buffalo Sabres forward Conor Sheary and New York Rangers defenseman Vincent Iorio on waivers.
COLORADO HOCKEY NOW: The Avalanche promoted Andrew Cogliano to assistant general manager. He’d served as a special assistant to the GM since 2024.
Will no.1 Oilers fan be in hiding this morning? Before
I begin you need to read the comments at Oilers
Nation. Owen Michaels is excellent because he got the most TOI. Trent, Jarry, Howard were all superb.
Jarry was the most excellent on breakaways. You claim I have a love affair with Sam. No I hate Stan and JJ who BOTH need to be fired. Eat your porridge
and mull over the fact we lost to the worst team in
the NHL.
I was told and have no way of checking a glass
of Molson’s is $19.50 at the Oilers arena.
Katz is going to make a killing.
Good Morning Fred!
FRED020 – hiding? Some of us have jobs bud.
I said you had a crush…far from a love affair lol. But really no need to be so aggressive pal.
As for the oilers, embarrassing result doing what they have done too often in the past.
As for Jarry – he is at fault for the 3rd goal that snuck by him and he needs to be better but he is not why they lost last night. Breakaways and 2 on 1 goals, you like to see the goalie stop them but its hard to blame them when they dont.
Its game 1, they will be ok.
A bit of an oddity in the fact that the Panthers-Hurricanes game produced just 33 shots combined over 3 periods and almost a full OT before the 34th shot won it with just 4 seconds to go.
Didn’t see any of it, but the D and fore-checking on both sides must have been fierce.
Re Chabot, no real surprise there. It would have been a miscarriage of justice had the C gone to anyone else.
George, I watched the Panthers – Hurricanes game and it was basically two good defensive teams taking advantage of offenses that weren’t quite in sync yet. There wasn’t a lot of room for either offense.
Carolina only had 3 shots on goal in the 1st period and two of the shots were in the last 90 seconds. Florida only had 6 shots on goal in the first period and they had 4 minutes of power play time.
Both teams PK unit dominated the other teams PP unit. Florida had 11:52 minutes of PP time and went 0-7. Carolina had 8:38 of PP time and went 0-6. Each team had about 1 1/2 minutes of 5 vs 3 or 4 vs 3 and still couldn’t put the puck in the net.
They finished the game by playing almost an entire 3 vs 3 overtime with only two shots on goal combined.
Wow. Thanks GP! A playoff-style game in some respects … on opening night.
The comment this morning on the Oilers game is
very mild as to what you read at Oilers Nation.
There is another site with someone named OPIE
on it but I imagine it is full of far harsher comments
than what I read here.
The Oilers will probably be fine and way too soon to panic.
If Jarry keeps sucking, then he won’t play much.
My guess is Babcock won’t give up on him yet but the leash will keep getting shorter and Levi keeps getting more games.
The skaters luv Levi because he has a strong work ethic in practice and the off season. They were not happy with Jarry last year because he didn’t. Plus Levi has a positive outlook and Jarry is a Debbie Downer and complainer. Kinda like Fred!
When Anderson comes back, all bets are off, send Jarry down to Bakersfield, pretty darn sure he won’t get claimed on waivers.
FRED020 you will fine most folks here have measured reactions to wins and losses. This board generally feels quite mature to many others as I am sure you can already tell.
They sky isnt falling after 1 loss and parades are not being planned after the 1st wins here.
Jarry may be responsible for Babcock being bald by the TDL due to his inconsistency making Babcock pull his hair out.
Holy guacamole terrific game by the bruins they dominated the rangers lastnight. Looking forward to the jets Thursday. Had to get up at five for work for some reason I thought the game got underway at 7pm. Definitely worth watching all the way though. That 3rd line could be a killer liked what I saw on that. And the overall effort everybody seemed to be on the same page. It’s almost like all the lines had been playing for years together.
I watched the game and the Bruins did not dominate. They held the advantage in the first, but the Rangers found their game in the 2nd and were the better team in the 3rd until the last 4 mins. Both goalies were outstanding and stopped several Grade A scoring chances. Your guy Hagens wasn’t nearly as impressive as you stated he would be.
Your NYR look lost offensively. Shutout 10 times last year,they will be shut out more times this year. Igor will be looking for another team if there lack of offense doesn’t get better!
Not sure what game you watched but the Bruins were all over NY in the first 5-6 mins of the 2nd NY dominated then it was more even. The 3rd the Bruins kept them hemmed in and couldn’t get out their zone. 3 goals in 1:15 seconds. Rempke ran away from Zadorov 3 times and wouldn’t fight TJ either. Boston Dominated most of the game.
John Apple did you see Kastellac was put in Hagens place on Minten goal. Hold your horses on him. He is young and needs time. Wish Sturm just left him there to play through it.
Sr, you make this assessment after one game, based on what exactly? This Rangers group is much better than last years and given a few games for the team to gel will produce the results needed. The Rangers will make the playoffs this year.
At whose expense … just out of curiosity?
Noticed that Leevi Merilainen – grabbed from Ottawa on waivers – was the back-up to Lankinen last evening. Be interesting to see how he plays out there – in terms of “consistency” – once he gets in.
Could have swapped him with Jarry in the 3rd
period wearing his Canucks uniform. Then Oilers fans would understand WHY he let the goals in.
Leevi that is.
Your opening summary has the wrong Brock getting hurt…Boesser rather than Faeber. Just an FYI..scary injury I hope he is ok
Fixed, thanks.
I wonder if Billy G. Will attempt to acquire Nikishin, he can play the RS. Also could be paired with Quinn, and might sign at an AAV of $8.5M, like Faber’s hit.
would not be a bad move but the Wild have limited assets to move for him. But with the very real possibility of Quinn not resigning it would be a smart move imho too
Maybe the Wild will trade with Boston for Jokiharu. Wouldn’t cost them much and a low cap hit.
That is a Jok, right?