NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – December 15, 2025
Quinn Hughes and Zeev Buium debut with their new clubs, the Mammoth stage a three-goal comeback win, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPS OF SUNDAY’S GAMES
NHL.COM: Quinn Hughes scored in his debut game with the Minnesota Wild in a 6-2 victory over the Boston Bruins. Kirill Kaprizov and Ryan Hartman each had three points for the Wild (19-9-5) as they picked up their fourth straight win. Alex Steeves and Andrew Peeke replied for the 19-14-0 Bruins as their four-game win streak ended.
Minnesota Wild defenseman Quinn Hughes (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Wild acquired Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks on Friday. He’s not committed to signing a contract extension, but the 26-year-old superstar defenseman said he will be “extremely open-minded” about it before his deal expires in 2027.
Meanwhile, Kaprizov reached the 20-goal plateau for the sixth consecutive season. Bruins winger Viktor Arvidsson missed this game with a lower-body injury.
The Vancouver Canucks nipped the New Jersey Devils 2-1. Zeev Buium had a goal and an assist in his first game with the 12-17-3 Canucks. Luke Hughes scored for the Devils (18-14-1).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Buium, Marco Rossi, and Liam Ohgren were part of the return the Canucks received from the Wild in exchange for Hughes. All three played in this game.
Earlier in the day, the Canucks placed center Elias Pettersson on injured reserve and activated Rossi off IR. They also sent winger Lukas Reichel to their AHL affiliate in Abbotsford after he cleared waivers.
An overtime goal by Dylan Guenther completed a 5-4 comeback by the Utah Mammoth over the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Mammoth overcame a 3-0 deficit in the third period and took a 4-3 lead before the Penguins’ Justin Brazeau tied it to force overtime. Michael Carcone tallied twice for the Mammoth, who improved to 16-15-3. Brazeau had two goals and Ben Kindel had a goal and two assists for the Penguins (14-8-9), as their winless streak extended to 0-1-4.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This was the second game in as many days that the Penguins blew a big lead, having fallen 6-5 in overtime to the San Jose Sharks on Saturday. Penguins rookie goalie Sergei Murashov gave up five goals on 37 shots.
Carolina Hurricanes winger Andrei Svechnikov tallied in the shootout to lift the Carolina Hurricanes over the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2. Hurricanes rookie goaltender Brandon Bussi made 24 saves to extend his win streak to nine games, giving him 11 in 12 games this season. Trevor Zegras had a goal and an assist as the 16-9-6 Flyers extended their winless skid to 0-0-3, while the Hurricanes (21-9-2) have won four straight games.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Hurricanes hold first place in the Eastern Conference with 44 points. Their blueline got a boost with the return of Jaccob Slavin, who missed 29 games with a lower-body injury.
The Montreal Canadiens got a 27-save performance from Jakub Dobes for a 4-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers. Juraj Slafkovsky and Lane Hutson each collected two assists for the Canadiens, who improved to 17-11-4. Zach Hyman scored for the 15-12-6 Oilers.
Buffalo Sabres center Tage Thompson extended his goal streak to four games as his club defeated the Seattle Kraken 3-1. Alex Lyon stopped 23 shots for the Sabres, who have won three straight games and improved to 14-14-4. Chandler Stephenson scored for the 12-12-6 Kraken.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Kraken winger Mason Marchment missed this game with the flu.
IN OTHER NEWS…
TSN: St. Louis Blues winger Dylan Holloway suffered a lower-body injury during practice on Sunday.
ESPN.COM: The NHL Board of Governors would like to have more games in which both home and road teams wear solid-colored jerseys.
A team collapses at home – twice in 2 days – after holding big leads, and STILL come out with 2 points out of 4 for a .500 pace.
Many games are worth 3 points, so 1 of 2 points per game is not .500
It is for the team getting the 1 point, since NO one team ever gets 3 points out of any “3 point game.” All that that signifies is that, when a team wins in a SO or OT, looking at BOTH teams involved the result adds up 3 points. The winner can still only get a maximum of 2.
Looking at it another way, if a team wound up a full season having gotten a single point out of every game, they’d wind up with 82 points out of a maximum of 164. That’s a .500 pace.
How are we seeing it differently?
George – there is nothing wrong with your math. But I see Brock’s point.
Historically, a .500 team in most sports has been considered the average, the exact middle.
However, with the still-mystifyingly stupid NHL point system, a .500 winning pct is no longer average.
While 82 points is mathematically .500; logistically the NHL median is somewhere around 93 points
Oh, I fully understand Brock’s post … and fully agree that the “loser point” is an abomination in screwing up the standings.
Just that, mathematically, and since NO team can get more than 2 points out of any one game, a single point is, in fact, .500.
Even If, as some have suggested, they switch to a system where a team gets 3 points for a regulation win, but just 2 for an OT/SO win and 1 for such losses, the single point would remain a .500 result in those extended games. Mathematically.
Nor could they show standings based upon percentages as they do in baseball because there, in extra-inning games, it’s still simply a win or a loss. No “loser point.”
George the math is not mathing. If 82 x 32 x 1 pt = 2633 points awarded in the standings, then yes 1 point per game is .500. But last season closer to around 2900 points were awarded to teams, which means a team would need like 91ish points to be considered a 500 hockey club.
The Penguins intentionally blowing leads and losing games frequently within the past two weeks should not go unnoticed.
With their win last night Buffalo moves into a points tie (32) with Columbus and Ottawa – all 3 at the bottom of the Conference – with the Senators clinging to 14th place by virtue of 1 less game plated (31 to 32). All 3 are just 6 points back of the last WC slot, held by by Boston who have played 33 games.
In recent days we have read chatter about potential trades involving just about every team in the Conference – seemingly except Ottawa!
Yeah, they’ve had some key injuries – but so has every other friggin’ team – and it’s time to realize that this team, the way it’s structured, is lacking in some important fundamentals. A 3-game home-stand where they don’t get a point, followed by a fortunate win in Columbus where they almost pulled a Pittsburgh, then losing at least a point in Minnesota by giving up the winning goal with 24 seconds left in the 3rd! And now they have to face the Jets in Winnipeg with Hellebuyck back in action!
I’m starting to think that what they need is a shake-up – not by firing the coach, that’s band-aid crap – but rather a block-buster type of their own involving one of their top-paid so-called “stars” … and yes, for the right return … and it would have to be a very good one … I’d include Tkachuk in that.
Otherwise, this team will splutter their way through the rest of the season, finishing somewhere in the bottom third of the Conference (anywhere from 12th to 16th) – with NO 1st round pick.
During a recent discussion, analyst Colby Cohen, speaking on Snow the Goalie: A Flyers Podcast, made a surprising statement, suggesting that if Tkachuk ever does leave Ottawa, the Philadelphia Flyers would be a team he would “seriously look at.”
“People get all frustrated every time this comes up. The Flyers will be a team, when the day comes when Brady Tkachuk has opportunities to go places, the Flyers will be a team that he will seriously look at, OK, when that day comes… My understanding is is he spends a good amount of time somewhere around the Jersey Shore in the summer due to new family connections for him.”
Just click bait, but it ties in with George’s thought.
GeorgeO your optimism at the beginning of the year has faded,especially in regards to players like Tkaczuk.Is this your stance for your Sens.?
What optimism is that Sr? I’ve said consistently that keeping last year’s #23 1st Round draft pick, thereby being forced to relinquish this year’s pick, was a monumental mistake.
That’s because I have also said – on more than one occasion – that the team could fall back into the Eastern standings lower third due to the fact that – in my opinion anyway – the other teams all improved to a greater extent than did Ottawa in the off-season. and they could conceivably find themselves in lottery territory – with no 1st round pick.
What Staios did made absolutely NO sense. given the potential circumstances.
Yes, I did say that finally getting a taste of the playoffs MIGHT galvanize them into a repeat-type season … but I also made sure to mention Perron’s caution that, having done so, will only make it harder this season as teams will be ready for them.
And it’s showing.
George
If Brady gets out in the market creams will be lining up to pitch for his services including my Bruins
And no doubt the Panthers as well! As I said … I’d consider it IF the return was a very good one including, obviously, a 1st round pick, and if the team involved has more than 1 such, the highest one … unprotected.
Seems to me the problem with the Sens this year, is the tending.
Their PK is brutal, which might be because of tending, or the PK is so bad Ullmark has no chance. I haven’t watched the Sense so guessing Ullmark as his numbers aren’t good at 5 on 5 either.
He’s has been a consistently good tender over the years. So he probably figures it out?
If he does, the Sens will be fine IMO. If he doesn’t, they won’t.
No pressure!
Ray, the goaltending is certainly at or near the top of the various necessary “fundamentals” of a good team. When your duo is at or near the bottom in goalie stats in a 32-team league it has to be.
Will – can – they turn it around? They did last season when they began working their way up from about the Christmas break on, But as I’ve pointed out a couple of times, those other teams they were able to pass in doing that have ALL improved their rosters to a greater degree than has Ottawa. Eller, McDermid, Lycksell and Spence are “useful” at best (and in entirely different ways) … but hardly “needle-movers.”
So, yeah, the goaltending needs to be consistently better … but that’s not the only fundamental that must be better. The pk is abysmal, and 5 on 5 scoring is also near the bottom of the heap. You can’t have team goal differential hovering around minus 4 (currently 98-102). It must be at least +10 to +15 to be a serious playoff threat.
In order to be one of the top 3 teams in the Atlantic they’d need to get to 100 points, which means that, from this stage on, they’d have to play at a .650 pace. I’m not holding my breath on that score. Even getting to a WC slot will be difficult. A 95 point season might accomplish that, but to get there they’d need to u p their % pace from .516 to .600. That, too, is not going to happen without the 3 factors – and I mean ALL 3 – mentioned above improving significantly.
A block-buster deal MIGHT allow them to do it. However, doing nothing will accomplish just that. AND they still don’t have a 1st round pick.
I’ve thought that in the past the alleged rumours of Brady wanting out were just hot air.
But after the Hughes saga, perhaps they were premature but now perhaps, something to keep an eye on. It would be bad for fans, but Brady would bring back a lot. He wants to win….
LJ, I still believe it was just that … hot air. He definitely wants to win and I know, listening to him, that he wants to do that in Ottawa,
But I also think he’s realistic and if some GM contacted Staios with an eye-opening hard-to-refuse offer, he’d fully understand that his movement is a logical one for the team’s future. Now, mind you, he still has a full NMC clause and whether or not he’d waive that would be contingent upon the offering team.
I doubt he’d waive to go anywhere else North of the border, and even in the U.S. I don’t think he’s interested in a Utah or Seattle as examples. A chance to play with his brother would certainly grab his interest. As would places like Philadelphia, NJ, Boston and perhaps Tampa.
Look for such talk to heat up if they continue to stumble along at their current pace.
I should have also mentioned St. Louis – his home town – as a location that would grab his interest.
I don’t see any reason for BT to leave Ottawa. He’s a big fish in a small pond, loved by the fans and team, surrounded by a core of young talent.
The team has good ownership, knowledgeable fans, history and no real reason to “want” to leave.
You don’t trade a player of his calibre unless you have no way to retain him and there’s a few more years on his contract.
A headline today is the Buffalo Sabres relieving Kevyn Adams of his duties as General Manager and replacing him with Jarmo Kakalainen. Kakalainen had been hired as a Special Advisor to Adams in May after a 12-year tenure with the Blue Jackets as General Manager.
It’s hard to feel “more bad” for Buffalo Sabre fans but this did the trick. Adams was terrible but Kaka is not an upgrade. Ouch.