NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – March 28, 2026
The Red Wings move closer to a wild-card berth, injury updates, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPPING FRIDAY’S GAMES
NHL.COM: The Detroit Red Wings regained some ground in the race for a wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference by defeating the Buffalo Sabres 5-2. Alex DeBrincat had a goal and two assists, Patrick Kane scored and picked up an assist, and John Gibson made 28 saves for the 39-25-8 Red Wings (86 points), who moved to within one point of the New York Islanders for the final Eastern wild card. Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin replied for the Sabres (44-21-8), who hold first place in the Atlantic Division with 96 points.
Detroit Red Wings forward Alex DeBrincat (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Sabres missed an opportunity to take over sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference from the Carolina Hurricanes, who hold two games in hand. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot missed this game with an undisclosed injury and is listed as day-to-day. The Wings called up Michal Postava to back up Gibson.
New York Rangers rookie goalie Dylan Garand stopped 27 shots for his first NHL win as his club beat the Chicago Blackhawks 6-1. Rookie winger Adam Sykora tallied his first NHL goal, J.T. Miller had a goal and two assists, and Jonny Brodzinski tallied twice for the 29-35-9 Rangers. Nick Lardis scored for the 27-33-13 Blackhawks.
HEADLINES
SPORTSNET: The date for the 2026 NHL Draft Lottery was officially confirmed for Tuesday, May 5, 2026.
DAILY FACEOFF: Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Damon Severson suffered an upper-body injury during Thursday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens. He is listed as week-to-week.
CALGARY SUN: Flames forward Samuel Honzek has returned to practice with his teammates for the first time since suffering an upper-body collision after colliding with teammate Mikael Backlund. However, the 21-year-old will not return to action this season.
TORONTO STAR: The Maple Leafs returned forward Bo Groulx to their AHL affiliate. If he played one more game with the Leafs, he couldn’t return to the Marlies without passing through waivers. The Leafs want Groulx to take part in this year’s Calder Cup playoffs.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Groulx played well during his brief call-up. The 26-year-old center had three goals and two assists for five points in nine games, which could earn him a permanent spot with the Maple Leafs next season. He has 50 points in 52 games with the Marlies.
CBS SPORTS: The Colorado Avalanche reassigned winger Gavin Brindley to their AHL affiliate. With the Avalanche finally sporting a healthy roster, Brindley had been a recent healthy scratch. He’ll get more playing time with their farm club.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: Peter Chiarelli and Kevin Maxwell are leaving the St. Louis Blues organization. Chiarelli was their vice president of hockey operations, and Maxwell served as a pro scout.
Chiarelli is reportedly among the candidates to replace Barry Trotz as general manager of the Nashville Predators. Maxwell is returning to the Rangers in a management role.
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS: The Stars promoted Rich Peverley to assistant GM. He’d served as their director of player personnel.
The other day I mentioned the ultimate nightmare for those in the League structure would be to have 6 teams in the Eastern Conference wind up the 82-game schedule TIED in points, and wondered what the formula would be to place those teams in the proper order. So, just for the Hell of it, I Googled the question and this is the AI response:
“In the unlikely event that 6 NHL teams in the Eastern Conference finish the 82-game regular season with the exact same number of points, the NHL applies a specific, sequential tie-breaking formula to determine playoff qualification and seeding. The tie-breaking procedure is applied in the following order:
Fewer Games Played (Points Percentage): If any of the 6 teams played fewer than 82 games, they hold an advantage.
Regulation Wins (RW): The team with the highest number of wins in regulation time (excluding overtime and shootouts) wins the tie-breaker.
Regulation and Overtime Wins (ROW): If still tied, the team with the most wins excluding shootout wins wins the tie-breaker.
Total Wins (W): If still tied, the team with the highest total wins (including overtime and shootouts) wins.
Head-to-Head Record: If the teams are still tied, the points percentage earned in games against each other is used. Note: If a team has played an uneven number of games against a tie-breaker opponent, the “odd game” (the first game played in the city that hosted the extra game) is excluded from this calculation.
Goal Differential: The team with the highest overall goal differential (goals for minus goals against) across all 82 games wins.
Total Goals Scored: The team with the highest total goals for across all 82 games wins.
Important Notes for Multi-Team Ties:
When more than two clubs are tied, the points percentage in games against each other is calculated (removing “odd games” as described above) to determine the order.
Once a team is separated from the group using a tiebreaker, the process restarts for the remaining tied teams.
While theoretically possible, a 6-way tie in points and all subsequent categories would likely require a special committee ruling or a tiebreaker game(s) to resolve, though the above rules are designed to break the tie before that point.”
I see it as a lot more than “theoretical.” Right now, just 2 points separate these 6 teams: Boston – Pittsburgh 88, Columbus – NYI 87 and Ottawa – Detroit 86.
LOL. Can you just hear the screams from, for example, Red Wings fans if Detroit was a team excluded from the playoffs on the basis of THAT convoluted formula, after losing out a year ago on the basis of a tie-breaker with ONE team (Washington I think it was).
That dog’s breakfast of a tie-breaker formula would also apply to final league standings and, consequently, each team’s position in the entry draft pecking order.
And there they could conceivably be joined by a 7th team – Anaheim – currently also with 86 points. And in their case the “head-to-head” factor would be severely limited in that, being the only Western Conference team in the mix, they would have played each of the other teams just twice – if at all.
Guys like Dibrincat,Marchand and Martin St. Louis prove that smaller players can play in this league and be major contributors. Minn. always a tough team for the bruins to play against Jeremey will have to be on top of the game to win. Still would like to see Hagens up playing speaking bout which I’ll see him play tonight looking forward to that as well.
Maybe they can play a 1 day wild card game against one another, beat each other’s brains in to see who makes it? Then we can get on with it
LOL. I’m sure that would come up as one solution.