NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – April 26, 2026
The Hurricanes eliminate the Senators, the Penguins stave off elimination, the Wild tie their series with the Stars, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPPING SATURDAY’S ACTION
NHL.COM: The Carolina Hurricanes advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs after defeating the Ottawa Senators 4-2 to sweep their best-of-seven series. Logan Stankoven scored the go-ahead goal in the third period, Sebastian Aho tallied twice, and Frederik Andersen made 25 saves for the Hurricanes. Drake Batherson and Dylan Cozens replied for the Senators, who got a 26-save performance from goalie Linus Ullmark.
Carolina Hurricanes forward Logan Stankoven (NHL Images)
The Hurricanes await the winner of the Pittsburgh Penguins-Philadelphia Flyers series.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This game was another close-checking affair, but both clubs ramped up the physical play. The flashpoint was a devastating (but clean) hit by Senators defenseman Tyler Kleven on Hurricanes blueliner Alexander Nikitin, knocking the latter out of the game with a suspected concussion.
The Senators gave everything they had to avoid elimination. Ullmark silenced his critics with his outstanding play while the injury-depleted blueline did its best despite the absence of Jake Sanderson and Artem Zub. However, their offense struggled against Andersen’s solid goaltending and the Hurricanes’ suffocating defense. Team captain Brady Tkachuk was a physical presence in this game, but was held scoreless throughout this series.
Carolina’s second line of Stankoven, Tayler Hall, and Jackson Blake was a factor in this game and throughout this series. Stankoven was the star of this series with four goals, including three game-openers. The Hurricanes got the win without winger Nikolaj Ehlers, who missed this game with a lower-body injury.
Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist as his club avoided elimination with a 4-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. Kris Letang netted the game winner, Rickard Rakell also had a goal and an assist, and Arturs Silovs stopped 28 shots in his series debut for the Penguins. Denver Barkey and Travis Konecny replied for the Flyers, who hold a 3-1 lead in this best-of-seven series. Game 5 is in Pittsburgh on Monday at 7 pm ET.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Crosby finally broke through offensively after being held to an assist through the first three games. The Penguins still had their issues defensively, but were bailed out by Silovs, whose performance in this game should earn him the start in Game 5.
An overtime goal by Matt Boldy lifted the Minnesota Wild to a 3-2 win over the Dallas Stars, tying their first-round series at two games apiece. Brock Faber had a goal and an assist while Jesper Wallstedt kicked out 43 shots for the Wild. Jason Robertson and Miro Heiskanen scored, Matt Duchene and Mikko Rantanen collected two assists each, and Jake Oettinger stopped 40 shots for the Stars. This series returns to Dallas for Game 5 on Tuesday at 8 pm ET.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Wild winger Mats Zuccarello missed his third straight game in this series with an upper-body injury. Stars defenseman Nils Lundkvist left this game in the second period after being struck in the face by the skate blade of Wild forward Michael McCarron. Following the game, Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said Lundkvist suffered a deep facial cut. He will be reexamined in Dallas.
HEADLINES
MONTREAL HOCKEY NOW: Marc Dumont listed his top-three reasons why the Canadiens hold a 2-1 lead in their first-round series with the Tampa Bay Lightning. They include high-danger scoring chances and the Canadiens’ secondary scoring.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis isn’t concerned over the lack of scoring from first-line forwards Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. He pointed out that they’re always a big part of the club’s success, whether they’re on the scoresheet or not. “They’re going to be fine,” St. Louis said.
EDMONTON JOURNAL: The Oilers have struggled against the Anaheim Ducks in their first-round series, which the Ducks lead two games to one. Their top players have been invisible, they’ve given up 13 goals in their last two games, goaltender Connor Ingram has a save percentage of .849, and their penalty killing is the worst among the 16 playoff clubs.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: As the headline suggests, the Oilers must find a way to address these issues, or this will be a short series.
NHL.COM: The Buffalo Sabres are shaking up their power play ahead of Game 4 of their series with the Boston Bruins, which is Sunday at 2 pm ET. They’re hoping the addition of Noah Ostlund to their top unit will help them snap a 0-for-36 funk with the man advantage.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: The Bruins are making a change to their third line, replacing rookie James Hagens with winger Lukas Reichel. Hagens struggled with the Sabres’ physical play through the previous two games.
THE DENVER POST: Colorado Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson is considered unlikely to play in Game 4 on Sunday against the Los Angeles Kings. Manson suffered an upper-body injury in Game 3 of this series, in which the Avalanche holds a 3-0 lead.
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL: The Vegas Golden Knights need their top players to get going if they’re to overcome a 2-1 series deficit to the Utah Mammoth. Team captain Mark Stone has scored two power-play goals but none at even strength. Ivan Barbashev has two, but one was an empty-netter. Jack Eichel has one goal.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Mitch Marner has two assists, and Tomas Hertl has one. Puck-moving defensemen Shea Theodore and Rasmus Andersson have no points through three games.
Meanwhile, the Mammoth are getting production from their best players, including Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley, who each have two goals and an assist, while winger Lawson Crouse has two goals.
4 and done. Many Ottawa fans were expecting better than that IF they had received even decent goaltending.
Well, they got EXCELLENT goaltending, but despite that, couldn’t manage one win. Going 1 for 21 on the pp and virtually nothing in the way of offence from top scorers Stutzle, Tkachuk, Cozens and Pinto will certainly be a focus of off-season analysis, as will forwards Foegele and Zetterlund and D Spence who virtually disappeared in the tough going. And let’s be honest – even though the games were close, Carolina showed why they were a close second overall to Colorado over 82 games. They were the better team where and when it counted.
On the bright side (if a bright side can be found in such an otherwise bleak result), Yakemchuk not only picked up 2 points in his first playoff game ever, he also handled himself well in the two areas in which there had been some concern – puck handling in his own end and his skating over 20 minutes of ice-time. Matinpalo also showed (again) that he can be among the team’s top 2 RD and with Zub (whose absence along with Sanderson was a killer) back to start the season, moves to strengthen the right side might take a bit of a back seat to instead looking to improve the scoring at RW. Which, after Batherson, is essentially non-existent.
Now – let’s go Habs!
Brady still looked very dedicated to his team in the presser afterwards.
At least an Ottawa team won over one from Toronto as the Charge of the PWHL shut-out the Sceptres 3-0 in a winner-take-all confrontation in front of a sold-out 8,500 at the downtown arena to clinch the 4th playoff spot in the final seasonal game.
Ottawa is in – Toronto is out (for the first time in the short PWHL history).
Worth noting too that there were close to 27,000 fans taking in 2 games yesterday in this “backwater” (to some snobs) location.
Now the Charge will move to the Senators’ arena for the playoffs.
George O, I was rooting for them; they looked a little reluctant offensively when around the net. Stutzle and chabot come to mind? Giroux kept it simple trying to make plays to get it to the net. Carolina is a pain to play against and you don’t have time to hold onto the puck for the perfect play. They left it all out there; that was a wild game
That sucker punch by Greig on Walker wasn’t a very nice thing to do to someone who was engaged with another player.
He’ll answer for that next season, me thinks.
Shoreorrpark, he definitely deserved a penalty for that … and a possible suspension ,,,, it was essentially a gutless thing to do.
But – and while not making excuses for Greig – that’s the type of thing that almost always follows the equally-gutless head shot on Sanderson by Hall which knocked Ottawa’s top LD out of the series the game before, for which he received a minor penalty. Emotions run high in the NHL and if you “live by the sword ….” well, s&#t almost always follows – particularly galvanized even more when two teams are playing games against each other in short order.