NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – October 23, 2026
Oilers captain Connor McDavid has a historic game, Bruins stars David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy have four-point performances, Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki is sidelined with an injury, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPPING THURSDAY’S GAMES
NHL.COM: Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl each had five points (two goals, three assists), and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored the winning goal in a shootout to nip the Carolina Hurricanes 6-5. Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and an assist in regulation for the 8-1-1 Oilers, who moved into first place in the Western Conference with 17 points. This was Nugent-Hopkins’ first game since suffering a lower-body injury during a pre-game skate on Sept. 29.
Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid (NHL Images)
Seth Jarvis scored for the Hurricanes in his return from offseason shoulder surgery, and Sebastian Aho had a goal and an assist. The Hurricanes (8-2-2) picked up a point and hold first place in the overall standings with 18 points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: It was an historic game for McDavid. His league-leading 31 points made him the fourth player in league history to reach the 30-point plateau in his first 10 games of the season. He’s the first player in 31 years to do so, joining Hall of Famers Mike Bossy, Wayne Gretzky, and Mario Lemieux. Bossy and Gretzky each did it once (1984-85), while Lemieux did it three times in 1988-89, 1992-93, and 1995-96.
McDavid, Draisaitl, and teammate Evan Bouchard hold the top three spots among the NHL scoring leaders. Draisaitl has 21 points while Bouchard has 19.
Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm suffered an upper-body injury during this contest. He will be sidelined for at least one week.
Boston Bruins goaltender Michael DiPietro made 28 saves for his first NHL shutout in a 6-0 drubbing of the Nashville Predators. David Pastrnak scored two goals and picked up two assists, and Charlie McAvoy collected four assists for the Bruins (8-2-1), who hold first place in the Atlantic Division with 17 points. Justus Annunen made 25 saves for the Predators, who dropped to 3-3-3.
Dallas Stars center Roope Hintz tallied two goals, including the winner in overtime, to lift his club over the Winnipeg Jets 3-2. Wyatt Johnson scored his first of the season and picked up an assist for the 6-3-1 Stars. Stuart Skinner kicked out 35 shots while Gabriel Vilardi and Kyle Connor replied for the Jets (4-3-3).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: TSN’s Darren Dreger reports the Jets could reach an agreement with goaltender Connor Hellebuyck to delay the latter’s physical until after the Heritage Classic with the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday. Hellebuyck is slated to return to the Jets on Friday after the club suspended him without pay for skipping training camp. Their focus remains on trying to move the three-time Vezina Trophy winner, who went public with his trade request in August.
The Pittsburgh Penguins blanked the Florida Panthers 4-0. Arturs Silovs made 26 saves for the shutout while teammate Nick Robertson scored two goals for the Penguins (4-6-1), snapping a four-game losing skid. Rookie goalie Cooper Black made 17 saves in his NHL debut with the 5-4-2 Panthers.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The 6’9” Black became the tallest goaltender to start a game in NHL history. The league’s department of player safety fined Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk and Ottawa Senators forward Nick Cousins for their actions in a scrum during the Senators’ 5-1 win over the Panthers on Wednesday.
Before this game, Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas provided an update on Ben Kindel, saying the 19-year-old winger has returned to Pittsburgh.
Kindel suffered a vasovagal episode as the club was departing Salt Lake City on their charter flight on Tuesday, losing consciousness following a sharp drop in heart rate and blood pressure. The plane returned to the airport, where an ambulance transported Kindel to hospital for observation.
“We will obviously follow strict guidelines to ensure a safe return to training and play for Ben,” Dubas said. “That’s our primary goal and paramount to his health and future, so that’s how we will handle it.”
St. Louis Blues defenseman Justin Barron had his first four-point game (one goal, three assists) in a 6-2 upset of the Vegas Golden Knights. Dylan Holloway scored twice and picked up an assist, and Joel Hofer made 27 saves for the Blues, who improved to 5-4-1. Brett Howden and Jack Eichel scored for the 8-4-0 Golden Knights.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Golden Knights winger Mitch Marner missed this game to be with his wife as she gave birth to their second child.
A last-minute goal by Troy Stecher lifted the Toronto Maple Leafs over the New York Rangers 5-4. Brandon Duhaime had a goal and two assists for the Maple Leafs (6-4-2). Adam Fox had four assists for the 7-4-1 Rangers.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Before the game, the Maple Leafs placed defenseman Marshall Rifai (lower body) on injured reserve. The Rangers announced the signing of free-agent center Luke Glendening to a one-year prorated contract.
A 41-save performance by goalie Yaroslav Askarov powered the San Jose Sharks to a 6-2 win over the Ottawa Senators. Collin Graf and Jacob Trouba each had a goal and an assist for the 6-4-2 Sharks. Tim Stutzle and Jordan Spence replied for the Senators (7-4-0).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Before the game, the Senators announced that goalie Linus Ullmark (lower body) was placed on injured reserve. He is expected to miss one to two weeks. Sharks winger Igor Chernyshov left this game in the first period with an injured left arm and is expected to be out long term.
The New Jersey Devils defeated the Anaheim Ducks 4-1. Arseny Gritsyuk scored to extend his goal streak to four games while Jesper Bratt and Jack Hughes each had two points for the 6-4-0 Devils. Tim Washe scored for the Ducks (4-6-0) as their losing skid reached five games.
After blowing a 2-0 lead, the Los Angeles Kings beat the New York Islanders 3-2 on an overtime goal by Brandt Clarke. Darcy Kuemper made 41 saves, and Artemi Panarin tallied twice for the 2-4-2 Kings. Victor Eklund and Matthew Schaefer scored for the Islanders (5-3-2).
A 36-save performance by Devin Cooley enabled the Calgary Flames to hold off the Minnesota Wild by a score of 2-1. Aydar Suniev and Joel Farabee scored for the 3-6-0 Flames, and Michael McCarron tallied for the Wild (6-3-2).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Wild captain Jared Spurgeon returned to action after missing four games with an upper-body injury.
The Seattle Kraken recovered from blowing a 3-1 lead for a 5-3 victory over the Utah Mammoth. Mackie Samoskevich snapped a 3-3 tie while Jordan Eberle and Brandon Montour each had a goal and an assist for the 7-3-1 Kraken. Logan Cooley scored two goals for the Mammoth (7-4-0), who cling to first place in the Central Division with 14 points.
Lucas Raymond had two goals and an assist to lead the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks. Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and Viktor Arvidsson had two assists for the Red Wings (4-3-3). Jonathan Lekkerimaki had a goal and an assist for the 2-9-1 Canucks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Red Wings goalie John Gibson left this game after the second period with an upper-body injury.
IN OTHER NEWS…
THE MONTREAL GAZETTE: Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki is out two-to-four weeks with an injured hand. The 27-year-old center suffered the injury during Tuesday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This is a big blow to the Canadiens, who are off to an underwhelming 4-3-2 start to this season. Suzuki is their first-line center and their reigning Selke Trophy winner, playing a strong role on their special teams. It will take a strong team effort to offset his absence, prompting speculation over whether they’ll pursue a center in the trade market.
NEW YORK POST: Former NHL forward Ron Duguay passed away on Thursday after a battle with colon cancer. He was 69.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: A fast-skating scoring forward with flowing locks, Duguay became a popular star with the Rangers from 1977-78 to 1982-83. He also spent three seasons with the Detroit Red Wings, two with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and two with the Los Angeles Kings, retiring at the end of the 1988-89 season.
Duguay scored 274 goals and 346 assists for 620 points in 864 regular-season games, and 31 goals and 53 points in 89 playoff contests.
My condolences to Duguay’s family, friends, former teammates, and the Rangers’ organization.
As I posted yesterday, more often than not a team will follow a highly-emotional win where they dominated in all aspects of the game, with one where they are … let’s just say … not as “dedicated” to sound positional play, coupled with less-than-stellar goaltending.
Oh, they generated 43 shots on Askarov in the 6-2 loss (2 were empty-netters) – who was clearly the star of the game – but repeated defensive breakdowns and poor special teams play (such as relinquishing a shorthanded goal and a goal right after a power play expired), and Ersson giving up 4 on 26 shots, did them in.
I suppose, in fairness … and human nature being what it is … that maintaining the kind of emotion and attention to detail that they did in the win over Florida the night before in the hlghly-charged “Brady Returns” confrontation, is not as easy as it sounds.
It could have been worse. At least they Sens didn’t lose 4-0 to the Pens. LOL
There is that, KevJam 🙂
I still even to this day think Bobby Orr was the greatest nhl player of all time. But this Mcdavid hopefully no injuries this guy is something special. If he doesn’t go down as one of the greatest he’ll be awfully close to the top. He’s a scoring machine. Very impressed with this bruins team The scoring is so evenly spread Poitras, Lohrei, Dipietro, Pasta, Brunet
Don’t mess with this lineup. Excited to see what they can do Saturday and against The canes is it Tuesday. They just might have the best one two punch in Goalies in the NHL.
Bobby Orr is defiantly in the conversation for the greatest. It’s to bad his career was cut short because of his knees.
IMO one guy who doesn’t get talked about in these conversations because of a shorten career is Mike Bossy. IMO he is the greatest goal scorer in NHL history. Who knows what his numbers would have been with at least 5 more years of a healthy career.
I was curious so I just did the math. Mike Bossy only played 752 regular season NHL games and scored 553 regular season goals. That’s an average if .735 goals a game. Times that by the number of regular season games that Ovechkin has played, 1592, that equals 1170 goals. WOW!!!
With you on Bobby Orr.
I know it’s way too early but Bostons balanced scoring has been a pleasant surprise. Another factor is that other than Mcavoys 6 game suspension this team has been unscathed. Hope I don’t t jinx them. Most other teams have absorbed many injuries to key players. Let s hope the Hellebuck logjam gets settled soon!
That game was a bit of a dud in person George. I had got the tickets to see Celebrinni…he was pretty invisible honestly. His highlight was taking a penalty. To all the naysayers about Trouba and Nurse, they didn’t look half bad. Nurse “at times” can be a bit of a pylon but he hits hard and takes up a lot of space.
Any trade….that can be made for scoring help HAS to include Yakemchuk. The kid is a dud. Every time he’s on the ice some kinda of negative thing occurs. Bad hockey ju ju.
The Oilers vs Canes game was a real treat last night. It had the feel of a game you’d expect in the spring not game 10 of the reg season. It was one of those games you really didnt want to see end.
The 6 to 5 score would suggest a high risk, high reward game or a game with suspect goaltending but it was anything but. It was a tightly checked game with the smallest mistakes by either team ending up in net.
Both teams came to play in this one and both obviously tried to make a statement.
What fun, glad i have the day off today which allowed me to watch it last night.
Both goalies made some huge saves and you can’t blame the goalies for any of the goals they let in. In fact it was Levi who kept the Oilers in the game in the second. Like Louie DeBrusk said ” that was probably the worst period the Oilers have played all season.” Which was followed up by probably the best period the Oilers have played this season.
It was definitely a fun game to watch.