NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – May 6, 2019
NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – May 6, 2019
St. Louis Blues and Dallas Stars heading to Game 7, Ken Holland to accept Oilers GM job, and more in today’s NHL morning coffee headlines.
NHL.COM: The St. Louis Blues and Dallas Stars will require Game 7 to settle their second-round series. Third-period goals by Jaden Schwartz and Sammy Blais 33 seconds apart gave the Blues a 4-1 victory in Game 6 on Sunday afternoon.

An injury to Ben Bishop overshadowed the St. Louis Blues Game 6 victory over his Dallas Stars. (Photo via NHL Images)
Schwartz’s goal came with some controversy as Stars goaltender Ben Bishop was injured beforehand on a shot from Blues defenseman Colton Parayko. Bishop left the game following Blais’ goal and underwent x-rays on his left collarbone. According to Stars coach Jim Montgomery, Bishop was fine and he’s expected to start Game 7.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Blues were the better club in this one, especially their special teams. They went one-for-three on the power-play and killed off four penalties.
Bishop’s injury had some fans wondering why the play was immediately whistled down. NHL rule 8.1 indicates that can only happen when the injured player’s team gains control of the puck or if the on-ice officials believe the player’s injury is serious to merit an immediate stoppage of play. However, that raises questions over how officials determine the seriousness of an injury.
TSN: Detroit Red Wings senior VP (and former general manager) Ken Holland has reportedly accepted the position of Edmonton Oilers GM. The club is expected to officially announce Holland’s hiring later this week.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Given how quickly this story percolated over the weekend we shouldn’t be surprised over this. The Oilers are believed to have offered Holland total autonomy over all hockey decisions plus a five-year contract worth $5 million annually.
The reaction to this news was mixed among hockey fans on Twitter. Some point to the Red Wings’ many years of success during Holland’s 22-year tenure as their GM, including three Stanley Cup championships. Critics believe he inherited a strong core from his predecessors and noted the club’s decline over the past decade.
THE ATHLETIC: San Jose Sharks captain Joe Pavelski is getting closer to returning from the head injury suffered during the opening round against the Vegas Golden Knights. He’s still coping with concussion symptoms. Pavelski also doesn’t believe the major penalty assessed to Golden Knights center Cody Eakin for his injury was merited. He doesn’t feel the cross-check was malicious and that he got twisted up as he fell to the ice.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Should the Sharks advance to the Western Conference Finals, it sounds like Pavelski could return to action for that series.
SPORTSNET: After Hockey Night in Canada analyst Don Cherry chided Carolina Hurricanes fans as “front-runners” on Saturday, the club released t-shirts with “Bunch of front-running jerks” on the front.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Unless Cherry’s getting a cut of the action here, he should just stop grumbling about the Hurricanes’ regular-season postgame victory celebrations and trying to shame their newfound followers as fair-weather fans. His comments are having the opposite reaction of what he intended. The Canes are dunking on him and laughing all the way to the bank.
Michel Therrien is back in the NHL. The @NHLFlyers will announce that he will be an assistant coach to Alain Vigneault. Confirmation should come in the next few days.
— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) May 5, 2019