Morning Coffee: New York Rangers F Mika Zibanejad's breakout game finally happens

Domenic Padula (@Dom_Padula)

If you’re a fantasy hockey manager who held on to Mika Zibanejad all year and were finally rewarded on Wednesday night, congratulations to you.

On the flip side, if like me you sold Zibanejad at some point before last night’s breakout game, it was extremely difficult to watch.

Zibanejad recorded more points in one period last night than he did during his entire time on my fantasy team this season.

Zibanejad tied an NHL record with six points in the second period of the New York Rangers’ 9-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.

He had three points in his first 15 games of the season on my fantasy squad.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the guy I’m playing this week also happened to pick up Alexander Georgiev just in time for a 26-save shutout.

Here is the Morning Coffee for Thursday March 18, 2021.

Oilers End Flames Win Streak

There wasn’t much that could have improved my mood after watching Zibanejad go off for another team.

The fact that Darnell Nurse was able to continue his excellent start to the season helped.

Nurse had a goal and an assist as the Edmonton Oilers (+105) beat the Calgary Flames 7-3.

For those who missed it, Nurse has produced at a 56-point pace for an 82-game season and is a top-10 defenceman in fantasy leagues that count PIM.

Meanwhile, Tyson Barrie became just the third Oilers’ defenceman in the last 20 years to collect four points in a regular-season game.

Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl had three points each in the win.

That tandem is now comfortably atop the NHL scoring race once again with 56 and 49 points respectively. Patrick Kane is third in the scoring race with 42 points.

The loss was Calgary’s first in four games under head coach Darryl Sutter.

It was also the first time in four games that the Flames gave up more than three goals.

Ehlers Scores OT Winner Versus Habs

Nikolaj Ehlers scored the overtime winner for the Winnipeg Jets (-110) in a 4-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens.

Kyle Connor scored twice for the Jets. Pierre-Luc Dubois had three assists in the win.

Winnipeg ended up as a small favourite for the first time in seven games. The Jets almost let this one get away from them after allowing the Habs to come back from two goals down in the third period to force the extra frame.

With the win, the Jets are now two points back of the Toronto Maple Leafs for first place in the North Division with a game in hand.

The Maple Leafs have slipped from a -400 favourite to win the division to -240 odds as of this morning.

On the flip side, Winnipeg has moved from +400 to +300 to finish in first place in the division.

Gaudette Delivers In Canucks Shootout Win

Adam Gaudette scored the lone goal in the shootout as the Vancouver Canucks (-160) beat the Ottawa Senators 3-2.

Vancouver improved to 5-0 against the Senators this season.

The Canucks are now 7-2-0 in the month of March.

Thatcher Demko’s play is the biggest reason for Vancouver’s recent turnaround.

Demko, who turned aside 30 of the 32 shots he faced in the win over Ottawa, has allowed two goals or fewer in eight of his past nine starts.

The 25-year-old netminder is 6-1-0 with a 1.95 goals-against average and a .946 save percentage over the past two weeks.

The Canucks are headed to Montreal for back-to-back games this weekend.

Vancouver is 2-5-0 against the Habs this season and will need another strong performance from Demko to win at least one of those next two games. 

Raptors Season-High Slide Continues

NBA underdogs went 7-3 straight up on Wednesday night.

The Detroit Pistons (+210) were one of those seven teams that pulled off an upset in a 116-112 win over the Toronto Raptors.

Despite a career-high 43 points from Norm Powell, Toronto couldn’t avoid a season-high sixth straight loss.

Pascal Siakam played 30 minutes and had 13 points on 3- of-11 shooting from the field in his return. Fred VanVleet played 32 minutes and had just 12 points while going 2 of 13 from the field.

The Raptors will be in tough to end their slide in their next game against the Western Conference-leading Utah Jazz on Friday night.

After that, they get the Cleveland Cavaliers and Houston Rockets on back-to-back nights.