Ice Breaker: Primeau steals one, Isles erase three, Stenberg arrives

Ten preseason games on a Tuesday. The Panthers dressed the real lineup in Raleigh, outshot a Carolina farm team 33-26, and lost to a backup goalie and two backhands. Out west, an 18-year-old made his Sharks debut and played 22 minutes. It's September, so everybody relax.

The games

Hurricanes 3, Panthers 2 (SO)

Brady Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov scored 18 seconds apart in the first, then the goals dried up. Cayden Primeau came on at the midway mark and stopped all 20 shots he saw, plus Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe in the shootout. Bradly Nadeau and Felix Unger Sorum won it on backhands.

Tkachuk sat the third as a precaution, and Paul Maurice called it "not an injury." Full recap with the postgame here: /post/panthers-hurricanes-preseason-shootout-loss-2026-09-22.

Lind's read: 33 shots, four power plays, two goals. That's a finishing problem, not a process problem, and the process is what you grade in September.

Sully's chirp: Two backhands in a shootout, which is great, tremendous. Barkov had a goal and a helper in 18 minutes, so the captain's fine. Bennett and Verhaeghe got stopped and owe the room a coffee.

Islanders 4, Rangers 3

The Rangers led 3-0 at the Garden seven minutes into the second. Then the Islanders scored four straight, three on the power play.

Matias Maccelli had two of those, including the winner at 9:29 of the third, and Matthew Schaefer had a goal and two assists. Semyon Varlamov relieved Ilya Sorokin and stopped all 10 shots in his first NHL game since November 2024.

Lind's read: Three power-play goals with Schaefer at the point against a Rangers team that couldn't stay out of the box. The Rangers handed that one over two minutes at a time.

Red Wings 7, Penguins 4

Nick Robertson opened it short-handed for Pittsburgh, and then Detroit scored seven of the next ten. Michael Brandsegg-Nygård scored twice and Anton Johansson set up four from the blue line. The Ruck twins debuted on one line and combined for three assists.

Sully's chirp: Arturs Silovs saw 23 shots and let in seven, and I've seen tighter defense in a Wednesday-night beer league. Preseason, folks.

Predators 3, Lightning 2 (OT)

Jeffrey Viel scored twice to put Tampa Bay up 2-0 midway through the third. Matthew Wood answered twice in four minutes, the tying goal at 17:41, and Felix Nilsson ended it at 2:33 of overtime. Wood took first star.

Lind's read: A 2-0 lead with 15 minutes left is a closeout problem for the Lightning kids, and that's what these games are for. Wood's two goals in 4:11 moves a guy up a depth chart.

Golden Knights 2, Sharks 1 (SO)

Nothing through two, then Michael Misa scored on the power play off a feed from Ivar Stenberg, the No. 2 pick making his debut. Alexander Holtz tied it four minutes later. Both goalies took the first two stars, and Braeden Bowman won the shootout for Vegas.

Sully's chirp: The kid was 18 years old, played 22 minutes, set up the only goal and scored in the shootout. One of the best players in the league. I don't want to hear it. Fine. One of the best players in San Jose.

The rest

Bruins 5, Flyers 1: Michael Eyssimont scored the first and last goals, and Boston scored four straight in the third. Dan Vladar left in the first with an upper-body injury. Sabres 5, Blue Jackets 1: Noah Ostlund scored twice in 28 seconds, eight days after signing an eight-year, $52.8 million extension.

Mammoth 6, Kings 3: Anders Lee scored twice and Utah threw 35 shots at the Kings in a game with two fights. Oilers 2, Jets 1 (OT): Viljami Marjala won it at 1:26 off a Zach Hyman pass. Flames 3, Canucks 1: Calgary scored three in four minutes, and Vancouver managed nine shots all night.

Three stars of the night

Our picks, not the league's. First star: Cayden Primeau, Carolina, 20 saves on 20 shots plus two in the shootout against Florida's real lineup.

Second star: Matias Maccelli, Islanders, two power-play goals and an assist to erase a 3-0 hole.

Third star: Ivar Stenberg, San Jose, an assist and a shootout goal in his first NHL game.

Lind's number of the night

22:17. That's Stenberg's ice time in his debut, per NHL.com's status report, with four shots, an assist and a shootout goal. Ryan Warsofsky told NHL.com "the game slowed down for him." Coaches don't play an 18-year-old 22 minutes in his first exhibition unless they've already decided something.

Sully's take of the morning

Fight of the night goes to Bokondji Imama, the new guy who picked Bryce Montgomery at 2:32 of the first and dropped them, which is a job interview.

Mayfield and Greentree went at the Garden, and Utah had two, including Peeke and Byfield, which earned Byfield a misconduct. Four tilts on a Tuesday in September, which means the league is fine. Imama's night: A. The Panthers' 0-for-4 power play gets the grade I save for the Leafs.

Tonight

Four games, no Panthers. Florida practices in Fort Lauderdale this afternoon, and the only question is whether Brady Tkachuk is on the ice.

The Leafs and Senators play a split-squad doubleheader at 7 p.m. ET, Toronto on SN1 and Ottawa on NHL Network. Minnesota visits Dallas at 8 without Matt Duchene, who's on maintenance days, and the Kings visit Anaheim at 10.

The Panthers are back Thursday in Tampa at 7 p.m. ET.