Ice Breaker: Preseason's over, and Carolina already looks ready for Florida

Fourteen preseason games on Saturday, and that's the end of pretend hockey. The one that matters most for Florida wasn't in Sunrise. Carolina, Tuesday's opening-night opponent, beat Nashville 6-0 and scored three times on the power play.

The Ferda Room goes up at 11 this morning.

Lightning 3, Panthers 2 (SO)

Florida's audition lineup led for 30:55 on goals from Sandis Vilmanis and Matvei Shuravin. Benjamin Rautiainen tied it on a Tampa power play late in the third, then won the shootout. Akira Schmid stopped 20 of 22. Pabs has the full recap here: /post/panthers-lightning-preseason-finale-shootout-2026-09-26

Pabs: Vilmanis scored, opened the shootout and played 20:15 like a guy who already knows where his stall is. The kids lost this one in the penalty box, and that's the fixable kind of loss.

Lind's read: Shots finished 22-22 and both goalies stopped 20. The difference was five Florida minors after the first period.

Sully's chirp: Florida held a lead for 30 minutes and 55 seconds. Then it took a tripping penalty just to see what would happen, and what happened was Rautiainen, twice.

Hurricanes 6, Predators 0

Jackson Blake had a goal and two assists, and Sebastian Aho set up two power-play goals. Five other Hurricanes scored, Andrei Svechnikov among them. Pyotr Bussi stopped all 22 shots, and Juuse Saros saw six of 26 go in.

Lind's read: Half of Carolina's goals came on the power play. Florida opens in Raleigh on Tuesday, so Saturday's five-minor habit has three days to disappear.

Oilers 4, Flames 1

Connor McDavid and Kasperi Kapanen each had a goal and an assist, and Zach Hyman scored on the power play. Devon Levi stopped 23 of 24.

Sully's chirp: The Battle of Alberta, and not one fight. I've seen more hostility at a church bake sale over the last brownie.

Senators 4, Canadiens 3 / Canadiens 4, Senators 2

The split-squad doubleheader went one each. In Ottawa, Claude Giroux had a goal and two assists, and William Eklund's power-play goal won it after Montreal erased a 3-1 hole.

In Montreal, Juraj Slafkovsky had a goal and two assists, and Sam Montembeault stopped all 14 shots he saw in relief.

Lind's read: All four Ottawa goals in the home game came on the power play. Montreal won the even-strength part 3-0 and lost anyway, which is what a parade to the box costs.

Kings 6, Ducks 2

Alex Turcotte scored twice in the third, and Mats Zuccarello had a goal and two assists. Drew Doughty had three assists in 19:14. Darcy Kuemper stopped 17 of 19. Lukas Dostal allowed six goals on 20 shots.

Sully's chirp: Dostal saw 20 shots and six went in. That's the save percentage of the guy running the dunk tank at the county fair.

Sharks 4, Golden Knights 2

Macklin Celebrini and Mason Marchment each had a goal and an assist, and Michael Misa got the insurance goal. Vegas outshot San Jose 29-16. Yaroslav Askarov stopped 27 of 29.

Lind's read: Four goals on 16 shots is a 25 percent night, and that doesn't last. Askarov's 27 saves are the part that travels.

Canucks 4, Kraken 3

Seattle led 3-2 in the third on Berkly Catton's goal. Zeev Buium tied it on the power play at 11:05, and Jake DeBrusk won it at 18:22. Kevin Lankinen stopped 25 of 28.

Sully's chirp: Seattle had a third-period lead and gave Vancouver a power play to tie it. The Kraken protect a lead like I protect a New Year's resolution.

Capitals 5, Flyers 1

Jamie Drysdale scored 31 seconds into the second period for Philadelphia. Washington answered with five straight, from Andrew Cristall, Maxim Schafer, Ethen Frank, Theodor Niederbach and Lynden Lakovic. Charlie Lindgren stopped 36 of 37.

Sully's chirp: Philadelphia fired 37 shots and scored once. Buddy, I'm begging you, the net is the big thing with the orange pipes.

Around the rest

Luke Evangelista scored twice as New Jersey beat the Islanders 4-1 and held them to 15 shots. Karel Vejmelka stopped all 25 in Utah's 2-0 win over Colorado.

Chicago beat St. Louis 3-2, with Ian Cole scoring shorthanded. Charlie Coyle had a goal and an assist in Columbus's 4-2 win at Detroit. Sidney Crosby scored in Pittsburgh's 3-1 win in Buffalo.

Three stars of the night (our picks)

1. Charlie Lindgren, Capitals: 36 saves on 37 shots, outshot by 13 and still won by four.
2. Alex Turcotte, Kings: two goals and an assist in 13:18.
3. Pyotr Bussi, Hurricanes: 22 saves for the shutout.

Lind's number of the night: 36

That's how many Philadelphia shots Lindgren stopped while Washington got outshot 37-24. The save percentage is a September curiosity. The shot gap is what the Capitals' coaches will watch on tape.

Sully's take of the morning

Look, four fights on the last night of preseason, and not one in Edmonton. Viel and Lafferty went in Sunrise, Logan Mailloux and Cole Smith in Chicago, Tyler Thorpe and Djibril Toure in Montreal. Mailloux got a bonus 10 for his trouble.

The best one was in Vancouver. Defenseman Elias Pettersson fought Ryan Winterton with the game tied late, and DeBrusk scored two minutes later. Vancouver has two Elias Petterssons, and the one who fights is the one who doesn't score. That's called division of labor.

Grade: B-plus for the night. It loses half a grade because Alberta showed up with nothing. I said what I said.

Gord's whisper

Friedman says Dylan Larkin's list is up to about eight teams, with Colorado and Washington now on it. Grade: Reported. The list got longer, not roomier, and Gord has the cap sheets here: /post/larkin-trade-list-eight-teams-capitals-avalanche-friedman-2026-09-26

Kessler's corner

Florida Gulf Coast outshot RPI 66-27 at Hertz Arena and still needed Anthony Zebley's late goal to win 3-2 in ACHA play. RPI's goalie made 63 saves, which is a story he gets to tell forever: /college/florida/game/35596

Meg's line

Wisconsin finished the St. Lawrence sweep 6-0 without Ava McNaughton. Meg has why the scoreboard is lying a little: /post/wisconsin-mcnaughton-injury-rhyah-stewart-three-peat-2026-09-26

Tonight

No NHL games tonight or Monday. The regular season opens Tuesday, and the Panthers go first, at Carolina at 5 PM ET on ESPN. Montreal at Toronto, the Rangers at Boston, Vancouver at Edmonton and Chicago at Vegas follow. The one to watch is the first one, for obvious reasons.