Ice Breaker: Kaprizov crashes Sunrise, Nylander lights up Denver
Florida's power play goes 0-for-5 in the home opener, Hagel takes a hat trick off the Islanders and Montreal wins a 1-0 shootout.
Kirill Kaprizov crashed the Panthers' home opener. Three goals, a sellout crowd sent home quiet, and a Florida power play that is now an emergency. Elsewhere, William Nylander put up five points in Denver and Brandon Hagel took a hat trick off Long Island.
Wild 4, Panthers 1
Matt Boldy scored 53 seconds in, Kaprizov added a power-play goal and an even-strength one, then sealed the hat trick into an empty net. Matthew Tkachuk scored Florida's only goal. Jesper Wallstedt stopped 29 of 30.
Pabs: Pabs has the full recap with the three things from Sunrise. His read: the cats lost the dot, lost the special-teams battle and never got the building back after that first minute.
Lind's read: Florida went 0-for-5 on the power play and is 1-for-28 on the season by our count. Five games is a small sample, but that's not a slump. It's a missing unit.
Sully's chirp: Kaprizov scored three on Florida's opening night in front of 19,856 people. Somebody should have told him it was a party, not a pickup game.
Maple Leafs 6, Avalanche 3
Nathan MacKinnon scored twice in the first period and Colorado led 2-1. Then Toronto scored five of the last six. Nylander had two goals and three assists, Auston Matthews had two and two, and Easton Cowan scored the winner. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30 of 33.
Sully's chirp: The Leafs beat the Avalanche by three in October. Somebody check on the parade permit office, the phones must be ringing.
Lightning 5, Islanders 3
Hagel scored three times and added an assist, and Jake Guentzel scored twice, once on the power play. The Islanders got goals from Tony DeAngelo, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Brayden Schenn, but Andrei Vasilevskiy held on with 20 saves.
Lind's read: Hagel played 21:30 and put six shots on goal. Nikita Kucherov added two assists and has a point in all five games by our count.
Canadiens 1, Red Wings 0 (SO)
Sixty-five minutes, zero goals. Jacob Fowler and Daniil Tarasov both stopped all 30 shots, and Zachary Bolduc scored the only goal of the shootout.
Sully's chirp: Two goalies, sixty saves, no goals. Somebody tell both benches the net is the big red thing.
Hurricanes 5, Blackhawks 2
Carolina scored three times in the first 6:05 of the second period, including a shorthanded goal from Sebastian Aho. Jackson Blake had the winner and an assist. Spencer Knight faced 39 shots.
Lind's read: Carolina outshot Chicago 39-26 and plays again tonight in Philadelphia, on no rest.
Golden Knights 2, Kings 1 (OT)
Mitch Marner won it in overtime and added an assist. Trevor Connelly scored the other Vegas goal, and Artemi Panarin scored for Los Angeles. Carter Hart stopped 26 of 27.
Sully's chirp: Mitch Marner, overtime winner, Vegas sweater. Somewhere in Toronto, a radio host just dropped his double-double.
Oilers 3, Sharks 1
Mattias Ekholm, Vasily Podkolzin and Alex Formenton scored, and Connor McDavid set up the winner. Macklin Celebrini scored late for San Jose.
Lind's read: McDavid has 13 points in five games by our count.
Devils 4, Canucks 1
Nico Hischier scored twice on the power play, and New Jersey scored three times with the man advantage. Jake Allen stopped 20 of 21.
Bruins 5, Flyers 1
Fraser Minten had a goal and two assists and still found time for 12 penalty minutes. Jeremy Swayman faced only 15 shots.
Sully's chirp: Minten had three points and twelve minutes in the box. That's a full Bruins résumé in one night.
The rest: Utah beat Buffalo 4-1 with two power-play goals. Jimmy Snuggerud scored twice as St. Louis beat Columbus 5-3. Ryan Poehling had the winner in Anaheim's 4-2 win in Calgary.
Ottawa beat Nashville 3-2 in a shootout after Drake Batherson tied it late. Pittsburgh beat Dallas 2-1 in a shootout, even after Tyler Seguin tied it with 30 seconds left.
Three stars of the night
- William Nylander, TOR — two goals, three assists in Denver.
- Brandon Hagel, TBL — hat trick and an assist on Long Island.
- Kirill Kaprizov, MIN — three goals and an assist in Sunrise.
EDGE of the night
One season-best mark fell last night. Top speed: Kasperi Kapanen, EDM, 24.1 mph.
By our count
Twelve skaters carry five-game point streaks, including Kucherov, Aho, Blake, McDavid and Quinn Hughes. Tkachuk's goal extended his point streak to four games.
Lind's number of the night
1-for-28. That's Florida's power play through five games, by our count. The penalty kill is at 77.3 percent, so the special-teams math is running backward at both ends.
Sully's take of the morning
Sam Reinhart has zero points through five games while playing 21.6 minutes a night, by our count. Look, I'm not worried. I'm just saying Kaprizov scored more in one night than Reinhart has all season, and the season is two weeks old. Buddy, I'm begging you, the net hasn't moved since last spring.
Kessler's corner
Sacred Heart beat Penn State 6-3, and Michigan put seven on Alaska Anchorage.
Pabs's Florida line
FGCU edged Lindenwood 4-3 in an M2 game, a good Saturday for the Eagles. Box score.
Meg's line
Ohio State beat Wisconsin 5-3 and is 6-0-0. Colgate stayed perfect at 4-0-0 with a 2-1 win over St. Cloud State, and Providence beat Boston College 3-2 in overtime.
Tonight
A three-game Sunday and no Panthers. Seattle visits Washington at 5 PM ET, Vancouver plays at the Rangers at 6 PM, and Carolina visits Philadelphia at 7 PM on NHL Network. Watch Carolina: both the Hurricanes and the Canucks are on the second night of a back-to-back.
