Ice Breaker: Hellebuyck wins in Dallas, Florida puts five on Winnipeg
Fowler stops all 46 in St. Louis, the Canucks erase a 5-2 hole in Anaheim, and Matthew Tkachuk piles up four assists.
Connor Hellebuyck finally put on the Devils sweater for real, and Dallas got 18 shots on him. New Jersey won 5-1. The same night, the Panthers hung five on the Jets, the team that traded him. Pabs made the case yesterday that Zito was right to keep Lundell instead.
The games
Panthers 5, Jets 1
Florida's power play went 3-for-5, and it was 3-0 just 10:18 in. Carter Verhaeghe scored twice on the power play, Niko Mikkola slipped one in between, and Sam Reinhart and Brady Tkachuk finished it. Akira Schmid stopped 24 of 25. Only Adam Lowry's shorthanded goal got by him.
Pabs has the full recap.
Pabs: That's how you close a road trip. The Tkachuk brothers combined for seven points on one sheet, and the power play finally played like it had somewhere to be.
Lind's read: Matthew Tkachuk had four assists in 16:45, two of them on the power play. Seth Jones added three more in 25:02, and Florida's power play sits at 23 percent on the season per NHL data.
Sully's chirp: Mark Scheifele played 20:11 with three shots and no points. That's four straight pointless games by our count. Buddy, I'm begging you, score one. The Jets traded their goalie, not the net.
Devils 5, Stars 1
Hellebuyck made 17 saves in his first start for New Jersey. Nico Hischier scored twice, and Jesper Boqvist, Luke Hughes and Jack Hughes added the rest. Dallas never got a power play.
Lind's read: Eighteen shots and zero power-play chances is about as soft a debut as a franchise goalie gets. New Jersey has won four straight.
Hurricanes 2, Bruins 1
Pavel Zacha scored on the power play 91 seconds in. Jackson Blake tied it late in the first and Sebastian Aho won it at 10:19 of the third.
Pyotr Kochetkov made 14 saves and is 8-0 to start the season. Nicolas Deslauriers fought Tanner Jeannot and took the third star without a point.
Sully's chirp: Fifteen shots in 60 minutes against Carolina. Kochetkov could've worked this one with the Sunday crossword on his blocker.
Canucks 6, Ducks 5 (OT)
Vancouver trailed 5-2 with 7:37 left and won. Jonathan Lekkerimäki scored twice in 49 seconds to tie it, and Filip Hronek ended it on the power play at 4:49 of overtime. It snapped a 10-game slide.
Lind's read: Vancouver went 1-for-7 on the power play, and the one was the winner. A penalty kill at 63.8 percent per NHL data means this team needs six goals some nights.
Canadiens 2, Blues 0
Jacob Fowler stopped all 46 shots, a career high. Zachary Bolduc and Florian Xhekaj scored, and Mike Matheson set up both. Montreal has won three straight.
Sully's chirp: The Blues outshot Montreal 46-20 and lost 2-0. That's not a hockey game. That's a guy feeding quarters into a claw machine.
Blue Jackets 4, Flyers 3 (OT)
Columbus scored three times in 2:46 of the first, then watched Philadelphia tie it on Jamie Drysdale's goal with 11 seconds left. Kent Johnson won it at 2:22 of overtime, his second goal of the night.
Lind's read: The Flyers outshot Columbus 31-15. Cam Talbot's 28 saves are the only reason a blown three-goal lead still paid two points.
Wild 3, Mammoth 1
Joel Eriksson Ek and Kirill Kaprizov scored on the power play, and Jesper Wallstedt made 26 saves. Minnesota has won three straight. The teams combined for 52 penalty minutes.
Sully's chirp: Fifty-two penalty minutes between these two. That's not a rivalry yet, that's a parking-lot argument with a scoreboard.
Islanders 4, Predators 3 (SO)
New York led 3-0 early in the second, and Nashville tied it with three straight. Kyle Palmieri won the shootout, and Semyon Varlamov got his first NHL win since 2024.
Lind's read: Nashville has five overtime or shootout losses in 12 games by our count. That's five points banked and five more left on the table.
Golden Knights 4, Senators 1
Braeden Bowman's power-play goal late in the second held until Shane Pinto tied it on the power play 34 seconds into the third. Raphael Lavoie broke the tie at 8:01, his first NHL goal, and Adin Hill made 25 saves.
Sully's chirp: Vegas blocked 24 shots. Ottawa blocked six. The Senators treated the shooting lanes like the Strip: walk right through, nobody stops you.
Sabres 2, Sharks 0
Colten Ellis made 23 saves for the shutout, and Olen Zellweger's goal early in the second held up. Yaroslav Askarov stopped 38 of 39 and lost. Buffalo ended a three-game skid.
Lind's read: San Jose's power play converts 25 percent per NHL data and went 0-for-3.
Blackhawks 2, Kings 1
Roman Kantserov tied it on the power play with Connor Bedard's help, and Wyatt Kaiser won it at 7:17 of the third. Chicago ended a three-game slide.
Sully's chirp: The Kings out-hit Chicago 28-15 on the second night of a back-to-back and lost. Turns out there's no hits column on the scoreboard. The Leafs have been checking for years.
Three stars of the night
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Jacob Fowler, Canadiens: 46 saves, no goals, two stolen points.
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Matthew Tkachuk, Panthers: four assists in 16:45, two on the power play.
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Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Canucks: two goals in 49 seconds to erase a two-goal hole, plus an assist on the winner.
Lind's number of the night
42. That's how many even-strength shots Fowler faced, and he stopped every one per NHL data. The Blues have lost two straight and have 11 points.
By our count, Mitch Marner's assist on William Karlsson's empty-netter pushed his point streak to eight games. Only Connor McDavid's 12 is longer.
Sully's take of the morning
Look, Jamie Benn picked a fight with Brenden Dillon nine seconds after New Jersey made it 3-0. He got 17 penalty minutes for it: the fight, the instigator and the misconduct. The whole menu.
I respect a guy trying to wake up the room. Dallas did score four minutes later. Then the Devils scored 28 seconds after that. That's not a spark, that's a fire drill. Grade: C. Buddy, I'm begging you, next time start it at 0-0.
Tonight
Four games. Philadelphia is at Washington at 7:30 p.m. ET on TNT, and Calgary visits Edmonton at 8:30 with McDavid's 12-game streak on the line.
The one to watch is the Devils at Colorado at 9, the back half of a back-to-back, so check who starts in goal. Toronto is at Seattle at 10 on Prime Video.
