Yesterday was the start of the NHL regular season, with three games to open it up. The Florida Panthers hosting the Chicago Blackhawks. The Panthers are down their captain, Sasha Barkov, who is expected to miss majority if not the whole season because of a lower body injury that occurred in practice. It was a special game for the Panthers as the lifted the 2025 Stanley Cup banner. The Blackhawks played the Panthers very well in my opinion, but the depth that the Panthers have is just remarkable. The game was tied at 2, until midway through the 3rd period Jesper Boqvist put the Panthers ahead, and never turned back. The Panthers outlasted the Blackhawks late 3rd period attempts to tie the game. Secured the opening night 2 points.

Moving onto the second game of the opening night triple header, the Pittsburgh Penguins traveled to Madison Square Garden to take on former Head Coach Mike Sullivan, and the New York Rangers. The Penguins started off hot and were all over the Rangers defensive zone. Finally in the last minute of the first period, the Penguins broke through and took a 1-0 lead over the Rangers. NHL Vet Evgeni Malkin won a beautiful face off and dished the puck over to Justin Brazeau, who made a backhand move and snuck it passed Rangers goaltender, Igor Shesterkin. It was a fairly evenly match contest through the second period, with no one scoring, the Pens took a 1-0 lead to the third period. Brazeau added another tally to the Pens lead with an empty net goal, and then under a minute later, Blake Lizotte added another empty net goal to secure a 3-0 win for the Penguins.

Game three of the triple header, the Colorado Avalanche faced the LA Kings. All eyes were on Avalanche captain, Gabriel Landeskog who was playing in his first NHL regular season game in over 1,000 days due to a severe leg injury. We all know the talent that the Colorado Avalanche have on their roster. Well it showed last night, Martin Necas tallied 2 goals in the opener for the Avs, along with Artturi Lehkonen and Sam Malinski adding to it. The lone goal scored by the Kings, was from Kevin Fiala. The Avalanche defeated the LA Kings by a final score of 4-1.

Featured Photo Courtesy of ESPN