Taylor Hall took a hard hit during Wednesday night's game in Boston and missed a few shifts. He tried to gut it out on a power play but left the game midway through the second period and did not return. The team has said that he's week-to-week, which is rarely good news.

As incredible as Connor Bedard has looked in the team's first two games, Chicago's depth has looked predictably shaky. The second line had a lot of good moments against Pittsburgh but appeared overmatched against Boston. Hall is the team's top forward after Bedard, and after Hall it's… thin. We will have to wait and see how long the winger is out, but Andreas Athanasiou jumped to the top line and top PP unit in his absence. That could be a nice little waiver pickup for someone but the upcoming schedule for Chicago is not kind: three games next week against Toronto, Colorado and Vegas, and then a two-game week with games against Boston and Vegas again. Five games in two weeks against four playoff teams is not the ideal schedule but desperate times and all that.

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Simon Holmstrom was at practice for the Islanders as the team continues to navigate the salary cap with care. Their lineups could look a little funky on any given night because of this, as we've already seen other teams needing to go without a full lineup. It is a good opportunity for Holmstrom to show the upside he can bring, if any, to the team. He won't get a better slot than this.

Oliver Wahlstrom, meanwhile, was skating as an extra. The hope is that he's still trying to get up to speed as he returns from knee surgery. My spidey-sense is always tingling when it comes to certain teams, and the Islanders are one of them. Whether Wahlstrom is healthy enough to play may not be factoring into their decisions as they seem to like certain players in certain roles – if Wahlstrom can't fit into whatever their plans are for him, then just getting into the lineup may be difficult. We will have to see where things stand a week or two from now, but my offseason hopes are being dashed.

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Connor McMichael has remained on the second line at practice for Washington while Matthew Phillips was rotating in on their fourth line. This is another team that may need to do some cap dancing to ice the rosters they want to. All the same, the veteran depth they have was always going to play against Phillips. Let's just hope he can make the most of opportunities when gets them.

This is good news for McMichael, though. It has taken some time for him to really find his stride in the organization and being slotted where he is shows what they think of him: A lot. As we see with Phillips (or someone like Aliaksei Protas), if they don't feel a player is clearly ahead of their veterans, they aren't going to get much of a role. That McMichael seems to have played his way into the top-6 shows he has made the jumps the team wants to see. Earning enough ice time for a fantasy-relevant role is something else entirely, though.

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Roope Hintz was out for Dallas's home opener against St. Louis. The team said that with a long layoff coming – they don't play again until Tuesday – there was no need to push Hintz right now. For a guy that has endured injuries, even when he's stayed in the lineup, starting the season in this manner is a bit disconcerting but hopefully he's 100% come next week.

Tyler Seguin was on the top line with Jason Robertson and Joe Pavelski, and also joined the top power play unit. That move left Ty Dellandrea alongside Wyatt Johnston and Jamie Benn while Mason Marchment skated with Matt Duchene and Evgenii Dadonov on what looks to be a pretty good third line.

One big benefit of having guys like Benn, Seguin, and Duchene on the roster is they can play multiple forward positions, including centre. It allows the team to endure injuries without having to change their lineup too much. That kind of flexibility is great for the team. We'll post updates on Hintz if we get them because if there's any sort of setback (or he's out past Tuesday), the Stars have games against the Ducks and Flyers next week. Not a bad schedule for someone to grab Seguin on the wire in shallower formats.

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Kevin Labanc was a healthy scratch for the Sharks on Thursday night. The coaches want him to get up to speed since he was out for parts of training camp. Given that the team is running a 5-forward power play, there may be a decent offensive role for him whenever he gets back in the lineup. Well, decent enough for this San Jose roster, anyway.

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Viktor Arvidsson is heading to the long-term injured reserve

and that means he'll have to miss at least 10 games. It is a tough blow for a team that really can't afford injuries to their forwards. Being able to roll three scoring lines is supposed to be the advantage they have over most of the West. Without it, they're a much weaker team.

It will be interesting to see if this means anything for Arthur Kaliyev when he returns from suspension. There are not many players who can replace what Arvidsson does and Kaliyev may give them the best chance to do it. What the lineup will look when Kaliyev is back in the lineup will be very interesting for many fantasy owners.

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Alex Barre-Boulet has been recalled by Tampa Bay because of the injury to Tyler Motte. How he'll figure into the team's lines will be something to monitor over the next couple of weeks. Now may be his best chance to finally show the scoring upside he's been lacking at the NHL level.

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Zach Werenski took a knee-on-knee from Garnet Hathaway on Thursday night that brought Werenski to the ice. He had to be helped off by teammates, which is never a good sign. He did not return to the game. His injury luck has been absolutely awful but the team said after the game it doesn’t look to be a long-term issue. Hopefully it was just a bad charley horse.

Philadelphia took that game over Columbus 4-2. Travis Konecny had a pair of goals on five shots with a hit and a couple of PIMs while Cam Atkinson scored the empty-net goal, his first tally since March of 2022. It was nice to see him and Couturier back for the Flyers.

Kirill Marchenko assisted on both Columbus goals, meaning he's up to 50% of his assist total from last season after one game played. A good start to the year for him.

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Watching the Rangers/Sabres game, it was Alexis Lafrenière that stood out more than anyone. It wasn't just the goal he scored, either. His forechecking caused disruptions all night long for the Sabres blueline, and never made it easy on them when he was on the ice. Whatever issues that were plaguing him in the preseason look to be gone. If he can turn into a serious shift disturber night in and night out, he may be starting to hit his potential. A lot more than one game is necessary, but it certainly was a very good start to an important season for him.

The Rangers easily took a 5-1 win from the Sabres in this one. Igor Shesterkin only had to make 23 saves as New York played very well defensively.

Chris Kreider had two goals and an assist while Mika Zibanejad had three helpers. Artemi Panarin had one of each so the big stars came to shine for the Rangers. They looked dominant. For me, this was more about how good they looked rather than the Sabres starting slow.

JJ Peterka scored the long goal for Buffalo. The top line looked pretty good, even if they got held off the scoresheet, but the rest of the team looked almost nervous at times. They were rushing plays and part of that has to be credited to the Rangers, but the home team won't want too many more efforts like this in a season where they hope for a playoff push.

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New Jersey earned a 4-3 win over Detroit in their own season openers. Jack Hughes had a pair of goals, one on the power play, while Jonas Siegenthaler had a trio of helpers. Dougie Hamilton also scored a goal, totalling five shots, and added a hit in 20:10 in ice time for the night. Vitek Vanecek saved 32 of 35 in the win.

Alex DeBrincat scored in his Detroit debut and skated 16:49 on the top line/top power play. He did have the most even strength ice time of any Red Wings forward, though, so expect more minute from him moving forward.

Old friend Jake Walman had an assist with three shots, four blocks, two PIMs, and a hit.

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Juuse Saros saved all 23 shots he faced in Nashville's 3-0 win over Seattle, the Predators' own home opener. That makes one goal in two games to start the year for the Kraken, a team coming of an historic even strength shooting percentage season.

Colton Sissons, Juuso Parssinen (EN), and Gustav Nyquist all scored for Nashville. Alex Carrier had an assist and four blocks while skating over 20 minutes for the second game in a row.

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Filip Gustavsson had a 41-save shutout of his own in Minnesota's 2-0 home win against Florida. The Panthers were missing a lot of players but still generated some good offence. Gustavsson had a very good night and looks primed to reward fantasy drafters that waited to take him in their drafts a year ago.

Joel Eriksson Ek had a goal and an assist, the tally with the man advantage, with two shots, three blocks, and a hit. That is a very good start to his fantasy season.

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With Roope Hintz missing, Dallas managed a 2-1 shootout win over St. Louis in Dallas's home opener. Tyler Tucker and Jamie Benn had the goals while Jordan Binnington made 33 saves in the win. It was yet another game that really didn't feature much fantasy goodness last night.  

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Vegas ran over San Jose 4-1 in the Sharks' first game of the season in the Shark Tank. The defending Cup champs got goals from Michael Amadio, Nicolas Roy, Nicolas Hague, and Brayden Pachal in a game that helped almost no one in fantasy. Jack Eichel managed an assist with six shots, at least, but there wasn't much more to speak of.

Filip Zadina scored the lone Sharks goal and it's a shame that he's had to restart his career on such a bad team. I still think there's a good two-way winger that Detroit flat-out misevaluated but it's going to be hard for Zadina to show his best on this roster.