It was mentioned in yesterday's Ramblings that Dallas Stars forward Matt Duchene had suffered a lower-body injury during training camp and it was exacerbated later in camp. With that in mind, we got news that he was put on long-term injured reserve on Thursday with a back date to Tuesday. That means the earliest he can return is October 25^th, so he's looking at missing at least the first month of the season. Not a great start for someone who missed 35 games last year.

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Also mentioned in yesterday's Ramblings was that Pittsburgh Penguins forward Ben Kindel was skating in a non-contact jersey, which was a good step forward in his injury recovery. There was even more good news on Thursday:

Ben Kindel is practicing in a regular yellow jersey. Has been considered week-to-week with a lower-body injury. #Pens

— Wes Crosby (@OtherNHLCrosby) October 1, 2026

The team didn't offer a firm timeline of when he'll return, but if he went from non-contact to contact in 24 hours, it seems his recovery is coming along nicely.

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The Columbus Blue Jackets announced that defenceman Ivan Provorov is week-to-week:

#CBJ Ivan Provorov is out tonight. Week to week with a lower body

— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) October 1, 2026

Add Provorov to a list with fellow blue liners Damon Severson and Dante Fabbro, both of whom are also week-to-week. For the time being, the Jackets are without half their blue line, so expect a ton of minutes for Zach Werenski. It also led to Denton Mateychuk getting top-pair minutes on Thursday night, so he stands to benefit a lot here, too.

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The Buffalo Sabres announced a four-year extension for rearguard Louis Crevier. The Very Large Human made his Sabres debut on Thursday night but it seems the team already liked what they have in him as he's now going to figure into the Stanley Cup contending plans through the end of the decade.

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We got a bit of clarity on the injury situation of Detroit Red Wings centre Dylan Larkin:

McLellan said Larkin out first two games. Hoping for Game 3.

— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) October 1, 2026

Fans and fantasy managers alike are all waiting for him to be traded, but if he's not healthy that may make things a bit tougher. In the meantime, this is a big boost for Andrew Copp, who appears set to skate both on the top line and top power-play unit in Larkin's absence.

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Another player was put on long-term injured reserve on Thursday as the Edmonton Oilerse put goalie Frederik Andersen on LTIR:

The Oilers could have put G Freddie Andersen on LTIR but they must feel Matt Savoie and Alec Regula with their lower body problems will be back sooner than the goalie. They want to be out of LTIR as soon as possible. Andersen's return is open-ended. Sometime in Dec.

— Jim Matheson (@jimmathesonnhl) October 1, 2026

This sucks for him given his problems with injuries for years now, but it's not entirely surprising. For now, it's the Tristan Jarry show in Edmonton, whatever that's worth.

Zach Hyman did not make the trip to Vancouver for the rematch from the opening night lineup.

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The Anaheim Ducks extended defenceman Tristan Luneau for six years with an AAV of $7.2M per season. That isn't a typo: a defenceman with a grand total of 14 NHL games played by the age of 22 just got a $43.2M contract. Do with that information what you will.

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Remember last year when the New York Rangers struggled for weeks to score at home? Goaltender Igor Shesterkin decided to do his part early in the 2026-27 campaign and scored the first (probably only) goalie goal of the season:

goalie goal 🚨 goalie goal 🚨

Igor Shesterkin finally scores his first goalie goal pic.twitter.com/lOu43CJ6C9

— Shayna (@shaynagoldman_) October 2, 2026

That made it 5-1 Rangers who took the win at home to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Both Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Dorofeyev had a goal and an assist in the win, and each managed a power-play point. Zibanejad finished with three shots, three blocks, and a pair of hits in a great multi-cat night.

The other goals went to Gabe Perreault and Eeli Tolvanen.

Adam Fox posted a pair of assists and a pair of PIMs in the win.

Shesterkin stopped 24 of 25 shots for his first win of the year to go with his goal. I guess that's a pretty good multi-cat night of his own?

Nikita Kucherov scored the lone Tampa goal. He skated nearly 24 minutes of ice time, in case that's any indication of the kind of usage he'll get this season.

Andrei Vasilevskiy gave up four goals on 24 shots.

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Jack Hughes made the most of an overtime turnover to convert a nice passing play and lift the New Jersey Devils to a 3-2 win at home to the Philadelphia Flyers. That was the 44^th shot of the night for the Devils, who are looking to improve on a very poor shooting percentage last year. This isn't a night for a good shooting percentage, but a win is a win.

Brother Luke Hughes tallied New Jersey's second goal and managed five shots in the game while Dougie Hamilton also scored and managed sis shots.

Luke Evangelista assisted Defenceman Hughes' goal for Evangelista's first point as a devil. He ended the game with four shots, a block, two PIMs, and a hit in a very nice multi-cat effort.

Goaltender Jake Allen stopped 23 of 25 shots for his first win of the year. He may end up being one of the best fantasy draft values of the year.

Rasmus Ristolainen and Travis Sanheim both scored for the Flyers. Ristolainen totaled four shots, three blocks, and a pair of hits in the loss.

Joseph Woll was very good in net for the Flyers but gave up three goals on 44 shots for the hard-luck loss.

Porter Martone was effectively benched in the third period, managing just one shift in the final 16 minutes of the game. That follows a demotion to the fourth line in the team’s season opener. It has been a tough start for the rookie.

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Matthew Knies had a dream debut for the Columbus Blue Jackets with two goals (one PP), an assist, and four shots as Columbus downed the Buffalo Sabres 6-3. Adam Fantilli also scored once on two shots, adding six hits, while Kent Johnson managed an assist, a shot, and a pair of PIMs. All in all, a pretty good night for the Jackets' new top line.

Sean Monahan (PP), Mathieu Olivier, and Cole Sillinger all scored for the Jackets.

With Damon Severson, Ivan Provorov, and Dante Fabbro out of the lineup, Zach Werenski skated 28:46 total. That included two assists (one PP), three shots, and a block for a solid fantasy effort.

Jet Greaves got the start in goal and held the Sabres to three goals on 26 shots.

Jack Quinn, Konsta Helenius, and Mattias Samuelsson all scored for the Sabres. Here I thought that Samuelsson would not repeat his near-12% shooting from last season. Maybe he shoots 15% instead?

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen took the loss, giving up five goals on 22 shots.

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The Minnesota Wild earned a 3-1 road win In Nashville for their first victory of the year. Blake Coleman (PP), Nick Foligno, and Kirill Kaprizov scored the goals. Without Brock Faber in the lineup, Quinn Hughes skated 27:30 and totaled one assist and five shots.

Jesper Wallstedt faced just 20 shots and stopped 19 of them for the win.

Roman Josi scored the lone Predators goal, totaling three shots and a pair of hits in the loss.

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The new-ish top line for the Seattle Kraken had a great night in Calgary on Thursday as both Kaapo Kakko and Matty Beniers posted a goal and an assist while Jared McCann managed a trio of helpers in the Kraken's 6-1 win over the Flames. One of McCann's assists came on the power play, and he added four shots overall, for a very good fantasy night.

Chandler Stephenson, Jordan Eberle, and Frederick Gaudreau had the other Kraken tallies.

Defenceman Vince Dunn had a great fantasy night with a goal, two assists (one PP), two shots, a block, and a pair of hits.

Joey Daccord was great in net for Seattle, stopping 24 of 25 shots in the win.

Ryan Strome scored the lone Calgary goal as Dustin Wolf allowed all six goals on 32 shots faced.

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The Utah Mammoth had their home opener on Thursday night and wallpapered the Chicago Blackhawks by a 6-0 margin.

Dylan Guenther scored twice (both on the PP) while each of Nick Schmaltz, Anders Lee, and Daniil But scored once. Guenther finished with five shots overall, too. Over his last 41 regular season games, Guenther has 26 goals, 19 assists, 17 power-play points, 32 hits, and 119 shots. As great as he is, and as good as most people think he is, it still feels like he's underrated.

Michael Carcone had a great multi-cat night with a goal, an assist, two shots, and six hits. Clayton Keller assisted on both of Guenther's PP goals, adding four shots, a block, and a couple of PIMs.

Karel Vejmelka faced just 15 shots but stopped them all for the fourth shutout of this NHL season.

Arvid Soderblom started in net for Chicago and gave up all six goals on 32 shots faced.

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On opening night, the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks played a wild 6-5 barn-burner where the Oilers staged a third-period, three-goal comeback before losing in overtime. Because these teams cannot be remotely normal, their rematch on Thursday was similarly wild as the Oilers got out to an 8-2 lead before the Canucks peeled off four straight goals to make it an 8-6 game with over 12 minutes left. Leon Draisaitl scored a PP goal to effectively salt the game away, but we got a 9-7 score here, and that means the Oilers have now scored 26 goals in their last four games against the Canucks going back to last year. Again, these teams cannot be remotely normal, especially against each other.

Kasperi Kapanen took Hyman's spot on the top PP unit.  

To save space, let's just do bullet points. Here is Edmonton:

• Connor McDavid: one goal, four assists (two PP), three shots, two blocks
• Leon Draisaitl: two goals (one PP), one assist, five shots
• Vasily Podkolzin: one goal (PP), one assist, four shots, two hits
• Kapanen: one goal, one assist (PP), one block, one hit
• Trent Frederic and Owen Michaels: one goal
• Evan Bouchard: one goal, two assists, four shots, one hit
• Ryan Shea: one goal, one hit
• Devon Levi: seven goals allowed on 22 shots faced for the win

And here is Vancouver:

• Marco Rossi: two goals, one assist (PP), four shots, two PIMs, two hits
• Elias Pettersson: one goal (PP), two assists, two shots, eight hits (!)
• Brock Boeser, Paul Cotter, and Arshdeep Bains: one goal, one assist each
• Jamie Oleksiak: one goal, one assist, two blocks, two PIMs, two hits
• Filip Hronek: two assists, one shot, three blocks
• Kevin Lankinen: eight goals allowed on 20 shots faced, pulled halfway through the game

Got all that? Great.

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The Florida Panthers battled back from a 3-0 deficit in San Jose on Thursday night, but the Sharks managed to pull out the win in overtime thanks to Luca Cagnoni's first goal of the year, and first goal of his career:

San Jose's top line did the rest of the damage as Will Smith had two goals (one SH, one PP), an assist, and three shots in over 20 minutes of ice time, Macklin Celebrini racked up three helpers (one SH, one PP), seven shots, and a block, and Mason Marchment managed one goal on four shots with two PIMs and three hits.

Cagnoni had the OT winner, a PP assist, three shots, three blocks, and two PIMs in 21:17 of ice time.

Yaroslav Askarov bent a little, but did not break, holding the Panthers to three goals on 26 shots for his first win of the year.

Eetu Luostarinen scored twice and Matthew Tkachuk scored once in the loss.

Much worse for the Panthers than the loss of the game was the loss of Aleksander Barkov. It looked as if his left knee partially buckled under him as he was making a play along the boards – it was a hit from the other team but just the way Barkov pushed off his left leg. He left the game near the mid-point of the second period and did not return. The team said they should know more on Friday afternoon.

Gustav Forsling was scratched after warmup.