The Washington Capitals got some good news as centre Pierre-Luc Dubois was at practice in a normal jersey, according to Bailey Johnson. He had missed the last four games with a lower-body injury but may be ready to go Friday night when the Caps visit the Columbus Blue Jackets.

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In the wake of a sluggish offensive start, the Toronto Maple Leafs lines had new lines in practice:

Leafs lines at practice

McMann – Matthews – Nylander
Knies – Tavares – Maccelli
Joshua – Roy – Cowan
Lorentz – Domi – Jarnkrok
Blais, Robertson

McCabe – Carlo
Mermis* – Ekman-Larsson
Benoit – Myers

Stolarz
Primeau

*Rielly absent but skated earlier@TSN_Sports pic.twitter.com/Th8VitwA52

— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) October 23, 2025

We will see how long this lasts because a continued offensive drought would mean more changes, but it's always interesting when William Nylander hops onto a line with Auston Matthews. Toronto has a home-and-home this weekend with the Buffalo Sabres.

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Sam Dickinson was a healthy scratch for the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night. This seems like a load management thing that we've seen more often with rookies over the last few years as the Sharks also play Friday night in New Jersey before heading to Minnesota on Sunday. It is just a chance to get the rookie a bit of a rest as he acclimates to the NHL schedule.

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Brock Boeser returned to the lineup for the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night. He had missed a couple of games but did have three goals in five games to start the season. Given all the injuries the Canucks have at the moment, they can ill-afford to lose a player like this for more than a couple games at a time, so good news here.

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We got a bit of an update on Edmonton Oilers winger Zach Hyman before their game on Thursday night against Montreal:

Zach Hyman could be back on November 1st. @EdmontonOilers

— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) October 23, 2025

That game on November 1^st is the final game of a three-game homestand for the Oilers, and against the Chicago Blackhawks, so not a bad game for Hyman to get his legs under him as he returns from his wrist surgery.

Speaking of Chicago, the Blackhawks went into Tampa Bay on Thursday night and managed a 3-2 win over the Lightning. Goaltender Spencer Knight was tremendous once again, stopping 29 of 31 shots for his third win in his sixth start. That keeps Knight's save percentage this season at a steady .937and he has allowed just 12 goals in his six starts.

Ryan Donato scored twice for Chicago, totaling four shots and a hit. Donato now has five goals, seven points, 21 shots, and eight hits in eight games. It has been a great start to the season for him.

Frank Nazar (PP) had the other goal for Chicago, adding an assist on Donato's second goal. Nazar is now over a point per game on the season with nine points in eight appearances.

Ryan McDonagh and Jake Guentzel scored for the Lightning while Andrei Vasilevskiy took the loss in net, giving up three goals on 25 shots.

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Linus Ullmark had arguably his best start of the season thus far, stopping 21 of 22 shots to help carry the Ottawa Senators to a 2-1 win at home to the Philadelphia Flyers. It marks just the second time in seven starts he has allowed fewer than three goals, but he has now allowed just 14 goals in his last five appearances. Maybe he's slowly turning a corner here.

Michael Amadio and Ollie Lycksell each scored their first goals of the season to lift the Senators to the win. Artem Zub had a solid multi-cat fantasy effort with an assist, a shot, two PIMs, and two hits.

Tyson Foerster scored his third goal of the season in a losing effort. That makes 10 goals and 19 points in his last 20 games dating back to last season, managing 45 shots and 27 hits in that span.

Dan Vladar was very good in goal once again for the Flyers, but earned the loss by allowing two goals on 31 shots.

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The New York Islanders brought the hammer down on the Detroit Red Wings by putting up a 7-spot and winning their matchup 7-2. Emil Heineman scored twice, Simon Holmstrom, Mathew Barzal, and Tony DeAngelo each had a goal and an assist, Anders Lee had three helpers, and Kyle Palmieri and Jean-Gabriel Pageau each scored once. Lee had those three assists, six shots, a block, two PIMs, and a hit in 12:50 of ice time. That is stuffing the sheet with a minimal role.

Heineman is up to five goals and a whopping 29 hits in seven games, so he's made himself at home with the Islanders. Just be careful here is he's now shooting over 38%, so just keep that in mind before running out to the waiver wire.

David Rittich was in goal for the Islanders and he held the Red Wings to two goals on 31 shots. He has .938 save percentage in his two starts this year, winning both, and allowing two goals in each.

Dylan Larkin and Jonatan Berggren scored for Detroit. Larkin totaled four shots, a block, and a hit, pushing his season to six goals, 13 points, and 25 shots in eight games.

Cam Talbot was in net for all seven goals on 30 shots faced.

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It was an absolutely wild game with the Anaheim Ducks visiting the Boston Bruins as Anaheim had a 5-3 lead with six minutes left in the game before Boston scored twice in 35 seconds to tie it up 5-5. Then, about 30 seconds after that, Troy Terry tallied the Ducks' sixth goal to lift them to a 7-5 win. Anaheim is now 4-2-1 on the season and while it has been a soft schedule, winning against bad teams is what good teams do.

Mikael Granlund had a monster game for the Ducks with two goals (one PP), three assists, five shots, and a block in nearly 21 minutes of ice time. That is the first five-point game of the season and Granlund's first five-point game of his career. Line mate Nikita Nesterenko had four assists with two shots, a block, and a hit.

Troy Terry had that game-winning goal, an assist on Granlund's PP marker, and three shots. That pushes Terry to a point-per-game pace with seven in seven games.

Sam Colangelo, Cutter Gauthier, and Drew Helleson also scored. Jacob Trouba had a goal and an assist, two shots, five blocks, and three hits in a huge multi-cat fantasy night.

Petr Mrazek was in net and managed the win with 36 saves on 41 shots. Counterpart Joonas Korpisalo took the loss by allowing six goals on 29 shots.

Morgan Geekie scored twice, David Pastrnak had a goal and an assist with five shots, and Mason Lohrei (PP) and Casey Mittelstadt each had solitary tallies. Defenceman Charlie McAvoy had two helpers (one PP), a shot, a block, and two PIMs.

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The New York Rangers and San Jose Sharks had a goal-fest of their own as Macklin Celebrini had a hat trick before the end of the second period, finished the game with five points, and line mate Will Smith scored in overtime, his second of the game, to lift San Jose to a 6-5 win.

Celebrini finished with the three goals (one PP) on five shots, two assists, a block, and a hit in 22:40 of ice time. Smith had two goals, two assists, two shots, and two PIMs. That makes 14 goals and 34 points in his last 41 regular season games dating back to last season.

William Eklund had three assists (one PP), four shots, three blocks, and a hit in a great multi-cat effort.

Alex Nedeljkovic was in net and allowed five goals on 27 shots, but won the game anyway.

Taylor Raddysh had a hat trick for the Rangers and they got goals from Mika Zibanejad (PP) and Juuso Parssinen. J.T. Miller had two assists (one PP), one shot, and two hits.

Igor Shesterkin was lit up for six goals on 24 shots.

Nick Leddy left the game early for the Sharks and did not return.

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Sidney Crosby scored twice, both on the power play, added an assist on a Rickard Rakell goal, and the Pittsburgh Penguins went into Florida and took a 5-3 win. That gives Crosby 11 points in eight games to start the year and the Penguins are now 6-2 on the campaign.

Rakell finished with the goal, an assist (PP), and two shots while Ben Kindel got his second career goal. The other marker came from Connor Dewer.

Tristan Jarry held the Panthers to three goals on 37 shots for the win. He now has a .922 save percentage in four starts, winning three of them. He didn't get his fourth win last year until December.

Brad Marchand scored twice on seven shots for Florida (one PP), adding three hits along the way. Sam Reinhart (PP) had the other goal.

Sergei Bobrovsky faced just 16 shots but allowed five past him.

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Logan Cooley scored a first-period natural hat trick for the Utah Mammoth on Thursday night, and the team cruised to a 7-4 win over the St. Louis Blues. Cooley finished with three goals (one PP) on four shots, adding an assist. After posting just three points in even games to start the year, Cooley exceeded that total in less than nine minutes of game time in the first period.

Clayton Keller had two goals and an assist (PP) while Nick Schmaltz had a goal (PP) and two assists (one PP). Keller has 12 points on the year, and Schmaltz has 13, and that puts both of them inside the top-10 league-wide.

Both Dylan Guenther and JJ Peterka posted three assists each. Guenther also had three shots, two PIMs, and a hit. Overall, he has nine points, 28 shots, and nine hits in eight games.

Karel Vejmelka allowed four goals on 20 shots but skated away with his fifth win of the campaign, tying himself for the league lead (in just six starts).

Pavel Buchnevich (PP), Pius Suter, Nathan Walker, and Philip Broberg all had goals for the Blues. Those were the first goals of the season for Buchnevich, Walker, and Broberg.

Joel Hofer was pulled after allowing three goals on six shots in fewer than eight minutes of ice time.

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In a lower-scoring affair than most of this night, the Nashville Predators snuck out a 2-1 home win over the Vancouver Canucks. Ryan O'Reilly and Cole Smith tallied for the Preds while Max Sasson got the goal for the Canucks.

Juuse Saros gave up just one goal on 22 shots for the win while Thatcher Demko allowed two goals on 35 shots for the loss. Whatever issues the Canucks have had, Demko is not it as he's posted a save percentage of at least .900 in each of his five starts, has yet to allow more than three goals, and has given up just 10 goals in those five appearances. He looks healthy and like the guy he was a couple of years ago. The rest of their stars… well…

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After giving up five goals in two of his previous three starts, Seattle Kraken goalie Joey Daccord was great in net for the team on Thursday, stopping all 32 shots he faced for a 3-0 shutout win.

Jaden Schwartz had a pair of goals and added an assist, which is a great night, but the assist and one of the goals was on an empty net. Hey, we take those, but just a little asterisk to the three-point game. Either way, he's now a point-per-game player on the year.

Connor Hellebucyk was solid but gave up the lone goal with a netminder tending the case. He saw 26 shots overall.

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Adrian Kempe played overtime hero for the Los Angeles Kings as his fourth goal of the season lifted them to a 3-2 win over the Dallas Stars. Corey Perry (PP) and Cody Ceci had the other goals, and the Ceci goal was assisted by Kempe. He has four goals, seven assists, 27 shots, 23 hits, and six blocks in his eight games. Just a phenomenal start for a guy looking for a new contract.

Ceci had the one goal on three shots while adding for blocks in a solid multi-cat night.

Darcy Kuemper picked up his second win in three days after losing the first three games of the season. He held Dallas to two goals on 31 shots.

Both Wyatt Johnston and Jason Robertson scored PP goals for the Stars, and both were assisted by Roope Hintz. It is worth noting that Hintz is over a point per game on the season – eight in seven contests – while shooting 4.3%. He has not shot under 15% for six straight seasons and averaged 18.1% over the prior three campaigns.

Jake Oettinger allowed three goals on the 25 pucks thrown his way in defeat.

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The Carolina Hurricanes took a 5-4 shootout win in Colorado on Thursday night, but they held a 4-1 lead in the second period, only to give it away as the Avalanche scored three straight goals to push it to extra time.

Seth Jarvis had a goal and an assist for the Hurricanes, Logan Stankoven scored his second goal of the season, and Eric Robinson had the other tally. Jarvis is now in a five-way tie for first in the league with seven goals (he has 29 shots in eight games, too).

Frederik Andersen faced 48 shots and gave up four goals but held on for the shootout win.

Valeri Nichushkin scored twice (once on the PP) for Colorado, Martin Necas tallied his sixth goal, and Parker Kelly got his first of the year in reply for the Avs. Nichushkin was moved to Colorado's top PP unit for their final two power plays, scoring on one of them. Brock Nelson was moved off that unit, so Nichushkin's fantasy value just took a shot in the arm.

Scott Wedgewood was pulled after giving up four goals on11 shots for Colorado.

William Carrier left the game and did not return.

The teams combined for 13 power plays, scoring on just one of them, which is pretty funny for a game that had eight goals.

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In another wild game, the Edmonton Oilers took a 6-5 home win over the Montreal Canadiens. Edmonton got out to a 3-1 lead before Montreal scored four goals in under 5:15 of game time to push ahead 5-3. Then Edmonton scored three goals in the final nine minutes of the third period to move ahead 6-5 and take the two points.

Connor McDavid had three assists (two PP) with three shots, both Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Vasily Podkolzin had a goal and an assist, and Leon Draisaitl, Adam Henrique, David Tomasek, and Andrew Mangiapane all scored for the Oilers. Those three assists give McDavid 11 in eight games and he's shooting just 4% on the season. There is a lot of positive regression to come.

Jake Walman had two assists, one shot, and three blocks in the win. He has three points in two games since his return from injury.

Calvin Pickard held on for the win, stopping 22 of the 27 pucks launched at him.

Alex Newhook scored twice, Cole Caufield scored twice, and Josh Anderson got his first of the year to comprise Montreal's scoring. Caufield joins Nick Suzuki with double-digit points as the former has 10 and the latter has 12.

Sam Montembeault was in net for all six goals on 29 shots faced. It was another poor start but having watched the games, none of the goals were on Montembeault. The goals were redirections or in-tight passes that made it through for wide-open shots from about 10 feet away. You want him to save a couple of those, but none of them were soft goals. Regardless, the Canadiens are at a point where they need wins, not moral victories, so Jakub Dobes should be seeing regular starts for now.

Canadiens forward Kirby Dach returned to the lineup after missing three games with a lower-body injury. Joshua Roy was sent to the press box so it seems as if Roy's return to the NHL will be a short one.