Bruins Hang Six on Utah, Canes Rout the Canucks: Thursday's NHL Scoreboard

The Bruins hung six on Utah. The Hurricanes routed the Canucks. Thursday night’s 10-game NHL slate — the busiest of the young season — delivered two drubbings, a shutout in Buffalo, a pair of third-period nail-biters, and a West Coast quartet still sorting itself out on the scoreboard while the East was already in the showers.

Here's the honest version of what happened, game by game, with verified scores and the context that actually matters.

The routs: Boston and Raleigh had no mercy

The Bruins put up a 6-1 win over Utah at TD Garden, and it wasn't nearly that close. Boston (2-2-0) came in needing a response — seven different Bruins had scored this season but the goals-against was already a problem — and they got one, hanging six on the surprising Mammoth (3-1-0, and plus-9 in goal differential coming in) and running them clean out of the building. Utah had been one of October's best stories. This was the coldest of showers.

In Raleigh, the defending champion Hurricanes did what the defending champions do: they throttled Vancouver 7-2 at Lenovo Center. Carolina (2-1-1 coming in, winners of two straight) — the Canes are starting to look like the machine again — the same machine that already thumped Florida 5-2 on opening weekend. The Canucks (2-2-0) are the definition of fine, and fine doesn't survive long against the champs. When Carolina's humming at home, there aren't five teams in the league that can play that song.

Dallas goes into Buffalo and blanks the Sabres

The Stars took their 1-2-0 record into Buffalo and left with a 4-0 shutout over the Sabres. That's the most Dallas result imaginable: quietly excellent, no drama, four goals for and zero against. Buffalo (2-1-0 coming in) had won two straight and was starting to feel like one of the East's little surprises. Getting blanked at home is the kind of thing that stalls that feeling fast.

Shutouts this early in the season are worth noticing. Dallas's goaltending — between the crease work and the structure in front of it — held a Sabres team that had been scoring to nothing. That's a statement road win, and the Stars' 2-2-0 record doesn't do it justice. They're rounding into the team everyone picked to be a problem in the West.

The close ones: Tampa holds off Minnesota, two more went to the wire

The Lightning beat the Wild 3-2 at Benchmark International Arena — the closest finish of the early window, a one-goal game that went down to the wire in the third period. Tampa Bay (2-1-0) has now quietly won three in a row, and there's something about this team in October: never loud, never the story of the night, just collecting points. The Wild (2-0-1) came in unbeaten in regulation, and a one-goal road loss to a contender is nothing to be embarrassed about. But points are points, and Tampa keeps banking them.

Two more early games were tight in the third as the night wore on: Ottawa edged ahead of Philadelphia 2-1 at Canadian Tire Centre with under seven minutes left, and Nashville and Montreal were tied 2-2 at the Bell Centre with five and a half to play. The Predators (1-1-1) were in Montreal two nights after blowing a 3-0 lead in Toronto — blowing another one in the third would be the kind of pattern that gets coaches' names mentioned in the wrong way. The Flyers (0-2-2), meanwhile, came in having been outscored 17-5 on the season, so hanging with Ottawa into the late third was progress all by itself. Sometimes the standard is just "be in the game."

The West is still playing

While the East wound down, the late window was just getting started. At UBS Arena, the Islanders carried a 3-0 lead over Chicago into the second intermission — a dream start for a team playing its first game without Alexander Romanov, who tore his ACL on Tuesday and will miss 6-8 months. Patrick Kane and the Blackhawks had nothing going through 40 minutes. The Islanders routed New Jersey 6-0 in their home opener Saturday, so the early-season pattern at UBS is becoming clear: this team, at home, is a problem.

In St. Louis, the Blues’ home opener was tied 1-1 with San Jose in the second period. The Sharks (2-1-0) came in riding that feel-good start — back-to-back overtime wins to open the season after years of October misery — and answered after St. Louis struck first. The Blues weren't in the mood to be a footnote in someone else's story, but neither were the Sharks.

And in Calgary, the Avalanche and the Flames were scoreless in the first — Colorado playing the second night of a back-to-back, less than 24 hours after Kyle Connor's two goals lifted Winnipeg past them 3-2. We broke down the trap-game math on that one earlier today.

And then the nightcap

Last but very much not least: Toronto at the Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena, 7:00 p.m. PT — Mitch Marner facing his old club, 2026 No. 1 pick Gavin McKenna playing his first NHL road game, days after scoring his first NHL goal, with Auston Matthews coming off a four-point night in Tuesday's overtime win over Nashville. The full preview lives here. That one's the main event, and the rest of the night was the undercard.