Ten games. That's the Thursday night NHL slate — the busiest night of the young season so far, and honestly, it couldn't have picked a better night to go big. Six games drop the puck at 7:00 p.m. ET, then the night unfolds in waves: Patrick Kane's Blackhawks visit a banged-up Islanders team at 7:30, the feel-good Sharks roll into St. Louis' home opener at 8:00, the Avalanche play the second half of a back-to-back in Calgary at 9:00, and Mitch Marner faces his old club when the Leafs visit Vegas at 10:00.
The six early games are all on ESPN+. If you've been waiting for the season to feel like it actually started, tonight's the night.
The game everyone's watching: Chicago at the Islanders
The hockey gods have a sense of humor. Hours after the Islanders announced that defenseman Alexander Romanov tore his ACL and will miss six to eight months, they host the Chicago Blackhawks (7:30 p.m. ET) — and Chicago is the best early-season story nobody saw coming. The Blackhawks were 0-3-0 a week into the season, then won Tuesday at home on the night Patrick Kane got a standing ovation during a video tribute in his first game back in Chicago red. Kane, 37, signed a two-year deal to come home in July, and Tuesday he logged just under 21 minutes with two shots. The kid's still got it — well, he's not a kid anymore, but you know what I mean.
Chicago will be without Teuvo Teravainen, who sustained a lower-body injury Tuesday and didn't travel with the team. The Islanders, meanwhile, are the walking wounded: Romanov's injury — a collision with Mika Zibanejad in the third period of Tuesday's 5-2 loss at the Rangers, exiting with 12:04 left — leaves a top-four hole on a team that routed New Jersey 6-0 in its home opener Saturday and then managed just eight shots over the final two periods against the Rangers. Bo Horvat and Cal Ritchie scored 1:56 apart early in the second to briefly make it interesting; Alexis Lafreniere's two empty-netters in the final 1:38 iced it. “It's not easy in this league playing from behind,” head coach Peter DeBoer said. No kidding, coach.
San Jose's feel-good start meets a home opener
The Sharks (2-1-0) opened the season with back-to-back overtime wins — after losing their first six games last season, their first nine the year before, and their first 11 before that. If you watched those teams, you know how big this is. Macklin Celebrini is leading the charge and should be in the goal-scoring and point-scoring races all season, and the summer additions of Jacob Trouba and Darnell Nurse gave the blue line the kind of playoff veterans who know how to win. They've dropped one since the 2-0 start, so the shine has a small scuff — but the direction is real.
Thursday (8:00 p.m. ET, Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+) is the Blues' home opener after three straight on the road to open the season. St. Louis (1-2-0) is the fascinating kind of flawed: center Mason McTavish, acquired at the NHL Draft, is supposed to be a key piece, and the goalie split between Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer is one of the early-season questions worth watching. In a Central this tough, nobody can afford to fall behind early — and the Sharks would love nothing more than to spoil the party.
The champs, and the back-to-back
The defending Stanley Cup champion Hurricanes (2-1-1, winners of two straight) host Vancouver (2-2-0) at 7:00 p.m. ET. Carolina already thumped Florida 5-2 on opening weekend, and the machine looks like the machine. The Canucks are the definition of fine — 2-2-0, 19 goals for, 18 against — which in October is perfectly acceptable and in April gets you a tee time.
Out west, the Avalanche (2-1-0) land in Calgary for a 9:00 p.m. ET start on the second night of a back-to-back, less than 24 hours after Kyle Connor's two goals lifted Winnipeg to a 3-2 win over Colorado — the Jets' third straight victory. The Flames (0-3-0) are still looking for their first point and have been outscored 16-3. If there's ever a schedule spot that screams trap, it's this one: tired legs, desperate home team, late start.
The 7 o'clock six-pack
Don't sleep on the early window. The winless Flyers (0-2-2) visit Ottawa (2-1-0) — Philadelphia has been outscored 17-5, and somebody's going to feel good about themselves by 9:30. The surprising Mammoth (3-1-0, plus-9 goal differential) visit Boston (2-2-0), where seven different Bruins have scored but the goals-against is already a problem. Nashville (1-2-1) heads to Montreal (1-1-1) two nights after blowing a 3-0 lead in Toronto. Dallas (1-2-0) visits Buffalo (2-1-0), winners of two straight. And Minnesota visits Tampa Bay (2-1-0), where the Lightning have quietly won two in a row.
The nightcap is in Vegas
And then, at 10:00 p.m. ET, the main event: the Maple Leafs (2-2-0) visit the Golden Knights (3-1-0) at T-Mobile Arena, with Mitch Marner facing his former club and 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. We've got a full preview of that one right here, because it deserves its own stage. More NHL coverage is right here.
Sources
- Daily Faceoff — Thursday, October 8 NHL schedule
- DAZN — NHL weekly fixture schedule
- Reuters / Field Level Media — Blackhawks-Islanders preview; Teravainen out
- NHL.com — nationally televised games; Sharks start; Blues home opener
- NHL.com — Romanov out 6-8 months with torn ACL
- New York Post — Romanov injury; Islanders blue-line options
- PuckCast — NHL standings, October 8