Four Finals, Two Comebacks, One Rookie's First: Tuesday Night Around the NHL

Tuesday, October 6, 2026 — Nine games on the slate, four finals in the books, and the early window delivered just about everything hockey promises: a home-opener heartbreak in Montreal, an overtime gut-punch in Toronto, a third-period comeback in Buffalo, and the strangest ovation of the young season in Detroit. The late games on this nine-game Tuesday slate are still in progress — but what we've seen so far is already the best kind of chaos.

Hurricanes 6, Canadiens 4: the champs ruin the party

The Bell Centre was ready for a celebration — home opener, a rematch of last spring's Eastern Conference final — and the defending Stanley Cup champion Hurricanes spent the night methodically ruining it. Taylor Hall scored twice, Sebastian Aho had a goal and two assists, Mark Jankowski and Eric Robinson each had a goal and an assist, and Jaccob Slavin added two helpers as Carolina snapped a four-game regular-season losing streak to Montreal with its second straight win on the young season.

The first period was pure bedlam. Hall opened the scoring 2:25 in, deflecting home Jackson Blake's slot shot off a Montreal defensive-zone turnover. Fifty-eight seconds later, Zack Bolduc answered. Sixty-four seconds after that, Nick Suzuki beat Brandon Bussi high on the glove side and the Habs had a 2-1 lead. Carolina tied it with 10:38 left in the period when Robinson got a piece of Jalen Chatfield's wrister off a faceoff win, then Bolduc — wide open, power play, 7:06 remaining — made it 3-2 Montreal. Five goals in one period, and the building was shaking.

Then the Hurricanes did what champions do: they took the game over. Aho scored on a power-play push 3:56 into the second, Jankowski elevated an up-close backhand past Jakub Dobes with 6:36 left in the middle frame for Carolina's first lead, and Hall added insurance with 7:39 left in regulation — a blind backhand from the slot while being checked, past a screened Dobes. The Canes outshot Montreal 29-10 through two periods; the third was just paperwork. Bolduc finished with two goals and Suzuki had a goal and an assist for the Habs, but Bussi's 16 saves were enough because Carolina simply owned the puck. The team that eliminated Montreal last spring is still the team that eliminates Montreal.

Maple Leafs 5, Predators 4 (OT): Matthews, with 14 seconds to spare

Nashville had this one. Had it. Three-nothing lead in the second period at Scotiabank Arena — Steven Stamkos with a power-play goal, Nils Höglander tucking home a rebound, then Höglander again off a Filip Forsberg whiff — and the Predators looked like the sharper, deeper team. Then Toronto remembered it has Auston Matthews.

The comeback came in waves. John Tavares broke down the left side and fired one over Juuse Saros, with Gavin McKenna — the 2026 No. 1 overall pick — picking up his first NHL point on the assist. William Nylander buried one from the slot on the power play off a Matthews feed. Stamkos answered with his second of the night, a transition wrist shot off a Ryan O'Reilly feed, to make it 4-2. And then, late in the second: McKenna, assisted by Matthews, scores his first career NHL goal. 4-3. You could feel the building tilt.

Jack Roslovic tied it with 11 minutes to go in the third — another Matthews slip pass in the slot — and then came the moment Nashville will be screaming about: Nylander put Toronto ahead with seven minutes left, the Predators challenged for offside, and on review it was clearly offside, Nylander entering the zone early. Goal overturned. Game still 4-4. Overtime. And with 14 seconds left in the extra frame, Matthews — four points on the night, one goal and three assists — ended it. Nashville (1-1-1) gets the loser point and a trip to Montreal on Thursday; Toronto (2-2-0) heads to Vegas the same night. The Preds rolled 11 forwards and seven defensemen again, and for two periods it looked genius. Then the best goal-scorer of his generation did best-goal-scorer things.

Sabres 3, Wild 2 (OT): Power completes the comeback

Buffalo was dead in this game. Scoreless through nearly two periods, down 2-0 after Danila Yurov's power-play one-timer (a Jared Spurgeon feed, blasted from the right circle) and Maxim Shabanov cleaning up a loose puck less than two minutes later off a Quinn Hughes carry that didn't get through. The Wild looked in control, Jesper Wallstedt looked settled, and then the third period happened.

With 16:05 left, Owen Power spotted Noah Ostlund open near the crease and Ostlund converted for his first of the season — the 12th of his career. With 10:22 to go, Tage Thompson buried a one-timer from the slot before Wallstedt could recover. Tie game. Overtime. And with 37.4 seconds left, Jiri Kulich saw Power streaking toward the slot, zipped him a pass, and Power finished with a low wrist shot on the stick side. Ballgame. Power finished with a goal and an assist; Colten Ellis stopped 18 of 20 for the win; Wallstedt allowed three on 28 shots. It's Buffalo's second straight win, and the building is starting to believe.

The concerning note for Minnesota: Nick Foligno left in the first period with an upper-body injury and did not return. The 38-year-old has one goal in three games this season, and the Wild are thin enough without losing their heartbeat.

Red Wings 5, Senators 3: Larkin turns boos into cheers

And then there's Detroit, where the loudest story of the night wasn't a goal — it was who scored it. Dylan Larkin, the former captain who has requested a trade, who missed the first two games with an upper-body injury, who walked into Little Caesars Arena to a chorus of boos, made his season debut with a goal and an assist and turned those boos into cheers. You can't write this stuff. Actually, someone did — it's just usually fiction.

The game itself was a track meet. Tim Stützle opened the scoring 2:44 in, his shot deflecting off Ben Chiarot's stick past John Gibson. Thirty-two seconds later, Alex DeBrincat answered with a backhander after a net-front scramble. Larkin broke the tie at 13:14 of the first, scoring in front off a Viktor Arvidsson feed. Arvidsson made it 3-1 on a second-period power play, banging in a rebound of a Larkin shot. Justin Faulk split defenders and beat Samuel Ersson glove-side for 4-1. Ottawa pushed back — Drake Batherson on the power play, William Eklund off the end boards with 9:30 left to make it 4-3 — before DeBrincat's power-play empty-netter, after Detroit killed off a penalty, sealed it.

The numbers: DeBrincat two goals and an assist, Arvidsson a goal and an assist, Lucas Raymond three assists, Gibson 22 saves — and Detroit's first win of the season. For Ottawa, Stützle, Batherson, and Eklund each had a goal and an assist, and Ersson made 31 saves. But the night belonged to Larkin, and to the deeply weird, deeply hockey reality that a player can request a trade and still get a standing ovation for scoring. Detroit fans are nothing if not complicated.

The late games on the nine-game slate are still in progress — check back for the full Tuesday picture. But the early window set a bar: two overtimes, two blown leads, one rookie's first goal, and one captain's complicated homecoming. Not bad for a Tuesday.