Late Night in the NHL: Connor Stuns the Avalanche, Oilers Erupt for Five, Ovi and Sid Meet Again

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026 — Wednesday night’s late window delivered the kind of hockey that makes the early games feel like appetizers. In Winnipeg, Kyle Connor scored twice - including the winner with about a minute left - to hand the Avalanche their first loss of the season. In Anaheim, the Oilers trailed 2-0 after one period and then scored five straight in the second. And in Washington, Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby met for the 76th time in the regular season, with the 41-year-old playing his first game since announcing this is the end of the road.

02 Connor Stuns the Avalanche in Winnipeg

The Avalanche came into Winnipeg as the NHL’s great scorers - 14 goals in their first two games, the reigning Presidents’ Trophy winners, a team that looked like it might lap the league. They left with their first loss, outshot 34-19 victims of a goaltender who wouldn’t blink and a winger who wouldn’t miss.

Kyle Connor was the difference. His first goal came 70 seconds after Jaden Schwartz opened the scoring in the second period, tipping a Neal Pionk point shot past Mackenzie Blackwood. His second came with about a minute left in regulation: Mark Scheifele stripped the puck in the Jets’ end, carried it the length of the ice along the boards, and fed Connor from the left circle for the short-side winner. Cole Perfetti had the other Jets goal, deflecting a Dylan Samberg shot late in the second; Scheifele and Samberg each finished with two assists.

The night belonged equally to Stuart Skinner, the new Jets netminder, who stopped 32 of 34 - including all 17 Colorado shots in a first period where Cale Makar uncorked a 101.9 mph slap shot and still couldn’t beat him. Schwartz and Fedor Svechkov each had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche; Blackwood made just 16 saves.

The win was Winnipeg’s third straight, with points in all four games (3-0-1) - and it came at a cost. Defenseman Josh Morrissey left midway through the second period with an upper-body injury after hitting the glass, leaving the Jets to finish against the league’s most prolific attack with five defensemen. They held on anyway. That’s a statement win, injury and all.

03 Five Straight in the Second: Oilers Erase Anaheim

Down 2-0 after the first period in Anaheim, the Oilers did what great teams do: they ended the game in twenty minutes. Five unanswered goals in the second period turned a deficit into a rout, and Edmonton skated out with a 5-2 win that kept its own hot start rolling at 3-0-1 - with 22 goals in four games, the most entertaining offense in hockey right now.

Leon Draisaitl ran the show with four assists, but the headline names keep stacking: Evan Bouchard had two goals and an assist and now leads the entire NHL with six goals - from the blue line. Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists, topping the league in assists (nine) and points (12). Kasperi Kapanen and Vasily Podkolzin also scored; Devon Levi made 29 saves.

Anaheim’s night started with promise - Beckett Sennecke scored two power-play goals, Leo Carlsson had two assists - and ended with Lukas Dostal pulled after allowing five goals on 17 shots over two periods. The Ducks had won two straight coming in; they ran into a team operating on a different level.

The bigger picture: Edmonton and Winnipeg are both sitting at 3-0-1, both rolling, both looking like the class of the West a week into the season. The rematch of last spring’s playoff wars feels less like a question and more like an appointment.

04 76 and Counting in Washington

The marquee read Ovechkin vs. Crosby, but the night belonged to Tom Wilson. The Capitals winger had a goal and two assists to lead Washington past Pittsburgh 5-3, in a game that will be remembered less for its score than for its symbolism: the 76th regular-season meeting - 101st overall - between the two defining players of their generation.

Ovechkin, 41, was playing his first game since announcing Monday that this will be his final season. Crosby, 39, keeps going. Neither figured in the scoring, which felt almost appropriate - the torch-passing was ceremonial, the hockey was everyone else’s. The farewell tour is officially underway, and every meeting from here on carries the weight of a countdown.

For Washington, it’s a statement that the supporting cast can carry nights like this. For Pittsburgh, it’s another reminder that the Crosby era’s final chapters are being written against teams that don’t need their legends to score to win. The rivalry endures. The roles are shifting.

05 Thursday Night: Ten Games, One to Circle

Thursday brings a ten-game slate, and the nightcap is the one to circle: the Maple Leafs visit the Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena at 7 PM PT, with Vegas sitting at 2-1 after routing Seattle and Toronto coming off its first win - a 5-4 overtime comeback in Nashville. Rookie Gavin McKenna, the No. 1 pick, just scored his first NHL goal Tuesday. The Knights are 3-1-0 and rolling; the Leafs are finding their legs.

Elsewhere: the Flyers visit Ottawa, the Mammoth head to Boston, Dallas hosts Buffalo, and the Avalanche try to flush Winnipeg with a trip to Calgary. A week into the season, the West already looks like a two-team conversation between Edmonton and Winnipeg - and everyone else is playing for the right to interrupt it.