Posted on by Guest Writer
Sergei Bobrovsky - Florida Panthers
Sergei Bobrovsky, in pursuit of the most wins by a goaltender born outside North America in NHL history in 2025-26, recorded his eighth career win in a season-opening game.
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Oct

REIGNING CHAMPS EARN COMEBACK WIN IN SEASON OPENER OCTOBER 7, 2025

After Florida raised its second Stanley Cup championship banner to the rafters at Amerant Bank Arena, a venue that hosted each of the franchise’s Cup-clinching wins, the Panthers treated the home crowd to a victory as Carter Verhaeghe (1-0—1) and Gustav Forsling (0-1—1) helped the club stage a comeback win. Florida has won its first home game of a season in each of the past seven years dating to 2019-20.

  • The Panthers, who staged five come-from-behind victories during the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, became the eighth reigning Stanley Cup champion in the NHL’s expansion era to register a comeback win in their season opener. The others: 2016-17 Penguins, 2013-14 Blackhawks, 1999-00 Stars, 1993-94 Canadiens, 1991-92 Penguins, 1977-78 Canadiens and 1970-71 Bruins.
  • Sergei Bobrovsky, in pursuit of the most wins by a goaltender born outside North America in NHL history in 2025-26, recorded his eighth career win in a season-opening game. Only eight other goaltenders in League history have captured as many: Martin Brodeur (10), Marc-Andre Fleury (10), Curtis Joseph (10), Ryan Miller (9), Henrik Lundqvist (8), Craig Anderson (8), Mike Vernon (8) and Jacques Plante (8).

MacKINNON AND MAKAR’S MULTI-ASSIST NIGHTS POWER COLORADO TO VICTORY

Nathan MacKinnon (0-2—2) and Cale Makar (0-2—2) were two of four players with multi-point performances who powered the Colorado offense on opening night as they rang in the new season on a winning note. The Avalanche improved to 11-6-4 when opening their season on the road – their .619 point percentage in those contests is the second highest among all clubs behind only the Golden Knights (2-0-0; 1.000).

  • MacKinnon followed up his 116-point campaign in 2024-25 with two points to begin 2025-26 and boosted his career totals to 367-650—1,017, passing Joe Sakic (1,015) for the most points in Avalanche team history (since 1995-96) in the process.
  • MacKinnon also joined his teammate Makar in recording multiple points in four straight season-opening games dating to 2022-23 – the longest active stretch among all players. Makar tied Gary Suter (1988-89 – 1991-92) and Ron Stackhouse (1975-76 – 1978-79) for the longest such run by a defenseman in NHL history.

DEBUTS TO REMEMBER HIGHLIGHT PENGUINS’ SEASON-OPENING SHUTOUT WIN

The night started with the puck dropping on Sidney Crosby’s 19th season as Penguins captain and tying Steve Yzerman (19 from 1986-87 – 2005-06 w/ DET) as the longest-tenured captain in NHL history, and ended with Arturs Silovs (25 saves), Justin Brazeau (2-0—2) and Harrison Brunicke (15:21 TOI) celebrating monumental moments in their Pittsburgh debuts.

  • Twenty-four-year-old Silovs, named to Team Latvia’s preliminary roster for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, recorded his first career regular-season shutout while making his Penguins debut and joined Maxime Legace (May 8, 2021) as the second goaltender to post a shutout in his franchise debut. His first-ever NHL shutout came during Game 6 of the 2024 Second Round with the Canucks, where he became the second netminder in NHL history to earn his first career shutout (regular season or playoffs) in a series-clinching game (also Steve Penney: Game 3 of 1984 DSF w/ MTL).
  • Brazeau entered the 2025-26 campaign with 95 career games on his resume (16-13—29) and converted two passes from franchise cornerstone Evgeni Malkin to become the fifth player in Penguins history to tally multiple times in his team debut. The others: Jake Guentzel (Nov. 21, 2016), Rob Brown (Oct. 21, 1987), John Chabot (Nov. 10, 1984) and Bobby Simpson (Dec. 30, 1981). No player has scored a hat trick in their first game with the franchise.
  • Brunicke, selected 44th overall by Pittsburgh in the 2024 NHL Draft, became the first South African-born skater in League history and second player following goaltender Olie Kolzig (303-297-87 in 719 GP).

PUCK DROPS IN CANADA WITH HISTORIC RIVALRIES

A pair of all-Canadian matchups will open the 2025-26 regular season in Canada on Sportsnet, starting with the 23rd all-time mutual season-opening game between the Maple Leafs and Canadiens (TOR: 13-8-1; MTL: 9-10-3) – the most among two teams in NHL history – and finishing with the eighth such contest in the latest rendition of the “Battle of Alberta” between the Oilers and Flames (EDM: 5-2-0; CGY: 2-5-0).

  • Reigning Calder Trophy winner, Lane Hutson, sparked a Canadiens berth into the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season and did so thanks to single-season rookie franchise records for points by a defenseman (66) as well as assists by any rookie in one campaign (60). Hutson can join Paul Coffey (3) and Bobby Orr (2) as the third defenseman in League history with multiple 60-assist seasons before turning 23.
  • Auston Matthews (401) enters 2025-26 within 20 goals of overtaking Maple Leafs legend Mats Sundin (420) for the franchise record. His career totals began with a four-goal performance in his first-ever season-opening game (Oct. 12, 2016) and has since grown to 12 career goals in that scenario, which includes another hat trick to start 2023-24 (Oct. 11, 2023); no player in NHL history owns three career hat tricks in season-opening games (also Connor McDavid & Anze Kopitar w/ 2).
  • The Flames went 6-0-2 to close out 2024-25 and enter the new campaign having won each of their past three season-opening games since 2022-23. Calgary has scored at least five goals in each contest during its strings of success and can become the sixth team in NHL history to reach the mark in four consecutive season-opening contests. The Jets (4 GP from 2013-14 – 2016-17) are the only club to do so in the past 35 years.
  • Connor McDavid, fresh off a new two-year contract extension, and the Oilers have advanced to the Stanley Cup Final in each of the past two seasons. A model of offensive consistency throughout his tenure with the Oilers and 18 points shy of 1,100 in his career (361-721—1,082 in 712 GP), McDavid can join rare company with a sixth consecutive 100-point season in 2025-26 and tie the second-longest stretch in NHL history. A ninth career 100-point campaign would also give McDavid the third most in League history, behind only Wayne Gretzky (15) and Mario Lemieux (10).

40-GOAL SCORERS OVECHKIN & PASTRNAK CLASH, MARNER DEBUTS IN VEGAS ON TNT

NHL on TNT opens their coverage of 2025-26 with a duel between reigning 40-goal scorers, Alex Ovechkin and David Pastrnak, when the Capitals host the Bruins before Mitch Marner makes his Golden Knights debut against Anze Kopitar and the Kings.

  • Now with the NHL goals record freshly imprinted on his resume, Ovechkin (897-726—1,623) enters 2025-26 with another distinction in sight: the first player in League history to score 900 career goals. He can hit the milestone with a hat trick to open the season – a feat he accomplished once before (Oct. 5, 2017). The Capitals’ captain, however, would only need one goal Wednesday to put his name atop and tie another League benchmark: the most career goals in season-opening games.
  • Pastrnak has notched four straight 40-goal campaigns (five overall) and needs nine tallies to reach 400 in his career. He can become just the second player in Bruins history with at least six career 40-goal seasons and the sixth with 400 career tallies. Pastrnak (391 in 756 GP) will also have the opportunity to join a short list of players born outside North America to reach the 400-goal milestone in fewer than 800 games – Draisaitl, who also opens his season tonight, can join the list as well (399 in 790 GP).
  • The Golden Knights usher in the season with a new offensive threat in their lineup as Marner makes his Vegas debut on the heels of his first career 100-point season. He joins a Golden Knights team that has had historic success in season-opening contests, with wins in each of their past six such contests dating to 2019-20. Overall, the club (7-1-0, .875 P%) owns the highest points percentage in League history (min. 2 GP).
  • The Kings will hit the road as they look for their first win of the season when they take on the new-look Golden Knights. Los Angeles went 3-1-0 against its division-rival Vegas in 2024-25, scoring at least five goals in all three of those wins – their most five-goal games against any single opponent last season. They’ll look for similar results in 2025-26 with contributions from Kopitar, who needs 14 road points to finish his career ahead of Marcel Dionne (607) for the most in franchise history.
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Guest Writer