Inside Hockey

Five games in, one thing is already clear about this Canucks team: they don’t quit. Through the first 10 days of the season, Vancouver is third in the league with 21 goals, but they also lead the league in goals allowed with 25. Still, their hunger has been evident throughout. Down 8-2 midway through the second period against the Oilers, the Canucks clawed back before ultimately falling 9-7. Despite the end result, it was hard to call the game purely a loss.

The Montreal Canadiens have entered the early portion of the 2026-27 season looking to build on last season’s success while addressing issues in their opening night games. Head coach Martin St. Louis has emphasized the need to tighten up their second-period play and limit costly mistakes, particularly following their matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Following offseason roster changes, newcomers such as Chris Kreider are finding their footing in the lineup.

If you’re looking purely at the Kraken’s record, it seems like they’ve had a decent start to the season, going 2-2 through their first four games. In reality, both wins have come against a Calgary team that started goaltender Dustin Wolf in each meeting, with Seattle winning 6-1 both times. A Calder Trophy frontrunner in 2024-25, Wolf has been miserable against the Kraken specifically, posting a .797 save percentage across those two starts.

The LA Kings turned sixty this year, and part of their mission is to capture some of their history and preserve it for fans to see and share. In that vein, they opened a new Kings Hall of Fame display in their arena on Tuesday night before their home opener against Florida.

The Toronto Maple Leafs entered the 2026-27 season with plenty of pressure and expectations. After missing the playoffs last season, Toronto needed a strong start to prove that its championship window is still open. Four games into the season, the Leafs have shown both their flaws and their potential, but the biggest reason for optimism may be the emergence of 18-year-old rookie Gavin McKenna.

Jon Cooper giving Gage Goncalves top-line ice time skating on the top line with Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov signals a willingness to audition young, high-motor forwards alongside elite playmakers. By placing Goncalves next to two-world class playmakers, Cooper is testing whether the young forwards’ high motor puck retrieval and physical board work can create space for Kucherov to operate.

The Philadelphia Flyers have gotten off to a brutal start, and while there are plenty of problems to point to, one stands out above the rest: they simply do not shoot the puck enough. Through four games, Philadelphia is 0-2-2 and has scored just five goals. Even more concerning, the Flyers have registered only 77 shots on goal, an average of just 19.25 per game. That is not a recipe for success in the modern NHL, especially for a team that has aspirations of returning to the playoffs.

The Utah Mammoth are off to a roaring start to the season and look like a team poised to make a return trip to the playoffs. Through their first four games, the Mammoth are outscoring their opponents 17-6, and the only blemish on their season is a 4-2 loss to the Eastern Conference-leading New York Rangers.

On October 5, Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals announced that the 2026-27 NHL season would be his last, bringing an end to a legendary career that saw the Russian winger become the greatest goal scorer in league history, all while playing with the same organization that drafted him first overall in 2004. Ovechkin’s retirement doesn’t just mark the end of a career; It marks the end of what is debatably the biggest individual rivalry in the history of the sport with Sidney Crosby.

Through the first three games of the season, the New Jersey Devils have been one of the most inconsistent teams in hockey. At times, mainly in the season opener against the Flyers, the Devils have looked fast, sharp and dominant; but during the last two games, they have looked not on the same page as one another and dreadful at moments. Granted, it is only the first three games of an 84-game regular season, but inconsistency has been the pitfall for the Devils for years.