NHL Recap: Oct 3, 2013

Here is SenShot’s NHL Recap, a tour around the ice from last night.

Oct 2, 2013; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Avalanche left wing

(11) celebrates with center Nathan MacKinnon (center) and left wing

(40) after scoring a goal during the second period against the Anaheim Ducks at the Pepsi Center. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

• Jonathan Bernier backstopped the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers, making 31 saves to win his debut with the club. Phil Kessel scored to tie the game in the second, and Dave Bolland scored early in the third and added the insurance marker in the final minute to seal the deal and get the Leafs off to an early 2-0 start.  Brayden Schenn opened the scoring for the Flyers, with Vincent Lecavalier and Mark Streit each picking up an assist in their Phily debut.
• Mikael Samuelsson and Pavel Datsyuk scored 36 seconds apart midway through the first period and Jimmy Howard made 19 saves to give the Detroit Red Wings a 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres.  Zemgus Girgensons was the only player to beat Howard, midway through the third period with his first NHL goal in his NHL debut. Daniel Alfredsson‘s stat line read a lot of 0’s, picking up no points and managing 3 shots on goal in his Red Wings debut.
• Nathan MacKinnon set up Jamie McGinn twice for goals in his NHL debut, leading the Colorado Avalanche past the Anaheim Ducks 6-1.  Semyon Varlamov stopped the first 35 shots he faced, before Jakob Silfverberg broke the shutout bid, netting his first as a Duck with just 7 seconds left. Alex Tanguay had 3 assists in his return to Colorado, while Steve Downie had the Gordie Howe hat trick, a goal, and assist and a fight. John Mitchell and Matt Duchene also scored for the Avalanche.  This one featured some late game fireworks as the Avalanche took exception to a Ben Lovejoy hit on MacKinnon, and Patrick Roy went nuts behind the bench, yelling at the Ducks players as well as getting into a verbal altercation with Bruce Boudreau and dislodging the stanchion that separated the two benches. Quite the coaching debut for a former player whose biggest question coming in was how he would be able to handle his volatiltiy and ego.

That wraps up our tour around the NHL for Wednesday night.  Thursday sees a full menu of 8 games in action, as many of the teams in the league get going after a couple of nights of appetizers.