The three-game sweep of the NHL starts in a raucous Detroit where the Red Wings hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs and former Wings head coach Mike Babcock.
The Wings are now guided by Jeff Blashill behind the bench and he just wanted the game to get started.
“For me personally, it wasn’t as much buildup as getting the first game of the season getting going a little bit,” Blashill said. “It’s one of 82; it’s extremely important because there’s two points on the line.”
Blashill and the Wings got the start they wanted with Justin Abdelkader notching a hat trick and Jimmy Howard made 22 stops in a 4-0 win over the Maple Leafs.
“Obviously getting the hat trick was special for me, but overall we played a great game.” Abdelkader said. “We didn’t give them a whole lot. We came out at the start right away, which was good with the energy, and we fed off the crowd.”
The Leafs were out of the game early when Abdelkader scored with less than two minutes gone in the game.
The Leafs’ Jonathan Bernier had six saves before being pulled for James Reimer when the Wings scored just 20 seconds into the second period.
“We got down two and we give up a goal on the first shift of the second period. Obviously, that really sank us,” Babcock said.
The Leafs have lost their first two games of the season and have not been “refreshed” as fans would have hoped.
“We’ve had chances in both games. We’ve just got to bury ’em,” Toronto forward Brad Boyes said.
In Los Angeles, rookie Max Domi had a goal and added an assist in a convincing 4-1 win for the Arizona Coyotes over the Kings Friday night.
“It was a lot of fun,” Domi said. “It was tough to get a smile off my face that whole 60 minutes. But it’s awful nice to get the win and start the season off the right way.”
Mike Smith made 40 saves for Arizona in the win.
“That was a much different start than last year, that’s for sure,” Arizona head coach Dave Tippett said. “That’s the last time we want to talk about last year.”
Jonathan Quick had a bad night in stopping only 18 shots for the game and surrendered the four goals on the first 10 shots.
“He didn’t play very well tonight, did he?” Kings coach Darryl Sutter said.
Smith acknowledged Domi’s contribution but also noted the youth entering the NHL.
“You can feel the young blood taking over this League,” Smith said. “It’s nice to implement some of them in our lineup and get some big goals and points from them and some energy for the older goats on the team.”
In Columbus, the Blue Jackets had control of their game with the New York Rangers with a 2-1 lead.
Mats Zuccarello scored in the first for the Rangers in the first period for the early lead.
“Obviously we’re not going to get that every game,” Zuccarello said. “We got some lucky breaks. We managed to stick with it.
“That’s a good team we’re playing. They’re coming out hard. They play heavy. Maybe that [caught] them at the end. They were running around a little bit.”
The Jackets responded with goals from Cam Atkinson and Brandon Saad; Saad’s was the go-ahead goal with less than four minutes in regulation.
At that point, the Rangers found a little life and capitalized with three goals in a span of 1:17 to stun the Jackets and the Nationwide Arena.
“We played 57-1/2 minutes of hockey,” Columbus coach Todd Richards said. “Mistakes are going to happen. They’re a good hockey team. They’re going to generate more opportunities. There’s a lot of things I liked in this game, a lot of things. We had a 2-1 lead but we couldn’t manage it.”
Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault had more to be displeased about but the end result was a relief.
“I liked the way we responded when they made it 2-1 on the power-play goal,” Vigneault said. “Obviously they got a break when [McDonagh] put it over the glass.”
Henrik Lundqvist had 31 saves in the win and Columbus’ Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 21.
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