The first Daily Sweep of the NHL of the new season starts in Ottawa where Auston Matthews scored four times in his NHL debut; a feat never accomplished before in the NHL.
“I’m just speechless, honestly,” Matthews said. “As the periods kept going by you’re kind of thinking to yourself you can’t really believe this is going on, it’s that surreal. There was some good and some bad and we learn from it and continue to move forward.”
Unfortunately for Toronto the Maple Leafs lost to their hosts, Senators, 5-4 in overtime.
“We were all part of history tonight because we’re here,” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said. “[Matthews], a special player, I thought just for me, from my perspective, since I’ve been the [Maple] Leafs coach that’s the best night I’ve had since I’ve been here by 10 miles, not even close because now we have an opportunity when you look at Marner.
“I know Matthews scored all the goals. I thought Marner in the first half of the game might have been the best player. I thought [William] Nylander was great. I thought Hyman was great. I thought [Connor] Brown was great. I thought [Connor] Carrick was great. I thought [Nikita] Zaitsev was great. It was a pretty good night for us. Did we want the other point? Absolutely. The way we controlled the puck and controlled the game, you’ve got to win. We didn’t.”
Craig Anderson picked up the win for the Sens on 34 saves. Frederik Andersen made 25 saves in the loss.
Kyle Turris had two goals for Ottawa including the game winner just 37 seconds into the extra session.
In Chicago, the St Louis Blues got two goals from Vladimir Tarasenko as they downed the Blackhawks, 5-2.
“He’s proven to be a big-time player, and obviously these games mean so much to us,” Kevin Shattenkirk said. “He’s a guy who’s so dangerous. We seem to just find him a little more often than usual against these guys and he makes them pay the price.”
Paul Stastny and Shattenkirk each had three points on the night with a goal each and two assists.
Jake Allen made 17 stops for the road win.
Chicago got goals from Richard Panik and Ryan Hartman; Corey Crawford made 29 saves in the loss.
The Blues took control of the game late in the second period and early in the third with extended 5-on-3 penalty time.
“It makes it a lot harder in a hockey game,” Crawford said. “[Penalties] gave them momentum. We were in a good spot there before a couple of power plays in the second. They got two quick ones and that was pretty much the game.”
In Edmonton, the Oilers christened their new arena, Rogers Place, with a 7-4 thumping of the Calgary Flames.
Connor McDavid scored twice and added an assist in the win.
His two goals came in a span of 2:20 in the middle frame to break open a tight 3-3 match to spark the Oilers.
“He was tremendous tonight as he’s been since we went to the World Cup,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. “You need that type of night from your captain, especially when you’re putting up a new building where there is some excitement and a little bit of jitters. For a 19-year-old to settle you down like that is remarkable, credit to him and the followers for following him. It wasn’t a Picasso by any means, but we got the win and that’s what’s important.”
Edmonton got goals from Patrick Maroon, Tyler Pitlick, Zack Kassian, Jesse Puljujarvi, and Jordan Eberle.
Cam Talbot was the beneficiary of the offensive support and made 37 saves in the win.
Alex Chiasson, Troy Brouwer, Michael Frolik and Dennis Wideman scored for the Flames.
Brian Elliot was saddled with the loss on 21 saves.
“It was kind of one of those nights where everything that could go wrong, did go wrong,” Elliott said. “That’s not the way you want to start the season. The good thing is we have these guys back at home [Friday] and we’ll get back to the drawing board.”
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