The three-game sweep starts in Chicago where old and new met for the first time since the off season.
Former Columbus Blue Jacket Artem Anisimov got the Blackhawks on the board first while Teuvo Teravainen, Marian Hossa and Patrick Kane added goals in a 4-1 win over former Blackhawks Brandon Saad and the Jackets.
“The last two games we only scored one [total] goal, and for this team, that isn’t good enough,” said Hossa. “We know we’ve got so much firepower here, but I think we have to learn how to play better defensively. That’s what creates offense. It still wasn’t great, but we were much better, and that’s important, because we’ve got lots of new pieces coming together.”
Chicago got to 3-3-0 on the season while Columbus dropped a sixth straight match to start the season at 0-6-0.
“I don’t know if we’re looking for someone else to do it, if we’re easing ourselves into games to wait for something bad to happen,” Columbus forward Scott Hartnell said. “That’s what I sense when we get playing. We’re just waiting instead of doing and doing the right things. This is getting old. This is getting frustrating. I don’t know what else to say. It’s a tough start. It’s embarrassing. A lot of people picked us to be there at the end, to make the playoffs, and we’re doing a pretty good job of ruining that right away.”
Curtis McElhinney got his first start of the year and made 26 saves in the loss.
“I think we got away from our game after the first period,” Saad said. “For some reason, in the second and third, we were too fancy. Yeah, it’s tough on a back-to-back night playing a good team, but at the same time, we’ve got to be smart with the puck. It’s not about working hard. It’s about working smart, and every time we had turnovers it cost us. We’ve got to learn that.”
The Jackets can ill-afford to keep this play going much longer. They will begin to lose touch with the division.
In Calgary, the Edmonton Oilers got two goals and three points from Connor McDavid as they got their first win of the season, 5-2 over the Flames.
“Best game yet, I think, from Connor,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. “He made an impact throughout the night. Had an impact on the score sheet, probably could’ve had more of an impact there even with some of the chances he had. I thought he finally let himself go and gave himself permission. Sometimes you have to do that to get after it. You don’t have to, as a young player, give way to the veterans all the time. You’re allowed to go out and take charge, and I thought he did that tonight.”
Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov added goals in the win.
David Jones scored the lone Flames goal; Calgary dropped to 1-4-0 on the season.
“There’s two things we can do about it — piss and moan about it, or we can go to work,” defenseman Kris Russell said. “But we’ve been saying that for a while. We’ve got to quit talking. We’ve got to prove something here.
“It’s not X’s and O’s at this point. Individually, we have to look ourselves in the mirror and we’ve got to want it more. The guy we line up beside at each and every draw, we’ve got to win the 1-on-1’s. When a teammate falls, we’ve got to pick him up. We’ve got to be there to support, and right now we’re not. But I believe in this group. We’ve had little (skids) like this before, last year, but the only way we’re going to get out of it is hard work.”
Cam Talbot got the win on 22 saves. Jonas Hiller took the loss.
In Ottawa, James Neal scored twice in regulation and then added the clincher in the skills competition for the Nashville Predators who downed the Senators, 4-3, in the shootout.
“It was a good road trip,” Neal said. “We talked about it going into the third period; you can have one win and two losses going home, so that was a huge third period for us. We had a good win in New Jersey (3-1 on Tuesday) and I thought we played our best game of the year in Long Island and didn’t get a win, so to come in here and pull one out was good.”
Carter Hutton, made 38 saves to help the Preds improve to 4-1-0 on the season.
“At some points tonight we were kind of back on our heels, but we stuck with it,” Hutton said. “At this point, just getting the win and going home 2-1 instead of 1-2 is a big difference.
“For the first one of the year, it’s definitely nice to get a win under my belt.”
Nashville heads home after a good road trip.
“He’s been picking up his (Neal) pace, moving his legs. He’s been physical on pucks, strong on the puck and those were two good examples, getting it down low and slamming it to the far post,” Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. “Those were good power moves for a guy like him. He’s been really noticeable the last few games.”
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