Carolina rips off five straight, Igor Shesterkin's season ends in a heartbeat, and the Pacific splits cleanly into haves and have-nots.
Carolina remembers who it is
A week ago the Carolina Hurricanes looked like a team still hunting for the thread that carried it to the Stanley Cup Final — winless in two home games, never once holding a lead, waiting for its game to show up. It showed up all at once. The defending champions closed the week having won five in a row, and the manner mattered as much as the math: all four forward lines scoring in Chicago, the power play producing. A 6-4 track meet in Montreal kept it going, and the run only gathered force from there. Logan Stankoven's first career hat trick — including a short-handed goal and a power-play goal — keyed a 7-2 demolition of Vancouver, with Sean Walker chipping in four assists. A three-goal second period buried Chicago, while Mark Jankowski quietly scored in four straight games and Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov kept producing. No one suffered more for Carolina's revival than Philadelphia, which the Canes beat twice and kept winless; the Flyers sank to 0-5-2, a franchise record for consecutive losses to open a season.
The injury ward fills up
If the standings told one story this week, the training rooms told another. The cruelest moment came Friday in Washington, when Igor Shesterkin slid to make a save and jammed his right skate into the post. He stayed down, was helped off, and by Saturday the Rangers confirmed the worst: his season is over, a staggering blow compounded by goaltender Joonas Korpisalo being ruled out four weeks. Shesterkin had plenty of grim company. The Islanders lost defenseman Alexander Romanov to a torn ACL for six to eight months. Florida, already without captain Aleksander Barkov, watched Brad Marchand fold into a goalpost and draw a six-week absence. Dallas disclosed that Matt Duchene needs core-muscle surgery and roughly three months. Carolina captain Jordan Staal tore a calf muscle in warmups, and Anaheim's Ryan Poehling sprained an MCL scoring the winner against Calgary. In sum, it was a brutal seven days to be a team doctor.
The Pacific pulls apart at both ends
Out West, the Pacific Division spent the week sorting itself into two tiers with unusual speed. At the top, the Edmonton Oilers kept rolling behind Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl; a five-goal second period flattened Anaheim, and by week's end Edmonton stood as the only team in the NHL without a regulation loss, with McDavid and Evan Bouchard near the top of the scoring race. Vegas matched them stride for stride, extending its own winning streak to four on Mitch Marner's overtime winner against the Kings before Minnesota finally cooled the Golden Knights on Monday. At the other end sat misery. The Calgary Flames dropped their first five — the worst start in franchise history — and remained the league's only pointless club. The Los Angeles Kings, meanwhile, opened with four straight losses for the first time in franchise history under new coach Peter Laviolette, dropping one close game after another. Same division, opposite universes.
The kids check in
For all the veterans lost this week, the next generation made itself heard. The loudest moment belonged to Gavin McKenna, the 18-year-old first overall pick, who scored his first NHL goal and added an assist as Toronto rallied from a 3-0 hole to beat Nashville in overtime. He was far from alone. Anaheim's Judd Caulfield, Chicago's Roman Kantserov and Ottawa's Carter Yakemchuk all made their mark — Caulfield and Kantserov with their first NHL goals, Yakemchuk with a power-play one-timer that stood up as a game-winner. And in Chicago there was the promise of more to come: captain Connor Bedard, cleared for contact following summer shoulder surgery, was trending toward a season debut about a month ahead of schedule.