NHL, meet Connor McDavid.
The two got well acquainted as the No. 1 draft pick made his long-awaited professional debut with the Edmonton Oilers as they opened the season on the road against the St. Louis Blues Thursday night.
While the puck officially dropped on the 2015-16 NHL campaign on Wednesday, it was Night Two of the season that truly marked the start of something new.
It was an eventful evening around the league on all fronts — and a night of many firsts.
Here are six things we learned in the NHL on Thursday:
The McDavid era is (finally!) upon us…
We made it. Gone are the days of predicting how McDavid will make his NHL debut. That game is officially in the books and — while it didn’t see McDavid’s name get on the scoresheet — the young phenom’s premiere performance came with plenty of positive takeaways, and our #McDavidCam was on it.
Here are a few highlights, from his first shift…
… to his final stats.
Jack Eichel strikes first…
First NHL game. First NHL goal. Buffalo’s hockey saviour is here and was the bright spot for the Sabres in their loss to the Senators.
(Your move, McDavid.)
Eichel’s teammate, Evander Kane, almost had his first goal in a Sabres jersey but it was recalled after the NHL’s second successful coach’s challenge deemed the play offside.
Eichel wasn’t the only rookie to get on the scoreboard in his first career game. It was a big night for rookies in general. Dallas Stars rookie Mattias Janmark scored on his very first shift as pro.
Robby Fabbri (Blues), Viktor Arvidsson (Predators) and Nicolas Petan (Jets) also notched their first career goals.
Welcome to the league, rookies!
Three-on-three overtime is really fun to watch…
We’ve been looking forward to our first glimpse of regular-season three-on-three OT, and the breakaway battle between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Philadelphia Flyers certainly didn’t disappoint.
Breakaways, giveaways, and gorgeous plays. Boy, was it fun. There was even a penalty shot!
Jason Garrison was the eventual hero for the Lightning, forgoing his hard-shooting ways for a softer approach with a smooth, breakaway winner in a 3-2 contest.
Kyle Turris could have a big year…
A really big year. (Like, Jared Cowen‘s hair, big.) Turris wasted no time in building off last year’s success. All he needed was 30 seconds to score his first goal of the season — and write his name into franchise history.
Turris would go on to score another to help the Senators past the Sabres 3-1. All signs are pointing to a big year for the 26-year-old centre. Stay tuned.
You know who else started his season off right? Zach Parise. He earned a hat trick in the Wild’s heated, high-scoring, season-opening 5-4 win against the rival Colorado Avalanche.
It was a good, bad and ugly night for goaltending…
First, the good: Antti Niemi truly shone in his Stars debut. Not only did he blank the Penguins for his 33rd career shutout (and his first with Dallas), he also had two assists on the night. Nice.
Now, for the bad: Though Sabres fans were elated to see Eichel notch his first career goal, the sight of goaltender Robin Lehner go down with a lower body injury is a cause for big concern in Buffalo.
Finally, the ugly: We should start with a disclaimer that this was not actually Brian Elliott‘s fault. The Blues scored a five-hole own-goal when a clearance attempt off the faceoff deflected off a Blues defender and went straight into the net.
Phil Kessel made his Penguins debut…
He didn’t register any points, but then again, neither did the entire Penguins squad. While his debut in black and gold was largely uneventful, the former Toronto Maple Leafs sniper did have some solid scoring chances.
Something tells us there will be many more chances where that came from.