Opening Night Recap
Photo via NHL.com
The 2023-24 NHL season has officially kicked off and opening night featured three star-studded matchups. The Tampa Bay Lightning began the night with a 5-3 win against the Nashville Predators, the Chicago Blackhawks followed that up with a come-from-behind 4-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Vegas Golden Knights showed no signs of a championship hangover with a 4-1 defeat of the Seattle Kraken.
Tampa - Nashville
To no one’s surprise, the Tampa Bay Lightning have, once again, shown the league that they are a serious contender. Whether it’s game one or game 82, the Lightning should always be on every team’s radar. Alternate captain and all-star forward Nikita Kucherov started off the scoring with a goal about halfway through the first period. While there was not much action in the first 20 minutes, the next 20 were a different story.
The Predators came into the second with a vengeance. They outshot the Lightning 13-5 and free agent signee Ryan O’Reilly scored in order to tie the contest. With starting goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy recovering from offseason back surgery, Jonas Johansson was on the receiving end of the O’Reilly goal. On the other side, Juuse Saros was in the crease for Nashville.
The third period is when this game began to get quite exciting. Juuso Parssinen scored for the Predators after less than 20 seconds. Nic Paul then tallied a power-play goal around two minutes later to, once again, tie up the game. Nashville’s Luke Schenn received a holding penalty a minute later and Brandon Hagel scored a penalty shot on Saros, proving why it was right to sign him to an eight-year extension in the offseason. Tommy Novak then made it an even contest yet again with a goal about halfway through the period. 20 seconds later, however, Paul scored another power-play goal to give the Tampa Bay club the lead. Kucherov then sealed the win for his team with an empty-net goal with just seconds to go.
Chicago - Pittsburgh
Of the three games yesterday, this one had the most eyes on it. Generational prospect Connor Bedard not only got to finally make his NHL debut, but do it against his childhood idol, fellow generational talent, Sidney Crosby. Bryan Rust opened up the scoring to give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead almost halfway through the first 20 minutes. This was nothing new for the Chicago team and its fans, quite a familiar feeling, actually.
The energy picked up, though, in the second period. It would only make sense for Crosby to net a goal in this game and that’s exactly what he did, with close to eight minutes left in the period. The Blackhawks fired back, however, with free agent signing Ryan Donato’s first goal as a Blackhawk, assisted by two young guns, Bedard and Alex Vlasic. Despite still losing 1-2 at this point, Chicago was overjoyed to see its rookie star get his first NHL point.
2022 college free agent signing Cole Guttman shot one past goaltender Tristan Jarry to even up the score at 2-2. Jason Dickinson then gave the Blackhawks the lead with a goal assisted by veteran newcomers Corey Perry and Nick Foligno. With less than two minutes to go, Foligno added a fourth unanswered goal with an empty-netter to give Chicago the win. This outcome was quite unexpected for both sides, and Chicago proved that it may just be more fun to watch than a lot of people originally thought.
Vegas - Seattle
The Vegas Golden Knights spent their last day as Stanley Cup champions pretty well, with a win over their budding rival Seattle Kraken. The Golden Knights raised their championship banner and proceeded to get off to a hot start in the first period. Familiar face Chandler Stephenson sent one flying past Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer for a 1-0 lead. Reigning Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Marchessault tallied a goal as well to double the lead.
Ivan Barbashev, fresh off of signing a five-year contract, got the best of Grubauer with a goal less than two minutes into the second period. Seattle star Jared McCann finally got one on the board for his club about six minutes later. An uneventful second period, yes, but still a fun competition between two legit contenders.
Again, the third period was quite uneventful. The score remained 3-1 until Jack Eichel made it 4-1 with an empty-netter. While the Kraken are an up-and-coming team and look to make a playoff run this year, their Pacific Division rival Vegas showed them that they are fully capable of that as well. This year will be fun to watch between these two, with the amount of talent, drive, and emerging rivalry between them.
