Two Canadian teams are in action Thursday as the Edmonton Oilers look to even their home-and-home set with the Vancouver Canucks and the Calgary Flames open their season against the Seattle Kraken. Eight games are on the NHL schedule in all.
Oilers at Canucks, 7 p.m. PT (10 p.m. ET)
Vancouver hosts its home opener at Rogers Arena two nights after beating Edmonton 6-5 in overtime at Rogers Place. Paul Cotter scored the overtime winner and added a short-handed goal in that game, which NHL.com’s game notes say made him the first player in league history to do both in a season opener. Evan Bouchard had a hat trick and two assists for the Oilers in the loss.
Edmonton arrives short-handed. Zach Hyman is out day to day with an upper-body injury and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was placed on injured reserve Wednesday, NHL.com reported, with Josh Samanski recalled from Bakersfield of the American Hockey League. Full Oilers injury details here. Daily Hive’s projected lines put Vasily Podkolzin with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, with Devon Levi in goal for Edmonton and Kevin Lankinen for Vancouver.
The Canucks, under new head coach Manny Malhotra, are expected to dress the same lines as Tuesday, according to Daily Hive. Vancouver is 7-2-1 in its last 10 home openers but 3-7-0 in its last 10 games against Edmonton, per NHL.com. Brock Boeser leads active Canucks with 35 points in 38 career games against the Oilers. The game airs on Sportsnet One and Sportsnet Pacific.
Kraken at Flames, 7 p.m. MT (9 p.m. ET)
Calgary opens its season at home, and it is a milestone night at the Scotiabank Saddledome. This is the Flames’ 43rd and final season in the building before moving to Scotia Place, about a block north, in 2027-28, FlamesNation reported. It is the first time Calgary has opened a season against Seattle, and only the third time it has opened on Oct. 1. The teams meet again Sunday in Seattle for the Kraken’s home opener. Both clubs begin an expanded 84-game schedule under the league’s new collective bargaining agreement.
Around the league
The rest of Thursday’s slate, according to ESPN’s schedule (all times Eastern): Buffalo at Columbus, Philadelphia at New Jersey and Tampa Bay at the New York Rangers at 7 p.m.; Minnesota at Nashville at 8 p.m.; Chicago at Utah at 9:30 p.m.; and Florida at San Jose at 10 p.m. The Flyers are looking to rebound after a 7-0 loss to Pittsburgh on Wednesday, and the Panthers play for the first time since beating Carolina 1-0 in overtime on opening night.
No other Canadian teams play Thursday.
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Sources: via NHL.com game notes, NHL.com, Daily Hive, Calgary Flames, FlamesNation, ESPN. Photo: Connor McDavid, file photo, not from this season, by All-Pro Reels via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
