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The Buzzer: Sharks spoil Kovalchuk’s NHL return; Brind’Amour gets first win

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Timo Meier scores on a deflection to put the San Jose Sharks up 1-0 in the firs tperiod vs. the Los Angeles Kings.

Three Stars

1. Micheal Ferland, Carolina Hurricanes. I’ve made this point several times since the trade and am going to continuing making it until he gives me a reason not to, but Micheal Ferland was an outstanding addition to the Dougie Hamilton trade for the Hurricanes. He is an underrated offensive player, plays on a fairly cheap, bargain contract, and can play up and down the lineup without being totally out of place in any role. He made a big impact for the Hurricanes on Friday night in their 3-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets by setting up Sebastian Aho’s game-winning goal on a slick pass to thread the needle between the defense, and then adding the insurance-marker early in the third period. Aho also had two points on the net, assisting on Ferland’s third period goal.

2. Kevin LaBanc, San Jose Sharks. After dropping their season opener against the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night, the Sharks were able to get their first win in the Erik Karlsson era on Friday night with a 3-2 overtime win over the Los Angeles Kings. Overall it was a pretty strong performance that saw the Sharks limit a relatively punch-less Kings offense to just 21 shots on goal. Kevin LaBanc was the hero of the night for the Sharks as he scored the game-winner in overtime, taking advantage of a tired trio of Kings that were stuck on the ice during an extended shift in the 3-on-3 period of bonus hockey.

3. Erik Karlsson, San Jose Sharks. Not only did he pick up his first point as a member of the Sharks by setting up LeBanc’s overtime winner, but he played a pretty dominant all-around game on Friday night. He played more 5-on-5 minutes than any other player on the team (20-plus minutes), while the Sharks attempted nearly 70 percent of the total shot attempts and badly outchanced the Kings (all numbers via Natural Stat Trick) when he was on the ice. He also attempted a game-high eight shots, including four on goal. This is what the Sharks were expecting to get when they traded for him and if he keeps playing like that this defense is going to be a force for every team in the NHL to deal with.

Kovalchuk makes his NHL Return

The Kings were desperate for offense this summer and tried to make a big splash by bringing Ilya Kovalchuk back to the NHL after a five-year absence.

They wasted no time getting getting him involved, giving him more than 20 minutes of ice time in his debut with the team. He finished with six total shot attempts, including two on goal, and was a plus-one.

It still seems that his role is a bit of a work in progress in some areas, particularly on the power play where he seemed to spend some time parked in front of the net. Not exactly the place where you expect to see a player with a shot like Kovalchuk’s.

Overall it was a pretty dismal showing by Kings’ offense as they were limited to just 21 shots on goal in 63 minutes of hockey, while their second goal (scored by Tyler Toffolli) was simply a bad goal by Sharks goalie Martin Jones to give up. Given how bad their offense was the last time we saw them on the ice (a four-game playoff series where they scored only three goals) this was not an encouraging start to the year.

Highlights of the Night

The Hurricanes’ win in Columbus was a special one for head coach Rod Brind’Amour because it was his first win as an NHL head coach. He was presented with the game puck in the locker room after the game by Jordan Staal.

San Jose’s Evander Kane scored his second goal in as many games for the Sharks in their win on Friday night, and this shot was an absolute rocket right underneath the crossbar to beat Kings goalie Jonathan Quick.

Factoids

Curtis McElhinney had a great debut for the Carolina Hurricanes, stopping 31 of the 32 shots he faced to help backstop the team to its first win of the season. For McElhinney this gives him a win as a member of seven different NHL teams, something that only a small handful of other goalies in league history can claim.

Wins for seven different teams! He is the modern-day, goalie version of Mike Sillinger.

San Jose Sharks forward Joe Thornton has been around for a long time and is climbing up the NHL’s all-time games played leaderboard. He tied Phil Housley on Friday night and will move ahead of Mike Modano later this month.

Scores

Hurricanes 3, Blue Jackets 1

San Jose Sharks 3, Los Angeles Kings 2 (OT)

MORE: Your 2018-19 NHL on NBC TV schedule

Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.