Three Stars
1. John Tavares, Toronto Maple Leafs. It has only been three games but so far John Tavares has been everything the Maple Leafs could have hoped for. He and Auston Matthews are carrying the offense right now, while Tavares recorded his first hat trick as a member of the Maple Leafs on Sunday night in a game that featured everything but defense.
2. Warren Foegele, Carolina Hurricanes. It has been a great start to the 2018-19 season for the Hurricanes with a 2-0-1 start that was highlighted by Sunday’s 8-5 win over the New York Rangers. It turned out to be a huge game for some of the Hurricanes’ young players, with 2018 No. 2 overall pick Andrei Svechnikov scoring his first NHL goal (the game-winner) and picking up another assist in the win. He was not the only young Hurricanes to make an impact on Sunday as Warren Foegele picked up a pair of goals and an assist. In just five games over the past two seasons the 22-year-old Foegele (a third-round pick by the Hurricanes in 2014) already has four goals and two assists. The Hurricanes were great on Sunday, right through the post-game celebration.
3. Jack Campbell, Los Angeles Kings. With Jonathan Quick sidelined for the time being the Los Angeles Kings have to turn to Jack Campbell in the short-term. He enters the season with just seven games of NHL experience so he remains a bit of a mystery even though he is a first-round draft pick from 2010. On Sunday night he played one of the best games of his brief career, turning aside 36 of the 38 shots he faced from the Detroit Red Wings. The only two goals the Red Wings were able to get behind him on Sunday night were power play tallies.
Highlight of the Night
The Blackhawks dropped their first game of the season on Sunday night, largely due to their defense and goaltending, but were still able to gain at least a point in the standings thanks to their performance of their offense. The best play of the night was this tic-tac-toe goal in the first period that gave them 2-0 lead.
Passing perfection. @Brinksy97 with the goal. pic.twitter.com/oOI5k5jrkW
— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) October 7, 2018
Factoids
Ilya Kovalchuk recorded his first point for the Los Angeles Kings in his return to the NHL, and it was a big one for him as it was the 400th helper in his NHL career. He is just the 88th player in league history to record at least 400 goals and 400 assists in his career. Who knows what his career numbers would look like had he not spent the past five years playing in the KHL. He added another assist later in the game giving him two points on the night. Those two points have also made him officially a point-per-game player again, giving him 818 total points in 818 games.
Did Ilya Kovalchuk just get his 400th career assist and first point as with the LA Kings?#GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/l5bOsp8U30
— LA Kings (@LAKings) October 8, 2018
The Blackhawks received goals from Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane on Sunday night, a development that usually results in them winning the game. That did not happen against the Toronto Maple Leafs, making it the first time in 44 games that the Blackhawks did not win when Toews and Kane both score in the same game.
That loss snaps a 44 game winning streak for the #Blackhawks in games where Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews both score.
— James Neveau (@JamesNeveau) October 8, 2018
Scores
Carolina Hurricanes 8, New York Rangers 5
Toronto Maple Leafs 7, Chicago Blackhawks 6 (OT)
Los Angeles Kings 4, Detroit Red Wings 2
MORE: Your 2018-19 NHL on NBC TV schedule
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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.