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WASHINGTON (AP) — Jared McCann broke a tie with 5:27 left and the Seattle Kraken overcame NHL career leader Alex Ovechkin’s first goal of the season to beat the Washington Capitals 5-3 on Sunday night.

Jordan Eberle, Frederick Gaudreau, Kaapo Kakko and Ryan Winterton also scored to help the Kraken improve to 4-2-0. Joey Daccord stopped 33 shots.

On the deciding goal, McCann cut to the middle and beat goalie Logan Thompson on a quick shot. Ryan Winterton iced it with 2:40 left.

Jordan Kyrou and Boone Jenner also scored for Washington as the Capitals dropped to 3-2-0. Thompson made 22 saves.

After back-to-back penalty kills, Seattle got off to a quick start, with Kakko sneaking in a rebound just 6:06 minutes into the game.

The Capitals responded with two goals in a 5:06 span. First, Kyrou buried a cross-ice feed from Cole Hutson for his first with Washington. Then, after a strong forecheck and forced turnover from brothers Aliaksei and Ilya Protas, Ovechkin got the puck alone in front and sniped a quick shot past Daccord for his 930th NHL goal.

RANGERS 6, CANUCKS 2

NEW YORK (AP) — Ty Kartye and Will Cuylle scored two goals each and Dylan Garand made 19 saves as New York beat Vancouver in their first game since losing goaltender Igor Shesterkin for the season with a knee injury.

Kartye snapped a 2-2 tie with his second goal of the game at 18:25 of the second period and the Rangers went on to win their fourth straight at home to start the season.

Alexis Lafreniere and Gabe Perreault also scored for the Rangers, while J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad each had two assists.

Kartye opened the scoring 27 seconds into the contest. Vancouver’s Jake DeBrusk tied it at 17:04 of the first before Cuylle put New York ahead with his first at 2:09 of the second.

Canucks defenseman Elias Pettersson scored short-handed at 16:56 of the second to tie the contest again before Kartye’s go-ahead goal.

Lafreniere extended New York’s lead to 4-2 with his team-leading fifth of the season on the power play at 1:04 of the third. Perreault made it 5-2 at 5:57. Cuylle scored again with less than five minutes to play.

HURRICANES 4, FLYERS 1

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho each had a goal and an assist and Carolina beat Philadelphia, handing the Flyers their franchise-record seventh straight loss to open the season.

Flyers rookie defenseman Oliver Bonk had a rough second period in his season debut and was a factor in three Carolina goals.

Svecnhikov scored his fourth goal of the season at 10:16 of the second period to open the scoring. Bonk turned it over to former Flyer Sean Walker at the blue line, and Walker fed Svechnikov, who skated into the slot and snapped a wrister past goalie Joseph Woll.

Aho fed a pass through Bonk, who turned around at the side of his own net, to another former Flyer, Shayne Gostisbehere, who banged home his second goal of the season to make it 2-0. Both of Gostisbehere’s goals this season have come against his former team.

Aho later netted his sixth goal of the season on a pass from William Carrier. Svechnikov stripped Own Tippett in the neutral zone and fed Carrier, who blew past Bonk and slid the pass to Aho, who had an open net to shoot and score the Hurricanes’ third goal.

The Vancouver Canucks fell 6-2 to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. Jake DeBrusk scored his third of the season while defenceman Elias Pettersson found the back of the net shorthanded. As for Kevin Lankinen, he allowed six goals on 25 shots and finished the night with a save percentage of .760. 

Sunday's matchup was close until the third period. New York scored three times in the final frame, which pushed their one-goal lead at the second intermission into a four-goal advantage. Ultimately, the Canucks looked like they ran out of gas in the third, as they were outshot 10-4 in the final frame by the Rangers. 

"Obviously, when you start a game down 1-0 30 seconds in, it is not an ideal start," said Manny Malhotra post-game. "The resiliency we showed throughout the course of the period just to get ourselves back into it. In the second, I felt we started to swing the momentum at them. Just didn't sustain it long enough to have a lasting impact."

The biggest storyline from this game was the play of Lankinen. He allowed six goals for the third time this year and was caught out of position several times. Even though this team is in a rebuild where wins and losses are not the most important thing, this team needs to get better goaltending from Lankinen so they do not have to try to outscore their issues on a nightly basis. 

This game was not all doom and gloom, as Pettersson, or D-Petey, had a strong performance. He was tied for the team lead with four hits and, as mentioned, scored shorthanded. Pettersson looks to be taking positive steps from a development perspective, which is good news for the rebuild. 

As for the other feel-good story, Guillaume Brisebois returned to the NHL for the first time since January 11, 2025. The 29-year-old was able to fill the stat sheet as he recorded two shots, two hits, a blocked shot and a penalty. Although he struggled defensively at times, it is nice to see Brisebois getting chances in the NHL after all the injuries he's dealt with over the years. 

Ultimately, there are plenty of learning lessons Manny Malhotra and his staff can take away from this game. Vancouver's defensive coverage was all over the place at times while the team failed to create any form of pushback in the third period. With three more games on this road trip, the Canucks will need to regroup quickly if they want to avoid a lengthy losing streak. 

Stats and Facts:

• Defenceman Elias Pettersson records his first career shorthand goal
• Canucks are the first team this year to allow 30 goals against
• Vancouver has been outscored 17-5 through three games of this current six-game road trip
• Elias Pettersson and Elias Pettersson led the Canucks in hits with four each

Scoring Summary: 

1st Period: 

00:27- NYR: Tye Kartye (1) from J.T. Miller and Alexis Lafrenière

17:04- VAN: Jake DeBrusk (3) from Jonathan Lekkerimäki

2nd Period:

2:09- NYR: Will Cuylle (1) from Noah Laba

16:56- VAN: Elias Pettersson (2) from Brendan Gallagher and Drew O'Connor (SHG)

18:25- NYR: Tye Kartye (2) from J.T. Miller and Vladislav Gavrikov

3rd Period:

1:04- NYR: Alexis Lafrenière (5) from Gabe Perreault and Mika Zibanejad (PPG)

5:57- NYR: Gabe Perreault (3) from Adam Fox and Mika Zibanejad

15;22- NYR: Will Cuylle (2) from Eeli Tolvanen and Braden Schneider

Up Next: 

Vancouver Canucks @ New York Islanders, October 13, 4:45 pm PT

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In their first five games of the NHL’s 2026-27 season, the Buffalo Sabres have lost three games – all in regulation time – by a combined score of 14-4. And in their past two games – both defeats at the hands of the Dallas Stars and Utah Mammoth – the Sabres have been outscored 8-1. It doesn’t take an advanced analytics expert to recognize that Buffalo’s offense is not getting the job done in the ‘O’ zone.

And if you go through the list of the Sabres’ point producers, you see very quickly that a slew of veterans need to ratchet up their offensive numbers, and they need to do it in a hurry.

For instance: star center Josh Norris has exactly one point in five games. So does center Ryan McLeod, and so does star winger Zach Benson. These three players combined to produce 131 points in 190 games last season, so they’re clearly capable of generating more offense.

But Norris, Benson and McLeod at least have gotten onto the scoresheet in one game this season. You can’t say the same for Josh Doan, Justin Danforth and Olen Zellweger. Danforth and Zellweger haven’t played the full five games, but Doan in particular has been a significant disappointment. We’re talking about a 21-year-old player who had a breakout year for the Sabres last season, posting 25 goals and 52 points in 82 games. So having no points in five games is a major problem for Doan.

It’s no wonder, then, that Buffalo has the sixth-worst offense in the league thus far this year, averaging only 2.20 goals-for per game. Lindy Ruff can’t hop over the boards and produce goals and assists to help the Sabres’ goaltending – and you’d better believe Buffalo’s goalies need all the help they can get.

The Sabres have to figure out a way to produce points, but they won’t come easy. In fact, Buffalo’s next four games come against strong teams – the Montreal Canadiens (twice), Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers. Those teams aren’t registered charities, so the Sabres will be up against it trying to drum up offense.

Granted, we’re still talking about a small sample size here. There’s plenty of time for Buffalo to start posting more offense. But if the aforementioned Sabres players fail to get on the scoresheet sometime soon, the repercussions are going to be dramatic.

Buffalo GM Jarmo Kekalainen can’t allow his team to backslide to the bottom of the Atlantic Division standings. So if the Sabres continue to struggle on offense, a notable roster shakeup could be very soon to follow.