The second-year forward was taken off the injury report for the Lakers’ home game against the Trail Blazers after being sidelined since the preseason because of left knee swelling.
Thiero played in the team’s first three preseason exhibitions. He averaged 5.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 18.4 minutes.
Los Angeles Lakers forward Adou Thiero will be available to make his season debut on Friday. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters ConnectLos Angeles Lakers forward Adou Thiero will provide a boost of athleticism. AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill
The team shut him down from on-court activities for a couple of days during the first week of the regular season before ramping him back up.
Adou Thiero hasn’t played in nearly a month. Getty Images
The swelling was happening in the same knee that he had surgery on during the spring of 2025. He was also sidelined during training camp, preseason and the first 13 games of the regular season while dealing with left knee swelling.
Sandro Mamukelashvili is questionable for Friday because of an illness.
Bronny James and Cameron Carr will be on assignment with the Coachella Valley Lakers for Friday’s season opener against the the Salt Lake City Stars at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert.
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NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Jesper Bratt scored on a breakaway from Dougie Hamilton in overtime to lift the streaking New Jersey Devils to a 5-4 win over the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night.
It was Bratt's fourth career overtime goal.
New Jersey is 8-2 in its last 10 games and has won six straight at the Prudential Center. The Devils, who have missed the playoffs the past two seasons, are in second place in the Metropolitan Division.
Connor Hellebuyck stopped 28 shots and is 4-0-0 for the Devils since he was acquired from Winnipeg in late October.
New Jersey led 4-1 after two periods, but the Blues scored three goals in 3:08 to tie it at 4. Mason McTavish, Philip Broberg and Dalibor Dvorsky scored, the latter two coming 18 seconds apart with 5:06 to play.
Anthony Manta scored two goals and had an assist, and Luke Hughes had a goal and an assist for New Jersey.
Jack Hughes contributed two assists, and has eight points in his last five games. He leads the Devils with 21 points.
The loss concluded a six-game stretch for the Blues against Eastern Conference teams, where they went 2-4.
Jordan Binnington had 31 saves for St. Louis.
The Devils scored 19 seconds apart late in the second period for a 4-1 lead. Jesper Boqvist struck from Luke Hughes and Mantha, then Mantha scored his second goal of the period on a backhand from Brett Pesce and Evan Rodrigues.
New Jersey outshot the Blues 16-4 in the first period, with Hughes giving the Devils a 1-0 lead on his sixth goal of the season and third in the last five games.
Up next
Blues: conclude a four-game road trip at Nashville on Saturday.
In the end, you have to look at it as a huge point.
That's the only way to feel after the St. Louis Blues, left for dead in the third period, made a massive comeback against the New Jersey Devils, only to fall short in overtime, falling 5-4 to the Devils at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on Thursday.
The Blues (7-7-2) were down three goals (4-1) before fighting back to tier the game scoring three goals in 3:08, including a pair 18 seconds apart to at least steal a point.
But Jesper Bratt saved the Devils' bacon with a breakaway goal at 1:26, beating Jordan Binnington five-hole (more on that later) to end it.
Let's get into it, shall we ...
* Another big comeback -- There just wasn't a ton going on for the Blues at the start of the third period, but just like when they began this trip with a 5-4 win against the Detroit Red Wings when they scored three times in the third to overcome a 4-2 deficit, the Blues began to chip away.
Maybe they drew what the Winnipeg Jets did to the Montreal Canadiens two nights ago down 4-0 with under three minutes left in regulation before winning 5-4 in OT, but nonetheless, it started with Mason McTavish, who had a goal and an assist to end a five-game point drought.
Net front presence wasn't nearly good enough in a loss to the New York Rangers on Tuesday despite 33 shots on goal, but the Blues did a much better job getting traffic in front of Hellebuyck in this game and finally were rewarded when McTavish potted a rebound goal at 11:46 of the third period to make it a 4-2 game when he was on the doorstep to pounce on Justin Barron's shot from the right circle:
Then came the two goals in 18 seconds when Philip Broberg's slapper from the left circle off a pass from Jake Neighbours (more on him in a bit) that made it 4-3 at 14:36 after a rush up ice and Neighbours backhand sauce pass into space for the speedy defenseman to rip one home:
St. Louis goal!
Scored by Philip Broberg with 05:24 left in the 3rd. Assisted by Jake Neighbours and Adam Jiricek.
And then Dalibor Dvorsky took advantage of a Connor Hellebuyck miscue to tie it 4-4 at 14:54 when Dvorsky rimmed a puck around behind the net where Hellebuyck corralled it but then playing it off to his left was picked off by Connor McMichael, who alertly quick-upped it to the front where Dvorsky redirected the puck into an empty cage:
St. Louis goal!
Scored by Dalibor Dvorsky with 05:06 left in the 3rd. Assisted by Connor McMichael.
The Blues have a penchant for comebacks, and a good sign for this team is that the Blues are now plus-11 in third periods this season (25-14).
* Penalty kill huge again -- It's been a top 10 unit all season and was 3-for-3 once again in this game and killing off a huge Devils power play with 3:01 remaining in regulation enabled them to complete the process of stealing a point.
Yes, New Jersey did have six of their 36 shots on goal with the man advantage but five of them came on their second one and just one in that critical final one when the Blues did a terrific job taking away the middle of the ice and getting three huge clears to at least get the game to OT.
The Blues came into the game tied for sixth in the league at 84.6 percent and surely will climb even more with another solid performance, and they are now 11-for-12 the past five games.
* Heartbreaker OT goal -- When Barron burst up ice with Robert Thomas for a 2-on-1, you had a sense a comeback was in the works.
Barron barried it up the left side, his off side and only had Dougie Hamilton to beat. He had both options available: shoot the puck himself or try to sauce a pass to Thomas, which he chose to do. Now in hindsight, it's easy to sit back and say he should have shot it. I'm looking at the play and Hellebuyck was playing the shot, and Hamilton was playing pass, giving up the shot. Barron almost looked like he tried a fake-shot-pass and Hamilton didn't bite, knocking it away, then having the sense to throw it off the boards for Bratt to get a breakaway and beat Binnington -- for the fourth time in this game -- through the five-hole:
New Jersey goal!
Scored by Jesper Bratt with 03:34 left in the OT. Assisted by Dougie Hamilton.
* Just couldn't finish consistently in the second period opened door for Devils ... or so they thought -- The Blues actually had a good second period to start, a stark contrast to what was happening in the opening 20 minutes with pressure and a huge hit by Neighbours on Devils captain Nico Hischier -- a clean one I might add -- that sparked a quick fight after Timo Meier came in to his captain's defense, and the Blues should have used that for some momentum down 1-0 at the time:
They did have some good looks and good zone time but either a puck is hopping over a stick or a shot is fired off target ... something, anything that will find its way in was just not happening at that moment.
Then the miscues came.
When Anthony Mantha made it 2-0 with the first of two in the period at 12:02, it all started after Dvorsky, puck on his stick, winds up in the neutral zone and all kinds of time and space, still doesn't get a puck in deep after it's deflected and it gets turned back before Bratt is able to beat two Blues off the boards, find Jack Hughes, who completes the tic-tac-toe play as Mantha beats Pius Suter to the slot and redirects a one-touch shot through Binnington's pads.
The Blues did take advantage of a big, big break when Thomas scored a power-play goal at 16:02 to cut the deficit to 2-1. It came after Amadeus Lombardi was called for slashing McMichael's stick but it was clear that that's not how McMichael's stick broke.
The Devils were furious and rightfully so, but Thomas finished off a one-timer from the bottom of the left circle after McTavish cut around the Devils D-man on his backhand and fed Thomas a backhand sauce pass for the finish:
Power play goal for St. Louis!
Scored by Robert Thomas with 03:56 left in the 2nd. Assisted by Mason McTavish and Philip Broberg.
There's the momentum needed again, but nope. Not at that time.
Jesper Boqvist took advantage of a broken play at 18:00 to make it 3-1 after Jimmy Snuggerud got a piece of Luke Hughes' shot right to Boqvist in the slot and he deked around Binnington for the finish.
And Mantha made it 4-1 just 19 seconds later on a breakaway backhand through the pads (a theme in this one) after the Blues had possession in the O-zone, Broberg lost a handle and Mantha was sent in alone.
The Blues actually directed 28 shot attempts (16 of them on goal) but could only beat Hellebuyck once. Just not good enough.
* First period blitzkrieg -- The Devils owned it, the Blues were chasing it for the majority of it, and it could have been much, much worse than the 1-0 deficit that the Blues dealt with courtesy of a Jack Hughes goal at 7:34.
The Blues' puck play, particularly in the D-zone and neutral zone was not particularly good, and they spent the majority of it, at least the first 10-12 minutes of it, chasing the play and chasing the puck, spending a lot of time in the zone as the Devils had the biscuit on a string.
The goal came off a face-off win by Jack Hughes and the Devils were all over puck retrievals in the period and would get another, then go D-to-D before Luke Hughes whipped a shot through Binnington's pads.
At one point halfway through the period, shot attempts were 19-1(!) at one point and wound up 29-10 at the end of it, and it could have been much worse.
Ross Johnston blew up Mantha along the wall with a good, solid hit that for a few moments defused New Jersey's ferociousness and created some moments of their own, including a Cam Fowler shot off the left post with 4:30 left in the period and a net front scramble with Thomas and Snuggerud.
Johnston also had a solid, heavy check on Jonas Siegenthaler early in the third period, and that's what he's paid to do.
Dylan Holloway actually had the best scoring opportunity early in the game when Thomas saucered a puck in to him going in on Hellebuyck but was thwarted 34 seconds into the game, and it wound up being the Blues' only shot attempt -- not just shot on goal but shot attempt -- for the first 10:23 when Brandon Carlo had two attempts at the goal that missed.
Shots on goal would up 16-4 and Binnington had to be good.
* Binnington's game -- As for Binnington, it was a mixed bag.
His first period was really good when the game could have been a lot worse than 1-0, and in the third period, he made some key stops when it was 4-1 and the Blues had nothing going. So in that regard, he kept them at bay and gave them a fighting chance and was part of earning a point they didn't look like they'd get.
But what I have yet to see this year is THAT save ... THE save. The one everyone will talk about the next day.
Give me Mantha's breakaway (Mantha scored both of his goals five-hole). Give me a big stop on Bratt in OT. He got beat four times five-hole in this game. The Devils (11-5-0) picked up on this and took advantage. They used a lot of fake shot, open Binnington up and slide a puck through, or in the case of Luke Hughes, just blow one low and hard and see if it finds its way through, which it did in the first.
Well, on to Nashville where the Blues will try to finish the trip 2-1-1 when it sure looked like they'd be going to Music City 1-2-0.
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The Detroit Red Wings got everything that they could ask for from goaltender Daniil Tarasov on Thursday evening against the Vegas Golden Knights.
That's what makes it all the more disappointing that he wasn't rewarded with at least a point in the standings.
The Vegas Golden Knights scored two unanswered goals in the third period at Little Caesars Arena, including the game-winner with 1:42 left in regulation, stealing a 2-1 victory.
With the setback, the Red Wings have now lost three of their last four games in regulation, falling to 7-7-3. It's also the second straight home game in which they held a third-period lead, but surrendered a late goal in regulation, resulting in a loss.
They were also playing shorthanded, as forwards Marco Kasper and Mason Appleton, along with defenseman Albert Johansson, remain unavailable due to injury.
The Golden Knights largely controlled the play through a scoreless opening 20 minutes of play, leading in shots 14-8.
The scoreless tie continued through the second period, which featured multiple missed prime scoring opportunities by the Red Wings. Emmitt Finnie's shot on a partial breakaway just missed the left post, while Alex DeBrincat couldn't get good a clean handle on the puck with Vegas goaltender Carter Hart sprawled out of position.
But the Red Wings broke the ice early in the third period when Anton Johansson buried a rebound off the boards following a shot by Carter Mazur.
Not long afterward, Vegas knotted the score thanks to a curl-and-drag wrist shot by Braeden Bowman that eluded Tarasov's glove.
Both teams seemed destined for overtime until, with just 1:42 left in regulation, Trevor Connolly deked past Michael Rasmussen and whipped a wrist shot that once again beat Tarasov on the glove side.
Despite pulling Tarasov, who finished the game with 32 saves, the Red Wings couldn't come up with the equalizer. Hart countered with 25 saves on 26 shots, picking up the win.
The Red Wings won't play until Saturday evening in the Rocky Mountains, as they take on the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena.
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What do the Lakers need as other guards around Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves? Shooters, ideally ones who can defend as well.
That is leaving Bronny James squeezed. The Lakers have assigned Bronny to the Coachella Valley Lakers of the G League, along with first-round pick Cameron Carr. This is mostly about getting the two young Lakers run they aren't getting with the big club, which is off to a 7-2 start.
Bronny has played 12 minutes across five games so far this season, largely in mop-up duty at the end of games. His being sent to the G League isn't new, in each of his first two NBA seasons, he bounced between the G League and the big club.
The issue is the Lakers need guards who are shooters and Bronny is not that, even if he hit 38.6% from 3 last season (he is 0-for-1 from deep this season). To his credit, Bronny has really developed through his first two NBA seasons. He has a good feel for the game, he can defend well (but at 6'2" doesn't really guard up), he can get into the paint some and make good reads, but he's not the guy the Lakers need right now.
Carr, the Lakers' first-round pick out of Baylor, is incredibly athletic but is raw, which is why he has played in a total of four minutes across three games. He needs to be down in the G League just to get some run.
The Lakers G League team opens play Friday at the Acrisure Arena just outside Palm Springs. The Lakers moved their G League franchise there this summer from El Segundo (they used to practice at the Lakers facility).
The Chicago Blackhawks, one night after being blown out by the Florida Panthers, had to travel across the state to play against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tampa, like Florida, has Stanley Cup aspirations and has for the entire 2020s decade.
Despite dealing with some off-ice drama with their superstar Nikita Kucherov, who wants to be traded, they have been incredible between the whistles. With all of the talent they have up and down their roster, and the great Jon Cooper as their head coach, they are a contender once again.
For the Blackhawks, the first back-to-back situation of the season. Arvid Soderblom made his 4th start of the season, giving Spencer Knight an incredibly rare game off.
Most people went in thinking that the Blackhawks had a very small chance of winning this game. The Lightning had fresh legs, a better roster, and a Hall of Fame goalie in the net. Those people were right, as the Hawks were blown out once again.
The Lightning scored two goals in the first period and then two in the third to take a 4-0 lead over the Blackhawks. Two of those goals were scored by former Blackhawks forward Ilya Mikheyev, who is dearly missed in the Chicago lineup for a variety of reasons.
Mikheyev is an outstanding middle-six forward who is an elite penalty killer, and the Blackhawks could use some depth players like him right about now. As things continue to fall, players like him become more and more needed.
The Blackhawks did cancel Andrei Vasilevskiy's shutout bid when Roman Kantserov extended his point streak to 7 games, with his 8th goal of the season. Those 8 goals lead all NHL rookies. It's been a great start for him, but it was too little, too late for the Hawks.
Soderblom hardly played well, but he faced 35 shots, while the Hawks only put 26 on Vasilevskiy. Every single night, they get blown out in all areas of the ice. They don't control tempo, make smart decisions with or without the puck, or play with an edge.
This was one of those expected losses for the Blackhawks, and it somehow turned out to be even worse. From the moment the puck dropped, they didn't seem to have a chance to win. You can't help but wonder when some sort of change is made.
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MONTREAL (AP) — Cole Caufield scored 30 seconds into overtime and the Montreal Canadiens overcame Logan Cooley’s hat trick to beat the Utah Mammoth 5-4 on Thursday night.
Captain Nick Suzuki had a goal and two assists in his return from a six-game absence for Montreal (10-3-3). Adam Engstrom added his first career goal, and Kirby Dach and Arber Xhekaj also scored.
Jakub Dobes made 16 saves two nights after the Canadiens made some unwanted history. Montreal lost 5-4 in overtime to Winnipeg on Tuesday after blowing a 4-0 lead with 2:39 remaining, marking the latest four-goal comeback in NHL history.
Cooley had his second hat trick in four games and added an assist. At 228 career games, Cooley became the fastest active player to have five career hat tricks, besting Alex Ovechkin by two games.
Nick Schmaltz had a goal and two assists for Utah (10-6-1). Sebastian Cossa stopped 30 shots.
Montreal tied it at 4 when Engstrom beat Cossa with a wrist shot with 5:06 to go in the third.
After having his first career goal denied by the goal post earlier in the night, Nashville Predators rookie Vitali Pinchuk was able to score in the first period against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night.
The 24-year-old Belarusian forward found himself battling a defender in a tight angle, before firing a backhand shot that not only got past the defender, but also made its way past Avalanche netminder Mackenzie Blackwood.
Pinchuk's goal is his second career NHL point, as he previously picked up an assist against the Ottawa Senators during his NHL debut on October 10.
The goal also marked a potentially important moment in the game, as it restored the Predators' lead making it a 2-1 hockey game late in the first period. Reid Schaefer was credited with the assist, his first of the season.
Pinchuk now has the first goal of his career under his belt, and the Predators are certainly hoping that it'll be the first of many.
The Washington Wizards just climbed to the top of the Southeast Division standings, and then lost to the Hawks to drop to second. But they have a great chance to climb back up, as they play these same Hawks for the second game in a row.
Here’s the preview!
Game info
When: : Friday, Nov. 6, 7 p.m. ET
Where: State Farm Arena, Atlanta, GA
How to watch: Monumental Sports Network
How to listen: The Team 980 AM, 106.7-2 FM
Injury Report
Wizards: Alex Sarr, Anthony Gill (Day-to-Day), Reece Beekman, Tristan Vukcevic, Justin Champagnie, Jamir Watkins (Out)
Hawks: Jalen Johnson (Day-to-Day), Jock Landale, Mouhamed Gueye, Henri Veesaar (Out)
Pregame notes
Washington and Atlanta battle for leading the Southeast Division — The Wizards and the Hawks match up for an interesting home-and-away as they are both ranked 1 and 2 in the Southeast Division. The Wizards briefly held the helm at #1, but then lost to the Hawks at home last night. Let’s see how the second night turns out!
The Hawks are finding their identity — The Hawks have changed things dramatically. For instance, they traded their franchise guy, Trae Young, to the Wizards last season. But it’s starting to look as if Snyder is finding his rotation. The strong win in DC showed flashes of a coherent team playing team defense (kept the Wizards to 105, and had there not been some “garbage time” it would have been even lower).
Trae revenge game? — Wednesday wasn’t it. Maybe on Friday?
Carolina Hurricanes center Logan Stankoven (22) scores a goal against New York Islanders goaltender Semyon Varlamov (40) in Elmont, N.Y., Nov. 5, 2026.
The Hurricanes have rolled into UBS Arena and overwhelmed the Islanders before, and it’s happened so many times that their 2-0 lead inside of four minutes Thursday night felt like the start of something embarrassing.
That it was, instead, the first act of a pulsating 60 minutes of hockey is something in which the Islanders might take heart. That it ended up making the difference in the end, that they failed to play a full 60 minutes, and that they still haven’t beaten the reigning-champion Hurricanes in 22 months are what they ought to regret bitterly.
“We kind of let that one slip through our fingers,” Kyle Palmieri told The Post after this 5-3 defeat to Carolina.
Indeed, the Islanders grabbed all the momentum late in a second period that was as good of hockey as they’ve played all season. But just as they started slowly, they faded fast. Their momentum evaporated in the form of an 0-for-4 power play and a third period during which the Hurricanes just had more in the tank.
Carolina Hurricanes left wing William Carrier (28) scores the winning goal against the New York Islanders on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, at UBS Arena. Robert Sabo for NY Post
“In a three-period game against a Stanley Cup champion, they’re gonna have at least one period where they crank it up, and they did in the third,” head coach Pete DeBoer said. “We weathered the storm, we hung in there. Tough to not get a point out of that one.”
For long chunks of the evening, the Islanders’ fourth line was physical and up ice; the second line put up two goals and the third line produced chance after chance on the rush. Semyon Varlamov, who looked at risk of getting pulled after allowing two goals on the first three shots he saw, recovered to stop 34 on the night, including a 10-bell diving save on Sean Walker’s one-timer late in the second.
They played fast, intense and emotional hockey with an opponent against whom anything less would have meant getting swept away.
The game rose to another level late in the second when Victor Eklund tied it at three with a high-slot one-timer from Brayden Schenn at 17:13 of the period. By the intermission, Varlamov and Brandon Bussi had traded terrific saves to keep the game tied.
The power play, though, is one for its last 18 and reaching the point at which an inquest is necessary. It is not just that the Islanders were scoreless in four opportunities, but that they had just two shots on goal at five-on-four, rarely looking like they were actually at an advantage.
Carolina goaltender Brandon Bussi makes a save on Emil Heineman during the Islanders’ loss to the Hurricanes on Nov. 5, 2026, at UBS Arena. Robert Sabo for NY Post
Palmieri, DeBoer and Schenn all cited the Islanders’ struggle to deal with a pressure-heavy Carolina penalty kill as a reason why,
“Three-point pressure, we call it, where guys are flexing out and essentially what they’re trying to do is push you away from the net,” Schenn said. “I think right now, we’re making one or two good plays, and then we really need that play to execute, to find the open man; we’re just not making it. It’s hitting a stick, or we’re not seeing it. There’s a bunch of stuff we need to clean up.”
Logan Stankoven celebrates after scoring a goal on Semyon Varlamov during the Islanders’ loss to the Hurricanes. Robert Sabo for NY Post
After two power plays went for naught in the third, their momentum faded at even strength too, with Carolina tilting the ice and the Islanders struggling to break out.
By the time William Carrier knocked in a rebound with 5:08 to go to put the Canes ahead 4-3, Carolina had started to take on an air of inevitability.
Jalen Chatfield’s desperation heave that landed in the back of an empty Islanders net with under a minute left only confirmed it.
Mitchell Chaffee (26) celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal in the Islanders’ 5-3 loss to the Hurricanes on Nov. 5, 2026 at UBS Arena. Robert Sabo for NY Post
“We’ve gotta get a power-play goal,” DeBoer said. “I think that probably changes the game if we find a way to stick one in.”
The schedule is what it is, and the Islanders can’t control the fact that the current favorites in the Western Conference and Eastern Conference just visited a few days apart. Nevertheless, this is the first time all year they’ve lost consecutive games in regulation, and stopping the losing streak at two in the last game of the homestand Saturday against the Devils will be crucial.
The Islanders did show that they could play with the Hurricanes on Thursday. Just not for long.
Players fight after a game between the New York Islanders and Carolina Hurricanes. Robert Sabo for NY Post
Whether that is a glass half-full or half-empty statement depends on how you read it.
“I liked our game tonight. We deserved a point, probably two,” Schenn said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way.”
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Dawson Mercer scored his first goal for Winnipeg and added an assist in the Jets' 6-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night.
Mark Scheifele also had a goal and an assist for Winnipeg, and Mario Ferraro, Neal Pionk, Alex Iafallo and Cole Koepke scored. Stuart Skinner made 24 saves.
The Jets were coming off a game Tuesday night in Montreal where they overcame a 4-0 deficit in the final 2:39 and won 5-4 in overtime.
Brock Boeser and Liam Ohgren scored for Vancouver. Leevi Merilainen stopped 23 of 29 shots.
Winnipeg improved to 6-8-3, and Vancouver fell to 3-14-1.
The subtle double-fisted flex Pavel Dorofeyev made after scoring the Rangers’ game-tying power-play goal Thursday night said it all.
Not only did the Blueshirts need it to eventually pull out a 3-2 win over the Flyers at Madison Square Garden, Dorofeyev needed his first big Rangers moment to muffle the concerns that have stemmed from his snakebitten play through his first 17 games as a Blueshirt.
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“It obviously helps,” the Russian wing said after the win, which was secured by Tye Kartye’s bullet shot off the rush with 4:39 left in regulation. “I just gotta keep focusing on my game, trying again and again. Hopefully, it’s going to come, like post and in, at some point.”
It’s a good sign that Dorofeyev, who added a smile at the end of his remarks, can poke fun at the fact that he leads the NHL in posts/crossbars hit with seven.
Aside from the situation in goal, the first five and a half weeks of this season have been consumed by figuring out where the 26-year-old fits best in the Rangers lineup. Head coach Mike Sullivan has run through numerous forward combinations to try to shake things up to help Dorofeyev start connecting on the abundance of scoring chances he’s generated.
Pavel Dorofeyev (16, left) celebrates with teammates after scoring the game-tying in the third period of the Rangers’ 3-2 win over the Flyers on Nov. 4, 2026 at the Garden. Jason Szenes for New York Post
Sullivan even turned to former Rangers coach John Tortorella, who had Dorofeyev in Vegas last season.
“He’s tried to offer me some insight on some of the things that he did when he was coaching him that he felt helped Pav move in the right direction,” Sullivan said of his “multiple” conversations with Tortorella. “I’m trying to utilize some of those insights, and it’s a work in progress. My experience has been, when a player changes teams like that, signs a fairly decent contract, sometimes there’s a little bit of an adjustment process that players go through. … I think Pav is going through that process with us right now, trying to figure out we’re a different team than what he was on. He’s playing with different players.”
Tye Kartye celebrates after scoring the game-winning goal in the Rangers’ comeback win over the Flyers. Jason Szenes for New York PostDylan Garand makes one of his 23 saves during the Rangers’ win over the Flyers. Jason Szenes for New York Post
Thursday counted as the Rangers’ first comeback win of the season, and they were the last team in the NHL to record one. Playing with leads has been a strength of this Rangers team to start this campaign, but climbing out of any hole has been a lofty task.
The Rangers broke that trend Thursday night and improved to 9-1 when scoring the first goal of the game.
In their third straight game without Sean Durzi, who was placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury before puck drop, the Rangers defense gave up few grade-A opportunities in the first period to make life a little easier on rookie goalie Dylan Garand in his 12th consecutive game.
J.T. Miller helped get the Rangers on the board less than five minutes into the game when the captain got a stick on a Marcus Pettersson shot and the puck ricocheted in off Gabe Perreault.
Once the home team’s energy waned, however, the Flyers were opportunistic with what was given.
With Noah Cates screening in front, Simon Benoit’s shot from the blue line beat Garand above his right shoulder. Swarming the Rangers net just under two minutes later, Noel Acciari tapped in a turnaround feed from Denver Barkey to give his team its first lead of the night.
“We started on time today,” Dorofeyev said. “Game slipped [away] in the second, but then we regrouped after second and dug in there and came back in the game.”
NEW YORK (AP) — William Carrier scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the New York Islanders 5-3 on Thursday night.
Logan Stankoven, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Andrei Svechnikov also scored for Carolina, which won for the fourth time in five games. Sebastian Aho had two assists, and Brandon Bussi finished with 24 saves. Jalen Chatfield added an empty-net goal in the final minute of the third.
Brayden Schenn had a goal and an assist, and Mitchell Chaffee and Viktor Eklund also scored for the Islanders, who lost their second straight game. Semyon Varlamov made 34 saves.
Aho fired a shot from the left wall, and Carrier buried the rebound with 5:08 remaining in regulation.
The Hurricanes jumped out to a two-goal lead in the first 3:20, scoring on two of their first three shots.
Carolina took advantage of a New York miscue when forwards Anthony Duclair and Jean-Gabriel Pageau over-skated a bouncing puck, and Stankoven sent a wrist shot between Varlamov’s pads. Jackson Blake extended his point streak to eight games with the primary assist on the opening goal.
Matthew Schaefer tried to keep a play alive in the offensive zone late in a shift and was caught up ice. Jordan Martinook found Kotkaniemi behind the Islanders defense for an easy redirection 3:20 into the first to give Carolina a 2-0 lead.
New York responded with two goals in the first 5:44 of the second, tying the game.
Chaffee redirected Schaefer’s shot from the point for his first of the season, and Schenn converted a wraparound just over two minutes later to tie it.
Sixty seconds later, Svechnikov finished a feed from Aho to put Carolina in front.
Eklund answered with a one-timer from the slot with less than three minutes remaining in the period to even the score at 3.
The Islanders signed veteran defenseman Ben Hutton to a one-year contract Thursday. Hutton, 33, had joined New York on a professional tryout Monday after recording 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in 55 games with the Vegas Golden Knights last season.
The Islanders overcame a horrible start to make it a game, a winnable game even, against the defending Cup champion Hurricanes, but in the end mistakes killed them on the way to a loss
The Islanders hadn’t been in action for five days and looked it when the Canes pounced to a 2-0 lead in the first 3:20. They steadily got their bearings and though they hit the first intermission still trailing by two, they got two quick ones to make it a game again in the first six minutes of the second.
After trading goals once more, things looked possibly headed to overtime until William Carrier outmuscled J-G Pageau for a rebound to score the winner with 5:08 to go.
Varly: Semyon Varlamov had a solid game facing Carolina’s trademark shot barrage, stopping 34. With Varly pulled for a sixth attacker, the Islanders had a decent chance to get set up but the refs errantly whistled play down for what they thought was too many men. Though the refs mitigated the error by not calling a penalty, that added to the frustration the Isles felt for the refs and the setting on through the final horn.
6-on-5: With Varlamov pulled, Jordan Martinook lost a stick but the Isles let an even better opportunity slip away as the bouncing puck eluded Brayden Schenn, who was checked out of the play by the stickless Martinook, while Jalen Chatfield chopped the puck the length of the rink and into the empty net.
Special teams: The Islanders’ power play was its usual mess on its four missed opportunities, but the penalty kill held up its end. Neither Brayden Schenn (who had a nice wraparound goal) nor Adam Pelech liked their tacky yet justifiable penalty calls, but their kill of Pelech’s penalty late in the second and at the beginning of the third — right after Victor Eklund tied the game at 3-3 — was huge.
The difference: At least, of course, until Carrier’s goal made it moot. Varlamov gloved the point shot through traffic, but Pageau was slow to react in a stick battle with Carrier, who beat Pageau and then Varlamov for his first of the season.
On balance, with the mistakes the Isles made, a regulation loss was the deserved result. But it stings more since the Isles erased their bad start and hung with the champs all game.
Up Next
After that bizarre November layoff in an 84-game season, the Islanders host the streaking Devils on Saturday before hitting the road for the California triangle.
Roster notes: Will Ben Hutton make an appearance? The Isles announced his signing before the game, though he did not play. They did not need all 10 days of the PTO to decide he needs to figure in their blueline depth.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Ilya Mikheyev scored twice to back Andrei Vasilevskiy and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 on Thursday night to remain perfect at home this season.
Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh also scored. Vasilevskiy made 24 saves, allowing only Roman Kantserov's goal with 49 seconds left.
The Lightning are 8-0-0 at home and 10-3-2 overall, while the Blackhawks are 0-7-1 on the road and 4-12-1 overall.
Arvid Soderblom stopped 31 shots for Chicago.
Hedman opened the scoring on a power play at 4:12 of the first period. The defenseman has four goals this season.
Mikheyev connected with 1:38 in the opening period.
McDonagh scored on a slap shot at 2:38 of the third, and Mikheyev added his second of the game and fourth of the season on a tip at 5:07.
Up next
Blackhawks: At Carolina on Saturday night.
Lightning: At Minnesota on Saturday night to open four-game trip.
