. . . JETS, BLUES KEEP PACE IN WEST
The Jets and Blues both earned victories to push their records to 4-1-0 and keep pace with Sharks atop the Western Conference standings.

* The Jets trailed 1-0 early but scored three unanswered goals - including Dustin Byfuglien's tiebreaking marker with 1:28 remaining in regulation - to win their home opener. Byfuglien scored his 28th career game-winning goal and 16th such tally with the Jets/Thrashers; no other defenseman has more than seven game-winning goals for the club.

* Blake Wheeler and Bryan Little each collected 1-1—2. Wheeler stretched his season-opening point streak to five games (3-4—7), one game shy of matching the longest point streak in his career (last – Dec. 23, 2014-Jan. 5, 2015: 2-5—7).

* The Blues opened a 3-0 lead by the midway point of the game and survived a late Canucks rally to snap a six-game losing streak against the Canucks dating to Oct. 25, 2013.

* Jake Allen, who led rookie netminders with 22 wins last season, made 31 saves to pick up his first victory of the season (2 GP). Kyle Brodziak’s first goal with the Blues (5 GP) stood as his 13th career game-winning tally and first since Jan. 19, 2014 at PHX (w/ MIN).

BERRA, AVALANCHE STYMIE DUCKS
Reto Berra denied all 35 shots he faced and Nathan MacKinnon notched the eventual winning goal 53 seconds after the opening face-off to help the Avalanche improve to 3-0-3 in their last six visits to Anaheim.

* Berra, who made his season debut in relief on Wednesday, has recorded shutouts in each of his last two starts. He posted his only other blank sheet in his final appearance of 2014-15, a 41-save performance on April 9 vs. WPG.

* MacKinnon, who has 2-4—6 in four outings this season, has collected 40-67—107 in 150 career games, including eight game-winning goals.

* John Mitchell (1-0—1) extended his career-high goal streak to four games. Via Elias, he is the third player in COL/QUE franchise history to score in each the team’s first four games of a season, joining Michel Goulet (1983-84) and Mats Sundin (1992-93).

THREE CLUBS PICK UP FIRST WINS
The Maple Leafs (1-2-1), Kings (1-3-0) and Hurricanes (1-3-0) skated to their first victories of 2015-16.

* The Maple Leafs scored three times in each of the final two periods – powered by multi-point efforts from Daniel Winnik (0-3—3), Leo Komarov (2-0—2), Joffrey Lupul (1-1—2) and Morgan Rielly (0-2—2) – to earn their first road victory since March 3 at FLA, snapping a nine-game skid away from home. Winnik and Rielly both equaled career highs for assists and points in one game, while Komarov posted his second career multi-goal effort (Nov. 26, 2014: 2-0—2 at PIT).

* Anze Kopitar scored his first goal of the season at 2:19 of the extra frame – afterTanner Pearson made a heads-up play to avoid an offside – and Jonathan Quick made 25 saves to lead the Kings to their first win of the season. Via Elias, Kopitar scored his fifth career overtime goal, tying Luc Robitaille and Ziggy Palffy for the most in franchise history.

* Hurricanes captain Eric Staal and newcomer Kris Versteeg each registered 1-2—3 to guide the club to its second regular-season win at Joe Louis Arena since relocating to Carolina in 1997-98 (2-9-2). Staal scored against Detroit for the first time in 16 career outings (1-11—12); he now has a goal against all 29 NHL teams he has faced.

DID YOU KNOW?
Hurricanes forward Brock McGinn (1-1—2), a second-round selection (47th overall) in the 2012 NHL Draft, scored 55 seconds into his League debut. Via Elias, the last player to score within the first 55 seconds of his NHL debut was Alexander Mogilny on Oct. 5, 1989 vs. QUE (0:20 w/ BUF).

* McGinn’s older brothers, Jamie (69-61—130 in 370 GP) and Tye (9-8—17 in 87 GP) potted their first NHL goal in their second and third games, respectively. All three brothers collected 1-1—2 in the game in which they scored their first career goal.

MILESTONES & BENCHMARKS
* Canucks forward Brandon Sutter (1-2—3), who matched a career high with three points, scored his 100th career goal while playing in his 500th NHL game.

* Blue Jackets forward Scott Hartnell (1-1—2) became the 32nd active player to reach 600 NHL points (280-320—600).

* Kings defenseman Derek Forbort, the 15th overall selection in the 2010 NHL Draft, made his League debut (11:33 TOI). Sharks forward Nikolay Goldobin, the 27th overall selection in 2014, also played his first game (11:52 TOI).

* Kings captain Dustin Brown played in his 806th career game (all w/ LAK) to pass RobBlake into fourth place on the franchise’s all-time games played list.

* Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock earned his first victory with his new club.

* Avalanche forward Jack Skille scored his first goal with the club (4 GP).

* Blues defenseman CarlGunnarsson (0-2—2) collected his 100th career point.

McLELLAN TO COACH TEAM NORTH AMERICA FOR 2016 WORLD CUP OF HOCKEY
The NHLPA and the NHL announced the appointment of Todd McLellan as Team North America’s head coach for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. In addition, Adam Graves has been appointed as Special Assistant to the General Managers of Team North America;Pat Verbeek and Paul Fenton were both named as a Director of Player Personnel; andRyan Jankowski was named as Director of Operations. McLellan, Graves, Verbeek, Fenton and Jankowski will report to Team North America General Manager Peter Chiarelliand Associate General Manager Stan Bowman.

McLellan, who is in his first season as head coach of the Edmonton Oilers, was the head coach of Team Canada at the 2015 World Hockey Championship, leading Canada to its first gold medal since 2007 with an undefeated record of 10-0. The Melville, Sask., native spent the past seven seasons as head coach of the Sharks, posting a record of 311-163-66 in 540 games.

Click here for more details.

JOANNETTE SET FOR OFFICIATING MILESTONE
Referee Marc Joannettewill work the 1,000th game of his NHL career at Bell Centre tonight when the Canadiens host the Red Wings.

LOOSE PUCKS
Via Elias, Dylan Larkin (0-1—1) became the first rookie in Red Wings history to record a point in each of the team's first four games of a season (1-4—5). Larkin, 19, was the first teenager to debut for Detroit in a season opener since Mike Sillinger in 1990-91 and the first teenager to score in his first game with the club since Steve Yzerman in 1983 . . . Blue Jackets forward Ryan Johansen (0-1—1) has points in each of his first five contests (1-5—6). He collected points in each of his first 10 games in 2014-15 (5-8—13) . . . Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg (0-1—1) stretched his season-opening point streak to four games (2-6—8) . . . Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko (0-2—2) notched two primary assists in the second period to stretch his season-opening point streak to five games (3-4—7) . . . Wild goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 35 saves in his season debut . . . The Wild have earned a point in all four games this season (3-0-1), with Zach Parise(5-2—7) and Ryan Suter (0-5---5) finding the scoresheet in each contest . . . ICYMI: The Canadiens signed forward Tomas Plekanec to a two-year contract extension . . . The Department of Player Safety suspended Lightning defenseman Nikita Nesterov for two games for boarding Stars forward Curtis McKenzie . . . The Ducks wore their new third jersey for the first time. Click here to see a photo gallery from their game against the Avalanche . . . The Red Wings wore special warmup jerseys which were auctioned off as part of their ninth annual Breast Cancer Awareness night.

SNEAK PEEK AT SATURDAY’S ACTION
All Times Eastern
Detroit @ Montreal, 7:00 p.m., CBC, NHLN-US, TVAS, FS-D
Nashville @ Ottawa, 7:00 p.m., SN1, FS-TN
Buffalo @ Tampa Bay, 7:00 p.m., MSG-B, BELL TV, SUN
Dallas @ Florida, 7:00 p.m., FS-SW, FS-F
Toronto @ Pittsburgh, 7:00 p.m., CITY, ROOT
Carolina @ Washington, 7:00 p.m., FS-SE, CSN-DC
San Jose @ NY Islanders, 7:30 p.m., CSN-CA, MSG+
Columbus @ Chicago, 8:30 p.m., FS-O, WGN
Edmonton @ Calgary, 10:00 p.m., CBC, SN1
Boston @ Arizona, 10:00 p.m., NESN, FS-A
NBCSN Channel Finder
Sportsnet Channel Finder

KESSEL, SAAD FACE FORMER CLUBS FOR THE FIRST TIME
* Penguins forward Phil Kessel, who played six seasons for Toronto before he was traded to Pittsburgh on July 1, will play his former team for the first time. Kessel had 181 goals and 394 points in 446 games with the Maple Leafs. He returns to Toronto for the first time on Oct. 31.

* Blue Jackets forward Brandon Saad will receive his Stanley Cup ring in his return to United Center after being traded to Columbus. Saad posted career highs in goals (23), assists (29) and points (52) last year with the Blackhawks en route to his second Stanley Cup championship with Chicago.