The Buffalo Sabres grabbed a 2-0 lead midway through the first period. Thomas Vanek put them in front at 4:02 of the opening period. Vanek put the rebound from a Sheldon Brookbank shot past Jonas Hiller after establishing a spot near the edge of the crease.

Finnish native Ville Leino excited what had been mostly a pro-Anaheim crowd by making it a 2-0 game. Leino played for Jokerit, the local team that calls Hartwall Areena home, for one season before coming to the NHL with the Detroit Red Wings in 2008-09.

The Ducks had a great first shift from the Teemu Selanne-Saku Koivu-Jason Blake line, but the Sabres took control after killing off an early penalty and were peppering Anaheim goalie Jonas Hiller.

The Los Angeles Kings dominated the first period of Friday's 2011 Compuware NHL Premiere game against the New York Rangers, but the game was tied 1-1 after one period.

Kings forward Anze Kopitar opened the scoring with a laser-beam of a shot over the glove of Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist after a bad turnover by Artem Anisimov. Justin Williams jumped on the loose puck just inside the Rangers blue line and was able to slip a pass to Kopitar in the slot for the quick release.

The Rangers struggled mightily to generate offense in the first and did not manage a shot on goal until right before the tying goal by Ryan Callahan at the 15:22 mark. The scoring play started with a turnover and an initial save by Jonathan Quick on Callahan. But Callahan re-acquired the puck, on a pass from Anisimov, and fired a bad-angle shot -- from the goal line -- over Quick's shoulder and inside the far post.

The pro-Rangers crowd at the Globe Arena cheered wildly for the Rangers, particularly Lundqvist and Norway's Mats Zuccarello, who played several years in Sweden before joining the Rangers. Lundqvist actually provided the period's biggest highlight with a lightning-quick glove save on Kings captain Dustin Brown in the high slot.

The Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings will open their seasons today at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Based on this morning's practices, here are the expected forward lines and defense pairings for each team:

RED WINGS
Valtteri Filppula-Henrik Zetterberg-Johan Franzen
Jiri Hudler-Pavel Datsyuk-Danny Cleary
Justin Abdelkader-Darren Helm-Todd Bertuzzi
Drew Miller-Cory Emmerton-Tomas Holmstrom

Nicklas Lidstrom-Ian White
Niklas Kronwall-Brad Stuart
Jonathan Ericsson-Jakub Kindl

Jimmy Howard will start in goal, with Ty Conkin the backup.

SENATORS
Colin  Greening-Mika Zibanejad-Daniel Alfredsson
Milan Michalek-Jason Spezza-Nikita Filatov
Nick Foligno-Stephane Da Costa-Chris Neil
Erik Condra-Zack Smith- Billy Butler

Chris Phillips-Brian Lee
Filip Kuba-Erik Karlsson
Jared Cowen-Sergei Gonchar

Craig Anderson will start in goal, with Alex Auld backing him up.

NHL Network's Barry Melrose breaks down his top five offseason moves.

HELSINKI -- Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff made one big decision Thursday -- who his captain for the 2010-11 season would be. He had another to make as well -- who would be the odd man out from his talented defense corps?

The answer Friday morning at Hartwall Areena was Mike Weber, as Marc-Andre Gragnani will be in the lineup against the Anaheim Ducks for the opening game of the season in the 2011 Compuware NHL Premiere (1 p.m. ET, TSN2).

"(Gragnani) been a big part of our power play with the way he moves the puck," Ruff said. "Offensively, he did a very nice job for us at the end of the year and in the playoffs and even defensively he was quite strong. I think special teams is a big part and he's going to be a big, big player for us."

Weber had 4 goals and 17 points in 58 games for the Sabres last season. He also played in all seven Sabres playoff games. Gragnani played nine regular-season games for the Sabres, but had a breakout performance during the playoffs. He had a team-leading 7 points in the seven games against the Philadelphia Flyers and averaged the third-most minutes per game, behind Tyler Myers and the since-departed Chris Butler.

"It is extremely hard taking Mike out of the lineup, but we knew that … we knew that we have seven defensemen and we're going to have one really disappointed player," Ruff said. "There will be situations where we can utilize Weber, and we need our top six to play well for us.

"I'm going to just go game-to-game. I don't think there is ever going to be anything set in stone and I don't think there ever has to be."

HELSINKI -- Kurtis Foster and Matt Beleskey played Tuesday for the Anaheim Ducks against local club Jokerit, but it does not appear they will be in the lineup for the season-opener against the Buffalo Sabres (1 p.m. ET, TSN2).

Foster and Beleskey were among the players taking part in the customary "scratches skate" after Anaheim's morning on-ice workout was complete. Brian McGrattan and Toni Lydman also were skating with the assistant coaches and No. 3 goaltender Jeff Deslauriers here at Hartwall Areena.

Beleskey, like Lydman, is coming back from offseason shoulder surgery to repair a torn laburm. Foster had surgery on his leg last month to repair the steel plate that was inserted when he broke that leg two seasons ago with Minnesota.

"I think both of them -- we played Foster and Beleskey in the exhibition game against Jokerit specifically for the reason if they didn't play in that game, then they wouldn't have a chance to play for us this weekend," Carlyle said. "I think now that they played in that game there is a possibility that we could use them tonight or tomorrow."

The Ducks obviously are looking for a better start to this season after winning just four of 12 (4-7-1) to begin last season. Earlier this week Carlyle, mentioned his team did less scrimmaging and spent more time practicing with the hopes of avoiding another slow start.

"It was paska," Carlyle said, using a Finnish word that translates -- politely -- to "garbage." "That's one of the things you always guard against. As a coach, if you had the answer at the time, it wouldn't be happening. All the time, you're searching for answers. The one thing we've tried to sell to our players that blocking a shot, taking a check to make a play, being on the defensive side of things -- this has to start from the first game of the season and not in January, where we seemed to come together as a group (last season)."

STOCKHOLM -- Swedish journalists are quickly learning what not to ask Rangers coach John Tortorella.

For instance, someone asked him if he ever played in Sweden?

"Oh, don't ask me questions about me," was Tortorella's response.

The next question was from another Swedish journalist who wanted to know how Tortorella felt about what he's seen from Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards.

"They haven't started yet," Tortorella said. "You can come back to the States in a couple weeks and ask me that."

His comment drew some laughs and Tortorella smiled. He said it somewhat in jest, but everyone got the picture.

The Rangers coach was interested in one thing Friday morning, and that was talking about Friday night's game.

"I thought we created an identity of how we wanted to play and what we were last year and we want to go right back to it and keep building," Tortorella said.

Tortorella confirmed that Tim Erixon will be in the lineup for his NHL debut in his home country. Erixon's father, Jan Erixon, a former Ranger, is expected to be in the building Friday night.

Mike Rupp will also play after sitting out Thursday's practice with a sore knee. Rupp told NHL.com his knee had been acting up so he was given a day off to rest it and ice it.

"I'm ready to go now," he said.

Follow Dan Rosen on Twitter at: @drosennhl

STOCKHOLM -- They can't replace him, but the Rangers say they can still win without star defenseman Marc Staal, who remains back in New York dealing with post-concussion symptoms.

Their first test comes Friday night here against the Los Angeles Kings in the 2011 Compuware NHL Premiere.

"You're to have injuries and you just have to accept it. You can't see it as a great problem for your club," Henrik Lundqvist told NHL.com Friday morning. "Whatever we have here now is going to work for us. That's the way you have to think. Whenever he comes, he's going to be welcomed here, but right now it's up to us and I think we're going to do well."

There is no timetable on when Staal will return.

Rangers GM and President Glen Sather told the New York Post that he could be out a month, but if the headaches go away he'll be back sooner. If the headaches persist, Staal's absence could linger beyond November.

It's impossible to predict.

"He's not here with us right now so we have to get going without him," Dan Girardi, who takes over as the team's No. 1 blue-liner in Staal's absence, told NHL.com. "We have a bunch of D here right now that can play and we're all going to step up our game in his absence and hopefully bring a little extra to fill the hole."

Ryan McDonagh said the Rangers five-man defensive system should help minimize the effect of losing Staal.

"We play a whole five-man unit defensive system in our D zone so not everything relies on the D-men," McDonagh told NHL.com. "If you play defense as a team it helps solidify everything."

McDonagh, who played 40 games as a rookie last season, will start Friday's game with Girardi on the top pair. Michael Del Zotto, who entered camp just trying to make it through all the cuts, will play on the second pair with Michael Sauer. Tim Erixon will be making his NHL debut Friday night on the third pair with Steve Eminger.

New addition Jeff Woywitka, who arrived here Friday morning, and Brendan Bell are the scratches for Friday's game.

"I don't think anyone is going to be playing out of their comfort zone and trying to do too much," Girardi told NHL.com. "I'm still going to play my game and the other guys are going to play their game. Just because Marc is not here doesn't mean we're going to step out of our roles."

Follow Dan Rosen on Twitter at: @drosennhl

It's been a while since we have had ourselves had a live-blog. How have you been? Nice summer? Mine was OK. Want to compare vacation photos? Yeah, me neither. I'd rather just watch some hockey tonight and make snarky comments about players while I'm on my couch and nowhere near a locker room. It's safe, warm, and if I have a beer while watching a game at home, I get way less stares than when I'm doing keg stands on press row.

We've got three games tonight -- Canadiens-Leafs and Flyers-Bruins at 7, then Penguins-Canucks at 10. Before all that, NHL Network is having a four-hour (!) pre-game extravaganza starring Kevin Weekes and ... I'm not sure, really. As long as you have Weekes, everything else doesn't matter, right? But everyone will be in Boston for the banner raising, which I imagine will be a swell time of fun and happiness for people at TD Garden.

The Canadiens and Leafs game should be interesting. This may surprise people, but hockey is wildly popular in Canada, and the Canadiens and Leafs have a lot of fans who take things very seriously. I'm picking the Canadiens to reach the Cup Final and the Leafs and to make the playoffs, so in my mind, this is a heck of a matchup. I don't so much care what you think of it, but you should watch so you can at least following along with my jokes. I'm a joke maker.

Then at 10, Pens-Canucks. Fun. Sidney Crosby isn't back, but Evgeni Malkin is. The Canucks have waited about three months for a chance to wash the taste of losing to the Bruins out of their mouth, and the Penguins are the Listerine in this metaphor. It's a potential Cup Final preview on opening night. You can't ask for much more than that. Well, you can ask, but this is all you're getting. Man, you're greedy.

So here we go:

12:54 -- Well, that shootout lacked drama. Two calm saves for Fleury, two goals by Letang and Malkin where Luongo wound up on his stomach. Pens win 4-3, I'm going to sleep, take good care.

12:48 -- We are through OT and headed to a shootout. Daniel Sedin nearly won it in the first minute, but Fleury held his post on a tricky move from behind the net by Sedin.

12:37 -- Cody Hodgson beats Fleury, but it goes through the goalie's legs and just wide. With 75 seconds left, it looks like OT is inevitable.

12:34 -- We're still tied at 3, but Jordan Staal just left the ice and went to the locker room. Could be an injury, could be equipment. Stay tuned.

12:17 -- Henrik with just a sick pass to Daniel, who goes high glove to tie it. It was so sick that doctors would've given that pass a week to live. That's how sick it was.

12:15 -- Third period has gotten going at Rogers, but my Internet isn't getting wonky, like Paris Hilton's eye. I had a great thing before I wrote, but the site timed out. Oh well. 3-2 Pens in the third!

11:47 -- Keith Ballard has pulled the Canucks to within a goal as the second period winds down. Fleury had no chance as the Sedins get the assists.

11:19 -- I wrote this funny entry after Cooke scored his second of the game, a shorthanded goal, but there was an error message and it got erased. So this is all you get.

10:55 -- One period done, and it's 2-1 Pens. Definitely the most fun game of the night so far. It looked like the Canucks tied on a shot that Fleury gloved but the momentum of the shot took his trapper into the net. However, video replays were inconclusive. It looked like it crossed the line completely to me, but "it looked like" isn't conclusive. As in, it looked like I was going to become a professional baseball player, but replays showed conclusively I wasn't that good.

10:48 -- Maxim Lapierre keeps this game's theme going, as he slides the puck from behind the goal line and banks it off Marc-Andre Fleury and into the net. Good lord. This is a goaltending clinic. You know, the part of the clinic where you show goalies what not to do on shots from behind the goal line.

10:42 -- Matt Cooke, kind of like Michelle Branch, is everywhere to me. He draws the penalty on the first goal, scores the power-play goal on the next PP. And the beauty is he's on my NHL.com fantasy team. And that's why I drafted him. Power play goals. Right. Sure. 2-0 Pens.

10:35 -- As I weep for men everywhere while I watch a Weight Watches for men ad, the Pens are going on a power play after Jannik Hansen hit Zbynek Michalek from behind. Let's see if Luongo can defend the bank shot.

10:25 -- It took about 5 minutes for the James Neal to get his first goal and Roberto Luongo to let up a goal from behind the goal line. Neal banked it off the goaltender on the power play after Matt Cooke drew -- yes, drew -- a penalty. I don't think anyone will be pumping Lu's tires after that one.

10:17 -- At long last, the Pens and Canucks are under way. I'm glad this game is on by itself. I think it'll be the best one of the night.

9:59 -- The Flyers are going to hang on after the Bruins nearly tie it on a power play, but Kimmo Timonen made a stick save with a gaping net. Bryzgalov was great, the Bruins were asleep at the wheel for about a period, and it was enough to cost them the opener. Pens-Canucks is just a few minutes away, which will be nice because focusing on two games is hard. I know, I know. I'm a true hero, finding a way to watch two hockey games at once.

9:45 -- The Toronto Maple Leafs are the best team in the NHL. Leafs 2, Canadiens 0. Reimer held the fort in the first period and it seemed to deflate the Canadiens, who looked pretty awful the final two periods. My apologies now to Habs fans for picking them to come out of the East.

9:28 -- The Bruins have a little more energy in the third, but it appears that Cup hangover has settled in immediately. Missed passes, offsides, no one is skating. Meanwhile, the Leafs are settling in and are less than 10 minutes from having the most points in the NHL. Good for you, Toronto.

9:17 -- Phaneuf unleashed an absolute one-time bomb over the shoulder of Price that makes it 2-0. It all started with a turnover by Subban in the neutral zone and ended after Kessel teed up Phaneuf. Lot of time left and the Leafs are giving away power plays.

9:05 -- The Bruins get a couple of PP chances late in the second period, but the Flyers are the ones that get all the scoring chances. They are through two in Boston and the champs are still down 2-1. On the bright side, the third period in Toronto is starting. I love when games sync up like this.

8:50 -- The Leafs take a 1-0 lead to the locker room after two periods. They had a lengthy 5-on-3 to close the period, but they seemed interested in skating around the neutral zone and not shooting. I thought they did an excellent job of killing off their power play. The addition of David Steckel is paying immediate dividends.

8:41 -- So both games are happening at the same time right now, and I've got no volume on the Versus game. I'm listening to the CBC guys. Chara just shoved Giroux face-first into the boards, and it looked like a case of OH MY GOD CHARA IS SO MUCH BIGGER THAN THAT GUY WHO IS QUICK AND JUMPED IN FRONT OF CHARA. Alas, Chara has gotten a penalty for that. In Toronto, the Leafs are dominating the second period. They've got a goal, a post, and Kessel hit something on a 2-on-1 when it looked like he opened up the net with an nifty move. I can't wait till these games are over so I can start being overly judgmental about these teams.

8:25 -- The Leafs are suddenly buzzing in the second period, taking the play to Montreal. Sources tell me Ron Wilson didn't say a word, he just tweeted things like, "Thinking about murdering someone on the bench. They have their backs to me, so they'll never see it coming." Twitter, there's nothing it can't do.

8:14 -- Matthew Lombardi, who missed all but two games of last season because of a concussion problem, scores a shorty to give the Leafs a 1-0 lead. That's a nice story. He could win the Masterton.

8:09 -- The Flyers just tied it on a beauty of a goal by Claude Giroux, then Jakub Voracek gives them the lead like 4 seconds later. Zdeno Chara was on the ice for both goals, although Giroux utterly undressed him on the first one. Both goals come in the final minute. I'm sure passing the Cup around before the game had nothing to do with it.

7:52 -- Brad Marchand has scored the first goal of the season. The Bruins have been clicking, while the Flyers have looked mostly like a team full of new players getting to know each other. It's all Montreal in Toronto, but no one has scored. It's tied at 0-0 after one period with the Habs starting the second period on a power play.

7:35 -- Anthem being sung in Boston. Leafs can't get out of their own zone in Toronto. Jaromir Jagr just turned 42.