"Mr. Hockey: My Story," the new memoir by all-time hockey great Gordie Howe, hit the shelves Oct. 14. Howe, 86, has a form of dementia and is not doing media interviews to promote the book. However, the Canadian publisher of "Mr. Hockey" has provided the text of a Q & A between Howe and Wayne Gretzky, which was conducted by email in September. Gretzky, a close friend of the Howe family, wanted to be involved in the book's release. Gretzky and an editor worked together to come up with the questions for the interview, the only one Howe will do to promote the book. Marty Howe, Gordie's son, transcribed his father's answers. This interview first appeared in several Canadian outlets earlier this month.

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WAYNE GRETZKY: In your memoir you write about participating in the puck-drop ceremony for the 2014 Winter Classic alumni game at Comerica Park. Could you tell me a little bit about playing outdoors as a child? What was your local rink like? What's your fondest memory of playing outside?

GORDIE HOWE: I loved playing hockey and looked forward to getting on the ice. If I wasn't home eating I was on the ice skating all winter. The rink was just boards and ice. In the Depression there was no money to do much — I think we were lucky there was man-made ice to skate on. I don't know that any memory stands out as the fondest, but I always liked to score and loved to win. That was what I lived for.

Carl Hagelin

Left Wing - NYR

GOALS: 1 | ASST: 0 | PTS: 1
SOG: 13 | +/-: -4

After five games to the start the season without a point, Hagelin scored at 13:01 of the first period, the opening salvo in a 4-0 victory for the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

The play began in a familiar place for Hagelin this season, with a faceoff in the defensive zone. After Dominic Moore won the draw to the left of goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, defenseman John Moore sent an outlet pass to Hagelin beyond the blue line in the neutral zone.

MONTREAL -- The Colorado Avalanche came into this season with many in the hockey world doubting their ability to build off their surprising performance in 2013-14.

The percentages simply didn't add up to long-term success.

So when the Avalanche came out of the gates with back-to-back losses by a combined score of 8-0 to the Minnesota Wild, the team that eliminated them from the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Western Conference First Round, it appeared as though those predictions of regression were not so off base.

Those whispers were heard by the Avalanche in the offseason, and they're still being heard now. But the only affect it has had on Colorado is to strengthen the resolve to prove those people wrong.

"We certainly know that there are doubters out there. They're always going to be there," Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said Saturday prior to facing the Montreal Canadiens (7 p.m. ET, TVA, CITY) to close out a four-game Atlantic Division road trip. "As long as we in this group, in this room, believe in ourselves, we know what we can do, we know that we can accomplish a lot of good things. Sometimes, that only motivates you when people start doubting you, saying last year was a fluke and all those things. But we know what we can do in this room, that's what's most important."

NEWARK, N.J. -- When the 2014-15 schedule came out in June, New Jersey Devils coach Peter DeBoer immediately noticed a major challenge his team would have to overcome.

DeBoer looked down the schedule to mid-December and counted 21 road games in 17 buildings. He counted 11 games at Prudential Center.

He knew right then that if the Devils were going to give themselves a fighting chance to break a two-year Stanley Cup Playoff drought, the longest the franchise has had in 27 years, they were going to have to pick up points in a lot of unfriendly buildings, including 11 in the Eastern Conference, in the first two-plus months of the season.

They're off to a good start.

NEW YORK -- There's no better tonic for a loss than to get right back on the ice in an attempt to make amends.

At least that's how San Jose Sharks defenseman Jason Demers views the situation when asked about his team's demeanor 24 hours after losing its first game of the season, 4-3 to the New York Islanders in a shootout Thursday.

The Sharks (3-0-1) will play the New Jersey Devils (3-1-0) at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., on Saturday.

"We did some good things and maybe they out-skated us a little bit in certain areas," Demers told NHL.com during an off-day visit to The NHL Powered by Reebok Store. "You know as a team the odds of going 82-0 are pretty tough, so eventually you might drop a few, but it's how you bounce back.

BUFFALO -- When the Florida Panthers visit the Buffalo Sabres on Friday, the highlight of the matchup involves the top two players selected in the 2014 NHL Draft.

Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad, selected first, and Sabres forward Sam Reinhart, selected second, will face off against each other for the first time in their pro careers. While they are good friends and were roommates while trying out for Canada at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup, they're focused on what lies ahead in their careers.

"I come into every single game with just an attitude that I want to come out, be positive, work hard and be enthusiastic about the game every shift," Ekblad said. "And that's kind of the mentality I have going into every game. I don't really think about who I'm playing against. You can't cheat against everyone; you have to play in this League because everyone is so good."

The top two picks in the draft haven't played against each other this early in a season since Oct. 11, 1997, when top pick Joe Thornton, then of the Boston Bruins, faced second pick and future teammate Patrick Marleau of the San Jose Sharks.

MONTREAL -- Milan Lucic came so close to coming out of it unscathed.

After a summer of hearing about the remarks he made in the handshake line at the end of the Boston Bruins' loss in the Stanley Cup Playoffs to the Montreal Canadiens, Lucic was facing those Canadiens again for the first time Thursday, and all eyes were on him.

On his first shift of the game, Lucic picked up the puck with speed and entered the Canadiens zone only to have his nemesis, Montreal defenseman Alexei Emelin, knock him down with a solid shoulder check.

The sellout Bell Centre crowd of 21,273 fans roared its approval, but Lucic did nothing to retaliate. In fact, Lucic was on his best behavior for most of the night, focused on helping the Bruins win more so than exacting any sort of revenge for a playoff loss five months earlier.

But in the final minutes, with the Bruins trailing 5-4 but taking the play to the Canadiens in an effort to tie the game, Lucic was faced with an opportunity too difficult to resist.

MONTREAL -- No one needs to be reminded of what happened the last time the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins were on the ice for a meaningful game.

Hands were shaken; things were said.

Ever since May 14, when the Canadiens eliminated the Bruins from the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 3-1 victory at TD Garden in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference Second Round series, culminating with some menacing words from Boston forward Milan Lucic in the handshake line, the next meeting between the longtime rivals has been circled on the calendar of all involved.

That includes the Canadiens players.

"Obviously when the season starts you're not looking too far down the road, but now that it's here, with what happened last year, I think both teams are going to be really excited for it," Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher said. "I think any time Montreal and Boston are playing each other there's a little more to it with the rivalry that comes with it. I've only been a part of it for … this is my third year and I fully understand what the games are like. They're a little more intense. There's a little bit of hatred between the two teams. But there's a lot of respect as well."

UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- One week into the season, nobody should be surprised to see the New York Islanders' top center, John Tavares, among the NHL scoring leaders.

But their No. 2 center, Brock Nelson, is right there with him.

Nelson, a first-round pick (No. 30) in the 2010 NHL Draft, scored his third goal Tuesday in a 6-3 win against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. It was Nelson's seventh point, tying him with Tavares and three others for the most in the League.

DETROIT -- Detroit Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist seems to be back where he was during a two-and-a-half month stretch last season.

The 25-year-old right wing from Halmstad, Sweden, has goals in each of the Red Wings' first two games this season, which Detroit split. That comes following a season in which he led the Red Wings with 28 goals; he also had 20 assists in 57 games.

Nyquist and the Red Wings host the Boston Bruins on Wednesday at Joe Louis Arena in the Wednesday Night Rivalry game at 8 p.m. ET (NBCSN, TVA, SN1).