Sept. 26: NHL Preseason Roundup

Juraj Slafkovsky, the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, made his debut for the Montreal Canadiens in a 2-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils at Bell Centre in Montreal on Monday.

The 18-year-old left wing had one shot on goal in 16:59 of ice time.
"It was great and I'm sure it will only be better and better, like when the season starts (Oct. 12), but it was great," Slafkovsky said. "It was faster for sure, but those are little things. I will get used to it.
"I won a couple of pucks, I lost a couple of pucks. I can be better. I know myself, I can play better, I can skate faster and shoot more."
It was the first preseason game for each team.
Tomas Tatar and Graeme Clarke scored for the Devils. Mackenzie Blackwood started and made 15 saves on 16 shots for the Devils. Nico Daws came on midway through the second period and made five saves.
Cole Caufield scored for the Canadiens. Jake Allen made 18 saves in 29:18, and Cayden Primeau made 11 saves on 13 shots in relief.
Caufield scored on the power play at 12:32 of the first period to give the Canadiens a 1-0 lead.
Tatar tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 16:07 of the second period.
Clarke scored at 14:03 of the third period for the 2-1 final.
New Jersey center Nico Hischier left the game after the first period due to cramping. Hischier, who is Devils captain, had one shot on goal in 6:24 of ice time.

Panthers 4, Predators 3 (OT):Aleksander Barkov scored with one second left in overtime to give the Florida Panthers a 4-3 win against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville in the preseason opener for each team.
Barkov's shot from the left circle on the rush deflected in.
Paul Maurice made his debut as Florida coach in the first of two split-squad games between the teams. Nashville won the second game 4-0.
Ryan Lomberg, Eetu Luostarinen and
Kai Schwindt
scored, and Aaron Ekblad and Santtu Kinnunen each had two assists for the Panthers. Barkov had an assist, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 10 saves on 12 shots in 31:45 before being replaced by Mack Guzda, who made 12 saves.
Juuso Parssinen had a goal and an assist for the Predators. Connor Ingram made 10 saves on 12 shots in 31:17 before being replaced by Devin Cooley, who made 18 saves.
Nino Niederreiter had an assist in his Predators debut after signing a two-year, $8 million contract ($4 million average annual value) on July 21.
Ryan Johansen tied it 3-3 for Nashville with 5:25 left in the third period on a deflection.
Luostarinen gave Florida a 1-0 lead with a shorthanded goal with 43 seconds left in the first period when he scored on a 2-on-1.
Schwindt made it 2-0 at 3:41 of the second period before Parssinen cut it to 2-1 at 4:42. Roland McKeown tied it 2-2 at 11:45.
Lomberg put the Panthers ahead 3-2 at 2:11 of the third on a rebound at the left side of the net.
Rangers 4, Islanders 1: Igor Shesterkin stopped all 14 shots he faced playing midway into the second period, helping the New York Rangers to a 4-1 win against the New York Islanders at Madison Square Garden in New York.
It was the first preseason game for each team.
K'Andre Miller scored a shorthanded goal, and Brennan Othmann had two assists for the Rangers. Dylan Garand made nine saves in relief of Shesterkin, who played 31:41 after winning the Vezina Trophy last season voted as the best goalie in the NHL.
Robin Salo scored for the Islanders, who lost in Lane Lambert's first game as coach. Semyon Varlamov allowed four goals on 20 shots in 31:15 before being replaced by Jakub Skarek, who made 15 saves.
Jimmy Vesey
gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead on the power play at 10:51 of the first period with a sharp-angled shot over Varlamov's left shoulder from the right side. The 29-year-old forward, who played his first three NHL seasons (2016-19) with the Rangers, is in training camp on a professional tryout contract.
Chris Kreider made it 2-0 on a rebound at 15:48.
Miller extended the lead to 3-0 with four seconds left in the period when scored off a feed from Othmann, who chased down a loose puck in the corner after an Islanders turnover.
Zac Jones pushed it to 4-0 with a one-timer at 11:41 of the second period.
Salo scored at 16:10 for the 4-1 final.

Blues 4, Stars 0: Josh Leivo had two goals and an assist for the St. Louis Blues in a 4-0 win against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center in Dallas.
Logan Brown had a goal and an assist for St. Louis, which has won its first two preseason games. Thomas Greiss made 10 saves in the first period, and Colten Ellis made 23 saves to complete the shutout.
Anton Khudobin made 11 saves on 13 shots in the first, and Jake Oettinger made 13 saves on 15 shots for Dallas in its preseason opener.
Brown scored his third goal in two games on a rebound at 13:13 of the first to make it 1-0.
Leivo made it 2-0 at 19:04, then scored again at 11:54 of the second period for a 3-0 Blues lead.
William Bitten scored at 13:01 of the third period for the 4-0 final.
Predators 4, Panthers 0:Forward Matthew Tkachuk was held without a point in his Florida Panthers debut, a 4-0 loss to the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
It was the second of two split-squad games between the teams. Visiting Florida won the first game 4-3 in overtime.
Tkachuk, who had one shot on goal in 18:13, was acquired July 22 in the trade that sent forward Jonathan Huberdeau and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar to the Calgary Flames.
Ryan McDonagh had an assist in his Predators debut, and Matt Duchene and Mattias Ekholm each had two assists. Kevin Lankinen stopped all 13 shots he faced before being replaced midway through the second period by Yaroslav Askarov (12 saves).
Spencer Knight started in goal for the Panthers and made 19 saves on 20 shots in 29:56. Alex Lyon made 15 saves in relief.
Filip Forsberg put Nashville up 1-0 at 14:23 of the first period. It was his first game since signing an eight-year, $68 million contract ($8.5 million average annual value) on July 11.
Cody Glass pushed it to 2-0 at 8:01 of the third period from the right hash marks off a pass from Duchene for a power-play goal.
Colton Sissons made it 3-0 at 13:30 when he finished a breakaway with a backhand, and Tanner Jeannot tipped a McDonagh shot at 17:12 for the 4-0 final.
McDonagh was traded to Nashville by the Tampa Bay Lightning on July 3.
Kraken 3, Oilers 0: Matty Beniers, the No. 2 pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, scored for the Seattle Kraken in their 3-0 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.
Beniers, who had nine points (three goals, six assists) in 10 NHL games last season, gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead at 2:12 of the second period.
Martin Jones stopped all 13 shots he faced in 32:15, and Joey Daccord made 15 saves in relief for Seattle in its first preseason game.
Olivier Rodrigue
started in goal for Edmonton and allowed one goal on nine shots in 30:00.
Ryan Fanti
made 16 saves in relief.
Ryan Donato made it 2-0 at 14:15 of the second, and Morgan Geekie scored shorthanded 43 seconds into the third period for the 3-0 final.

Kings 2, Golden Knights 1 (OT): Kevin Fiala had a goal and an assist in his debut with the Los Angeles Kings, a 2-1 overtime win against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Fiala, a forward, was acquired by the Kings in a trade with the Minnesota Wild on June 29 and signed a seven-year, $55.125 million contract ($7.875 million average annual value) the next day.
He tied it 1-1 for Los Angeles at 14:07 of the second period, then assisted on Adrian Kempe's power-play goal at 1:48 of overtime for the 2-1 final.
Cal Petersen stopped 10 of 11 shots in the first period for the Kings, and Pheonix Copley stopped all 23 shots he faced in relief.
Jack Eichel scored, and Phil Kessel had an assist for Vegas. Logan Thompson stopped all nine shots he faced in 30:13, and Adin Hill made seven saves in relief.
Eichel gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead at 7:10 of the first.

NHL.com independent correspondent Sean Farrell contributed to this report