Zizing ‘Em Up: NHL’s thrilling first week of 2026-27 season hit every extreme

NHL.com staff writer Mike Zeisberger has been covering the NHL regularly since 1999. Each Tuesday he will use his extensive network of hockey contacts for his weekly notes column, “Zizing 'Em Up.”

TORONTO -- The 2026-27 campaign opened up with the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes playing 64:55 before the only goal of the season’s first game was scored.

Just 48 hours later, the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks had no such issues finding the back of the net, combining for 16 goals in a 9-7 Oilers victory.

But the coup de grace of the NHL’s opening week came that same night of Oct. 1, when the New York Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin became the 18th goalie in NHL history to score a goal, sealing his team’s 5-1 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Shutouts, shootouts and goalie goals. 

Welcome to the roller coaster that is the NHL’s new season.

“It’s always unpredictable early on, and this time around has been no exception,” Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell said.

Waddell is part of Zizing ‘Em Up’s first GM panel of the season. During the course of the season we’ll be featuring a handful of discussions with NHL executives about trends and issues that are talking points within the sport.

This time around, Waddell is joined by Ottawa Senators GM Steve Staios and Utah Mammoth GM Bill Armstrong for “NHL Roundtable 1.0.” Among the topics du jour: early-season trends, escalating salaries and the addition of EBUGs traveling with each team.

First off, keeping in mind it’s been a very small body of work, what trends have you seen League-wide in the first week of the season?

Armstrong: “I really see the skill level of the players changing in a positive way. And I think that’s been on display early on. I think there's a higher skill level in the League. And I think a big part of that is that the young guys have really, really pushed the envelope about the training that they're doing before they’re even showing up in the NHL. I think it’s a good thing. I think the younger players are better, stronger, faster than they've ever been, and I think that’s pushing the League. And I think it's a great thing.”

Waddell: “I think it’s not only us, but I'm just watching a lot of games and the play seems to be a little more scrambly right now. It might be because the timing and all that might be off. Is it because there are less preseason games? I don’t know. But the play I’ve seen throughout the League has been more loosey-goosey than usual. That very well could change as teams play more games.”

Staios:  “I think typically the first sort of five, 10 games of the season, teams just continue to find their game. I just think that the play has been a little bit sloppy to watch here at the start of the season comparatively. We’ll see how long it stays that way.”

How much do you attribute that to shortened training camps? Some teams were playing their first regular-season games just two weeks after the official start of camps.

Staios: “We had a unique one compared to other teams in that we were one of the last teams to start our season and play a regular-season game, so we had some extra time to prepare. Like I mentioned, though, play throughout the League has been a bit sloppy. Now, I think from a player's perspective, the benefit of the shorter camp is that they feel healthier going into the regular season. I think time will tell. This will be something that I think we'll learn over time. Again, it could at the end of the day, it could be a benefit for the players. I mean, I think the one thing we all look at the players doing, and so does the team, is injury prevention and keeping players healthy. So we've added two more games to the regular season (to 84) and, at the same time, shorten training camp. Again, I think that you know the jury's still out to see how this all unfolds.”

Waddell: “Obviously it’s the new reality. It was negotiated by the union and the NHL. But, you know, we have some veterans that wanted to play three preseason games, and they just couldn’t do it. There’s also less time to see and evaluate guys who you’ve brought in on PTOs (professional tryout contract). And unfortunately, we were able to find them. But whatever adjustments we all have to look at making, we do know this: Today’s players come into camp in great shape as opposed to using camp to get into shape. The conditioning factor is something we don’t have to worry about.”

Armstrong: “The one thing I would say is that we GMs need to have better communication when it comes to preseason games. Right now in those games the home team usually plays its veterans and the road team usually features young players and prospects. What you don’t have is your top players playing against their top players. That doesn’t help them improve. Having games where veterans slaughter young guys doesn’t really make guys better or more prepared. If there’s ways where it’s top versus top I think it benefits everyone involved.”

What are your thoughts on the new emergency backup goalie (EBUG) rule that requires teams to employ one both at home and on the road?

Waddell: “We’re fortunate in that our EBUG is Reid Robertson who just happens to be our Teams Services Manager of Travel and Logistics. It worked out easy for us. We didn’t have to hire anyone from the outside. In general, I mean, you never want to see your goalies get hurt but this ensures you’re prepared. And, in a way, I’m probably responsible for this whole EBUG thing when I was with Carolina and got the Zamboni driver (David Ayres) to play for us against the Leafs when our two goalies were hurt (Feb. 22, 2020). When they scored on him on their first shot, I remember saying ‘Uh-oh, we’re in trouble.’ (Laughs). But we ended up winning the game.”

Armstrong: “It’s great. I would rather see my goaltender going to practice and take the shots that he wants to face, work hard at it, and then remove himself from the net as EBUGs can go in. I think, with the EBUG too, it just allows you to do skilled practices too with them in there.”

Staios: “We were lucky because Bradley Mitchell is part of our team (as a dressing room attendant and practice goalie). He’s been around our group and is very well liked. And so it was an easy choice to bring him in. I mean, they probably never see any time, but I guess it’s comforting for a team to have somebody there.”

The five-year, $90 million offer sheet forwarded to Anaheim Ducks forward Leo Carlsson by the Philadelphia Flyers in July sparked a significant spike in salaries around the NHL. How has that acceleration of contract values changed your jobs as general managers? With the salary cap continuing to go up, it was expected. But this quickly?

Armstrong: “Well, I think it blurred a lot of the money in other contract negotiations. There's been a feeding frenzy. And because the money moved on the Carlsson offer sheet, everybody’s looking to get in. Like I said, a feeding frenzy like there’s blood in the water. When that all settles, you’d better not have paid too much for some guys. And I think that just has to calm down in some regards. It goes two ways if you're trying to build a championship team. You know, you can't pay huge money, to some extent, to everybody. So everybody has to work within the team. So you might, obviously, have a contract that's reasonable and fair. But just because the money has increased with the cap, and the way that offer sheet affected the landscape salary wise, as a team I think you have to be smart and calculated in trying to build a championship roster. And that's not an easy thing with the money moving.”

Waddell: “I think it even started to happen a little bit before this year with the way teams have been locking up their young players. And it's just going to continue on. And as for the length of contracts, those seven- and eight-year deals, I think that’s out the window for the most part now.”

Staios: “I think when you're forecasting the way we do, it does come into effect. And you have to make sure that you're being responsible moving forward. And for us, in particular, we’re in a situation where I don't think it's changed too much. But certainly it adds a different dynamic of maybe what you thought your Year 2 or 3 projection of your roster would look like, well, that could look a little bit different now.”

Finally, how much is the free agent market drying up moving forward partially because, as mentioned, teams are locking up their young players long term? Sure, stars like Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews will see their current deals run out in two years but, for the most part, there seem to be fewer elite players -- fewer players, period -- going to market.

Waddell: “As you pointed out, you look at free agency last year and the year before, there’s less quality available because everybody’s getting locked up long term, especially your younger players. The last few years, I'm not saying there wasn't any good free agents out there, but it wasn't the the plethora of players that we've had over the the past. So, you know, I think this will forward it even more where you want to get your young players locked up to avoid any situation that might arise. But I think it's started.”

Armstrong: “Well there's more money to kind of go around, right, with the cap continuing to go up. So it’s a better situation where teams can now sign their key veterans. There's more money in the system. And that’s why you see less free agents going to market. So I think that's a positive thing because, for us, we signed Nick Schmaltz. He was a big part of our team and, now, we had the money to lock him up. That’s a prime example of the landscape right now.”

Staios: “I think, even going back as a player and going through the lockout, and you know, understanding what the salary cap dynamic would make the landscape look like, I think it just seems to me that we understood it. Now, after many years, it’s kind of coming to fruition. So the salary cap era is what it is. I mean, we all deal with it in varying degrees, and different markets have different ways to deal with it. So, yeah, it's the way it's going. We understand it. We're prepared for it.”

THE ART OF GOALIE PUCK-HANDLING: THE BEST OF THE BEST

Martin Brodeur is arguably the best puck-handling goalie of all time. In fact, when the NHL/NHLPA in 2005 implemented the trapezoid -- the lines in all four corners that highlight areas where goaltenders are not allowed to touch the puck -- it unofficially became known as the Brodeur rule for the Hall of Famer’s ability to fire pucks out of the offensive zone as quickly as they entered. At the time, Hall of Fame executive Brian Burke said the game was turning into ping pong because of the way it was going before the trapezoid came in.

These days, Brodeur, now an advisor of hockey operations with the New Jersey Devils, still appreciates any goalie who has puck-handling skills. That’s why he was stoked to see the goal scored by Shesterkin, who he says is the best puck-handling goalie in the modern game.

“It's everybody’s dream to score goals, especially if you're a guy that loves to play the puck,” Brodeur told NHL.com. “And right now he’s the top guy. The way that he took it off the back boards and fired it down, all in one motion, was impressive.”

There have been 21 goalie goals in NHL history scored by 18 goalies. None has scored more than Brodeur, who did it three times.

If Shesterkin is the top guy right now when it comes to that skill, who does Brodeur think are some of the top of all time?

“Marty Turco was great at it during his years in Dallas,” Brodeur said. “He was like a sixth defenseman, And Mike Smith was too. Big, tall, lanky, and could get to a lot of pucks.”

While they were good at it, it was Ron Hextall who had the biggest influence on Brodeur.

Brodeur’s late father, Denis, was a noted sports photographer who worked for, among others, the Montreal Canadiens. One day, Denis came home from an NHL game that Hextall had played in for the Philadelphia Flyers, and had a message for his son.

“This guy is like a third defenseman out there,” Denis told him. “You need to work on those skills and be like that.”

“I was a young goalie at the time and took it to heart,” Brodeur said. “I started watching him all the time. I would practice with orange pucks.

“By the time I got to junior hockey, I was really good at it. At that time the benches in a lot of areas were on opposite sides of the rink, not on the same side as they are now. So when teams would be changing lines I would hit my guys with passes at our bench while our opponents were on the other side of the ice.”

For the record, Hextall, who played 13 NHL seasons from 1986-99 with the Flyers, Quebec Nordiques and New York Islanders, is the only goalie to shoot and score a goal in the regular season and the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
He became the first goalie to shoot the puck for a goal when he scored into an empty net for the Philadelphia Flyers against the Boston Bruins on Dec. 8, 1987. On April 11, 1989, he capped the Flyers' 8-5 victory at the Washington Capitals in Game 5 of the Patrick Division Semifinals by scoring into an empty net.
All the while, he was proving to be a mentor for a young Martin Brodeur, even though he didn’t know it at the time.

THE ART OF GOALIE PUCK-HANDLING: THE MINDSET

According to Brodeur, there are a number of rules to abide by if you’re a young goalie who wants to improve your puck-handling skills.

-- “You have to have hockey instincts. You can’t just go behind the net stopping the puck without knowing what to do with it beforehand. You have to have an idea where you’re going with it before you even touch the puck. You have to see the whole ice and know where everyone is, both on your team and theirs, long before you handle it. It’s got to come automatically to you. Otherwise that leads to hesitation. And that’s where problems start.”

-- “Understand what that skill means to your team. When pucks come into the defensive zone and you don’t get to it when you have the chance, the odds of your team to be hemmed in increase. Any chance you can decrease defensive zone time increases your team’s chances to win.”

-- “You have to have the desire to do it. Like I said, you can’t hesitate. Goalies who love handling pucks, they’re drooling at the chance to do it. You can’t have any fear.”

-- “You have to have communication with your D-men. They need to know your tendencies like where you like them to be when you’re trying to clear the zone. I was lucky enough to play with Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer and Brian Rafalski for a long time, and we instinctively knew where each other would be during that time. It was tougher when I was with the Canadian Olympic team. Yes, you’re playing with the best of the best. But they were used to coming back and grabbing the puck with their NHL teams. And I’m going ‘No, no, I’ll get it to you.’”

As for the implementation of the trapezoid, Brodeur said there was a positive to it.

“They took out the center ice red line at the same time. I thought that was great. Now I could hit my guys with passes up at the other team’s blue line,” he laughed.

QUOTE/UNQUOTE

“The buzz in Winnipeg around the game has been amazing. It’s going to be great. But there’s just as much excitement, if not more, about the Alumni Game after word got out that ‘Big Buff’(Dustin Byfuglien) could play. They still love him there.” -- Winnipeg Jets forward Mark Scheifele, speaking about the 2026 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic between the host Jets and Montreal Canadiens on Sunday, Oct. 25, at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg. Alumni from both teams will play in a game there on Saturday, Oct, 24 featuring fan favorite Dustin Byfuglien, who retired in 2020

THE LAST WORD

Senators forward Dylan Cozens and Toronto Maple Leafs rookie Gavin McKenna each failed to get a point in Ottawa’s 3-2 win at Scotiabank Arena Saturday.

But, in the big picture, this game wasn’t about statistics.

This was about showcasing a new frontier in the professional hockey world.

Cozens and McKenna are among just four players from Whitehorse, Yukon, a community of 31,000 about 945 miles north of Edmonton, to play in the NHL. They’ve combined to play 457 games -- all but 11 played by Cozens.

Peter Sturgeon played six games for the Colorado Rockies from 1979-81. Bryon Baltimore played in two games for the Edmonton Oilers in 1979-80. McKenna has played three games in his first NHL campaign.

Now, thanks to Cozens and McKenna, the No. 1 pick in the NHL Draft, kids in the so-called “Far North” have reason to think their hockey dreams can come true.

“You think of a Whitehorse kid going first overall and playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs, it’s really cool,” Cozens said. “I’ve known Gavin for a long time and known about him for a long time, and he’s had success at every level.

“It’s so awesome to have someone from Whitehorse in the NHL with me, and I think we can do a lot of big things for Whitehorse. It’s all about giving kids belief. If you’re growing up there, you might not think you can make it. You might not think that people will see you or find you. But if you work at it, keep at it and enjoy doing it, you’ll be found.

“I hope that we’ve given a lot of kids in smaller communities belief that they can do this too.”

By the way, Cozens, selected No. 7 by the Buffalo Sabres in 2019, is nicknamed “The Workhorse from Whitehorse.” The 25-year-old has 272 points (110 goals, 162 assists) in 446 games.