Vancouver, Antoine Roussel’s team, hit hard Thursday night by dominating NHL leader Toronto (3-1). Alexandre Texier and Columbus beat Dallas (3-2). Vancouver pulled off a big blow by winning against Toronto, the best team of this NHL start to the season, on the night of Thursday to Friday (3-1). Penultimate in the North Division where the seven Canadian franchises are gathered, the Canucks were clearly beaten by their rivals from Ontario in the first three meetings of the season (3-7, 1-5, 1-3). But this time, they thwarted the firepower of Maple Leafs stars Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner or John Tavares, who remained on four straight wins. read also Calendar / Results Frenchman Antoine Roussel (4 checks, highest total in the game) embodied Vancouver’s solid defensive play, also well served by goalkeeper Thatcher Demko’s 31 saves. Jake Virtanen scored twice.
Columbus, Alexandre Texier’s team, also won Thursday in Dallas (3-2). Thanks in particular to Boone Jenner (1 goal, 1 assist), the Blue Jackets took advantage of the great difficulties of the Texans, finalists last season, but very poorly embarked on this season which they started with a multitude of cases of Covid. This is the second victory in a row for the Ohio team, 5th in the Central Division (Dallas is last). read also Rankings The times remain complicated for Texier, however. Strolled on the different lines of attack by his coach, John Tortorella, the Grenoblois lined up an eleventh game without recording a single point, while he had signed an excellent start to the season. Thursday evening, in 12’33 ” of play, he could only bring two shots on target, a check, a block and a face-off in two won. Overwhelming Philadelphia, Montreal betrayed by Quebecers In the always hot Pennsylvania derby, Philadelphia gave the Pittsburgh Penguins a headache. To celebrate the return of Sidney Crosby to the workforce, they scored three goals in the first four minutes. But the Flyers nibbled away their delay to win on the second goal of the evening from the indestructible Claude Giroux (4-3). Montreal lost at home against the Winnipeg Jets (3-4 a), whose four goals were scored by native Quebecers: Paul Stastny (doubled), Matthieu Perreault and Pierre-Luc Dubois, scorer of the victory in overtime. 3 Two players signed a hat-trick Thursday night: Chris Kreider (his second in five games) for the New York Rangers against their neighbors from New Jersey (6-1) and Dillon Dubé for the Calgary Flames against Ottawa (7-3) . Despite this large victory, Calgary immediately sacked coach Geoff Ward, replaced by veteran Darryl Sutter. The latter returns in a franchise that he had already coached from 2002 to 2006.
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