The NHL restarted the season on August 1, and joined baseball (July 23) and basketball (July 30), as all major American sports have now returned, albeit very differently than what fans are used to. For more than 12 hours, from noon Eastern Time until after 1 AM, hockey enthusiasts were able to watch five different games, after a more than four months wait.
Jacob Slavin, the Hurricanes’ defenseman, made history by scoring the first NHL game in the month of August. The Hurricanes beat the New York Rangers 3-2 to start off the new format of the NHL tournament. All Eastern Conference games are being played in Toronto while all Western Conference games are being played in the hub city of Edmonton.
The historic day featured 2 big upsets, with the No. 12 seed Chicago Blackhawks beating the No. 5 seed, hometown Edmonton Oilers 6-4. Chicago was led by rookie forward Dominik Kubalik who put up 5 points (2 goals, 3 assists) to lead the victory in Game 1.
Later, the No. 12 seed Montreal Canadians upset the No. 5 seed Pittsburgh Peguins 3-2 in an overtime thriller. In addition, the New York Islanders beat the Florida Panthers 2-1 to round out the day of Eastern Conference competition, while the Calgary Flames beat the Winnipeg Jets 4-1 in the Western Conference.
