Seven hat tricks in three nights, McDavid's 23 points and Philadelphia's first win: NHL digest, Oct. 12–18

The NHL played 50 games between Oct. 12 and Oct. 18, and 13 of them went past regulation. 12

Florida scored a hat trick in three straight games, which no team in league history had done. 3 Philadelphia won its first game after nine without one, and Connor McDavid closed the week with 23 points in eight games. 45

Seven hat tricks landed in the week, every one of them on Oct. 13, Oct. 15 or Oct. 17. 678

Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett each scored three times in an 8-3 win over Seattle on Oct. 17. 3 Verhaeghe's was a natural hat trick, three straight Florida goals, with one on the power play. 3

Brady Tkachuk had done the same in each of the two previous games, a 7-3 win at Columbus on Oct. 13 and a 3-2 overtime win over Vancouver on Oct. 15. 67 Against Vancouver he tied the game with 13 seconds left and won it 2:23 into overtime. 7

Florida is the first team in NHL history to have a player record a hat trick in three consecutive games. 3 Before Saturday, the Panthers had never had two players score hat tricks in the same game. 3

The team marks go further back. Florida is the first club in over 100 years to record four or more hat tricks before its 10th game; the Toronto St. Patricks had five in 1922-23. 3 The Quebec Nordiques, with five in two games in February 1981, are the only team in the past 105 years to match four hat tricks in a three-game span. 3

"Sometimes they just come like that," Verhaeghe said. "It's pretty good to get a couple, get on the board, especially on the power play." 3

Bennett had not scored all season before Saturday. "You're going to have games where things don't seem to go in, and other nights, it seems like everything goes your way," he said. 3

"The speed of our offensive game is coming together," coach Paul Maurice said. "Now, you're starting to see some chemistry form with different players." 3

Tkachuk arrived from Ottawa in a summer trade and has nine points in his past three games. 9 He returns to Ottawa with Florida on Wednesday. 9

Matthew Tkachuk extended his point streak to eight games and has 14 points. 3 He left Saturday's game in the third period after colliding with Bennett. 3

Vegas has the most points in the league, 16 in 10 games, and Boston has the best record in the East at 7-2-0. 10

Buffalo's second wild card comes with a minus-7 differential, the worst of the East's top nine. 10

Winnipeg holds the first wild card at minus-1, and Dallas's plus-7 is the best of the three teams bunched at nine points. 10

Boston opened the week third in the Atlantic on eight points. Five straight wins later, the Bruins lead the division. 910

Toronto held the East's first wild card a week ago with seven points. The Maple Leafs have eight now, two behind Buffalo for the second wild card, with Florida's 12 in the first. 10

The Islanders and Montréal have nine points, one behind Buffalo's 10 for the second wild card, and New Jersey and Detroit have eight. 10

In the West, Winnipeg slipped from third in the Central to the first wild card, and Dallas climbed from outside the line into the second spot. 10 Dallas, Nashville and San Jose all have nine points, and Dallas holds the spot on goal differential at plus-7. 10

Edmonton owns the best points percentage in the league at .813 and still trails Vegas in the Pacific, because points come first and the Golden Knights have played two more games. 10

Los Angeles is the last winless team, 0-4-2 with 12 goals in six games. 10 Vancouver has allowed 45 goals, the most in the league, and Calgary has been outscored 37-17. 10

Thirteen of the 50 games went past regulation, and the table below carries every one of them, grouped by date. 12

Philadelphia won at the 10th try. The Flyers beat Ottawa 3-1 on Saturday, and a loss would have made them the 11th team in NHL history to lose its first 10 games of a season. 4

Philadelphia had scored 11 goals in its first nine games. Saturday was the first time the Flyers scored more than two. 4

Porter Martone and Matvei Michkov each had a goal and an assist, the first multipoint game by a Flyers forward this season. 4 Michkov's power-play goal was the 50th of his NHL career. 4

"It was a gutsy effort," coach Rick Tocchet said. "A lot of guys hurt. Some guys stepped up." 4

Linus Ullmark lost for the first time in seven starts. His six-game win streak had matched Ray Emery's 2005-06 run for the best in Senators history. 4 Ullmark has allowed two goals or fewer in each of his seven starts. 4

McDavid has 23 points in eight games. He had two goals and three assists in a 6-2 win at Utah on Saturday and has not been held off the scoresheet this season. 5

His 17 assists tie Mario Lemieux (1995-96) and Wayne Gretzky (1986-87) for the most through a player's first eight games. 5 He reached 20 points in eight games; only Lemieux, in seven in 1995-96, has done it faster. 5

McDavid's goal 40 seconds in was his seventh opening-minute goal, which ties Mark Messier's franchise record. 5

Edmonton is 6-1-1 and finished a franchise-best 5-0-0 road trip. The Oilers play their next five at home. 5

Zach Hyman scored in his first game since the opener after missing six with an undisclosed injury. 513

Vasily Podkolzin leads Edmonton with seven goals, one more than McDavid. 9

New Jersey 7, the Rangers 1. Luke Hughes scored twice for his first multigoal game in the NHL, and New Jersey led 5-0 after two periods on Oct. 15. 14

Dylan Garand stopped nine of 13 shots and was pulled at 4:39 of the second period. Spencer Martin made 15 saves in relief. 14

The Rangers came in leading the league at plus-13. "We just lost ourselves," coach Mike Sullivan said. 14

Two nights later New York lost 1-0 in overtime at Columbus on Kent Johnson's goal. 8 The Rangers are 6-3-1 and 5-0-0 at home. 10

Toronto's week: a hat trick, a lost point, an injury. Kirill Marchenko scored three times in his 300th NHL game, and Buffalo still beat the Maple Leafs 5-4 in overtime on Oct. 15. 15

Jack Quinn had two goals and two assists for Buffalo. Owen Power won it 3:14 into overtime after Toronto led 4-2 in the third. 15

John Tavares left at 2:32 of the third period after a collision with Josh Norris and is week to week with a lower-body injury. 13 Toronto is also without defenseman Chris Tanev. 13

Gavin McKenna, the No. 1 pick in the 2026 draft, played 6:36 that night and did not take a shift after 10:20 of the second period. Coach Jim Hiller called it his decision. 15

Toronto has lost three straight and is two points out of the East's second wild card. 910 Sergei Bobrovsky is 1-3-2 with an .891 save percentage in six starts. 16

Boston has won five straight. The Bruins have taken three in a row on a four-game road trip, at San Jose, Anaheim and Los Angeles, 6-3, 4-2 and 4-1. 6812

David Pastrnak has a point in each of the five wins and has 34 shots on the season. 917 Jeremy Swayman is 6-1-0 with a .934 save percentage and one shutout. 16

Boston has scored 34 goals and allowed 19, a plus-15 differential that leads the East. 10

Vegas owns third periods. Mark Stone scored three times in the third period of a 6-2 win over Calgary on Oct. 15, his first goal 1:06 into the period and his third on the power play. 7

Two nights later the Golden Knights scored three times in the first 4:02 and beat Pittsburgh 6-2 on 19 shots. 8

Vegas has 16 points, 42 goals and a plus-18 differential, all league bests. 10 Jack Eichel has 18 points and Stone has 14. 17

These are season totals through Oct. 18, with most teams at eight or nine games. 17

Jake Oettinger has allowed six goals in six starts and has a 3-2-1 record. 16

NHL.com's waiver list, published Monday, has the current read on this rookie class. 18

Trevor Connelly (Vegas) leads all NHL rookies with seven points (four goals, three assists) in 10 games. 18 He plays on the third line with Tomas Hertl and on a first power-play unit with Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner, Mark Stone and Hertl. 18 He scored on Oct. 13 at Nashville and again on Oct. 17 against Pittsburgh. 68

Ivar Stenberg (San Jose) has six points in eight games and leads the rookie class with five power-play points and two power-play goals. 18 Both goals came with the man advantage, on Oct. 13 at Boston and Oct. 17 at Detroit. 68 He skates with Michael Misa and Kiefer Sherwood and on a first unit with Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith. 18

Jack Quinn (Buffalo) is the breakout pick on this week's list. He has nine points in nine games and had two goals and two assists in Toronto on Oct. 15, a Gordie Howe hat trick. 1518 He plays the second line with Zach Benson and Noah Ostlund and the first power play with Tage Thompson. 18

Roman Kantserov (Chicago) scored twice on Oct. 13 against Pittsburgh, one on the power play. 6 Michael Brandsegg-Nygard (Detroit) scored in the same night's 5-4 overtime loss to New Jersey. 6

Gavin McKenna (Toronto) is the case going the other way. His ice time fell to 6:36 on Oct. 15, and he stayed on the bench for the last 30 minutes. 15 Toronto hosts San Jose and Celebrini on Monday night. 9

Toronto lost a center, Buffalo lost its captain and Dallas is without a scoring forward for months.

Tavares had two assists before he left on Oct. 15 and has seven points in seven games. 13 "John was playing well," Hiller said. "That's a tough one for us just on the heels of Tanev, too." 13

Dallas has lost Duchene for months and Back for a month, yet leads the league at 1.50 goals against per game. 9 Winnipeg is 4-2-2 without Hellebuyck, who is suspended by the team. 910

This week's waiver list names ten players, some with their lines and power-play units. 18 Five of them gained ground over the past seven days.

The list also calls Mason McTavish, Carter Verhaeghe and Pyotr Kochetkov must-roster in all formats. 18 Verhaeghe has six goals and Kochetkov is 5-0-0. 1617

Two adds the list only gestures at: Philip Broberg (52 percent rostered) scored for St. Louis on Oct. 17, and Alex Nedeljkovic is 2-0-1 with a .920 save percentage in three starts for San Jose. 816

On the selling side, Vancouver has allowed 45 goals in 10 games and Toronto's two goalies have save percentages of .891 and .875. 1016

Monday's four games include Colorado at Philadelphia at 7 p.m. ET and Anaheim at the Rangers. 9

Tuesday's ESPN doubleheader is Boston at Dallas at 8 p.m. ET, then Tampa Bay at Vegas at 10:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+. 9 Dallas has won four of six, three by shutout, and Boston brings a five-game win streak. 9

Wednesday is Brady Tkachuk's return to Ottawa, Florida at the Senators at 7:30 p.m. ET. 9 Philadelphia is at Buffalo the same night at 7:30 p.m. ET. 9

Saturday's headliner is Toronto at Edmonton at 7 p.m. ET, McDavid against a team that has lost three straight. 9

Sunday brings the Heritage Classic, Montréal against Winnipeg at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg at 7 p.m. ET. 9 Montréal has alternated Jacob Fowler and Jakub Dobes, and Fowler has the better numbers at 3-1-0 with a 2.16 goals-against average. 9