The 2025–26 National Hockey League season is officially underway, with defending champion Florida Panthers earning a win at home as they begin the hunt for a third consecutive Stanley Cup.

Regular-season play in the top North American ice hockey league began Tuesday (7 October), but not before the Panthers marked their 2025 Cup win by raising a second straight championship banner at the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida.

In the absence of captain Aleksander Barkov, who is carrying a long-term knee injury and may be out for the season, alternate captain Aaron Ekblad carried the Cup onto the ice during the ceremony.

Then it was down to business, as the Panthers rode goals by A.J. Greer, Carter Verhaeghe, and Jesper Boqvist to take a 3–2 win against the Chicago Blackhawks. With the game tied at two in the third period, Boqvist got the winning goal 9:40 into the frame.

Elsewhere, there were new records for Canadians Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche and Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who set new milestones as their teams also won their season openers.

The 30-year-old MacKinnon, who has played his entire NHL career with Colorado, had two assists in a 4–1 Avalanche win over the Los Angeles Kings in LA. That moved him past Joe Sakic as the franchise’s points leader since its 1995 move from Quebec City to become the Avalanche.

MacKinnon broke the record in the first minute of the second period, providing an assist for Martin Nečas to move onto 1016 career points in his 871st game and later added a second assist on a goal by Artturi Lehkonen. Sakic tallied 1015 points in 870 games after the team moved to Colorado, and remains the overall franchise leader for the Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche on 1641 points.

Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog, who made his return from three years out through injury last playoffs, made his first regular-season appearance since 10 March 2022.

Meanwhile in New York, Crosby led out the Pittsburgh Penguins as captain for a 19th straight season, becoming the joint-longest-tenured captain in NHL history.

Crosby, who has worn the ‘C’ for the Penguins since the 2007–08 season, moved level with fellow Canadian great Steve Yzerman (1986–97 to 2005–06 with the Detroit Red Wings) for the record. Crosby is in his 21st NHL season and his 20th alongside teammates Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, becoming the first set of three teammates to reach 20 seasons together in North American professional sports.

Justin Brazeau scored twice, with Malkin tallying assists on both goals, and Blake Lizotte added a third as the Penguins recorded a 3–0 shutout against the New York Rangers behind new goalie Artūrs Šilovs, who joined the team in July. It was Šilovs’s first career regular-season shutout; he also recorded one in the playoffs for the Vancouver Canucks in 2024.

Four games are scheduled for Wednesday as another eight teams begin their new campaigns.