Jaromir Jagr delivered a Mark Messier moment 29 seconds into his first game as the New York Rangers' captain. Brendan Shanahan then made it a perfect Broadway opening.
Wearing the "C" made famous by Messier, Jagr burst up ice during his first shift and scored on the first shot of the season, sparking New York to a 5-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Thursday.
Shanahan made it a rout in his debut with the Rangers, scoring twice to become the 15th NHL player with 600 goals -- eight more than Jagr. The milestone came 2:58 into the third period when he scored from in front during a delayed penalty.
PHOTO: AP
Shanahan and Blair Betts scored 1:34 apart in the second period to break it open, Martin Straka had an empty-netter and Henrik Lundqvist made 25 saves for the Rangers, who won a home season opener for the first time since 1985 -- also against Washington.
Alexander Semin and Rico Fata scored for the Capitals.
Penguins 4, Flyers 0
At Pittsburgh, Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 40 shots in a dominating performance that finally showed why he was the No. 1 draft pick in 2003 and Pittsburgh blanked Philadelphia in one of its best games in years in front of its new owner.
Sidney Crosby, coming off a 102-point rookie season, scored a goal and third-line forwards Michel Ouellet and Jarkko Ruttu set up each other less than three minutes apart in the first period. The Penguins also got a goal from defenseman Josef Melichar in overcoming the Flyers' 40-21 advantage in shots.
Canucks 3, Red Wings 1
At Detroit, Sami Salo had a goal and an assist and Roberto Luongo made 27 saves in his Vancouver debut to beat Detroit in the season opener for both teams.
Markus Naslund and Trevor Linden also scored for the Canucks, who acquired Luongo in an offseason trade that sent Todd Bertuzzi, Bryan Allen and Alex Auld to the Florida Panthers for Luongo, Lukas Krajicek and a draft choice.
Henrik Zetterberg scored for Detroit. Dominik Hasek made 14 saves for the Red Wings in the first game of his third stint with the team. He last played for Detroit in 2003-2004. The Red Wings signed the free agent to a one-year, US$750,000 contract during the summer.
Lightning 3, Thrashers 2, SO
At Atlanta, Vincent Lecavalier scored the only goal in a shootout and Marc Denis shut out Atlanta after the opening period as Tampa Bay rallied to win the season opener for the Southeast Division rivals.
Denis, who came to Tampa Bay in a trade with Columbus, struggled in the opening period, giving up power-play goals to Scott Mellanby and Marian Hossa. Denis denied Slava Kozlov, Jon Sim and Ilya Kovalchuk in the shootout.
Lecavalier, the Lightning's first shooter, beat Kari Lehtonen with a shot to the right edge of the net. Brad Richards was stopped by Lehtonen on Tampa Bay's second and final shot of the shootout.
Maple Leafs 6, Senators 0
At Ottawa, Chad Kilger and Darcy Tucker each scored twice and Andrew Raycroft made 34 saves for his first shutout with Toronto.
Alexei Ponikarovsky and Bates Battaglia also scored for Toronto, which got a career-high four assists from Kyle Wellwood. The Maple Leafs spoiled the Senators' home opener one night after Ottawa had ruined Toronto's 4-1 in both teams' season opener.
Blackhawks 8, Predators 6
At Nashville, Tennessee, Martin Havlat, Chicago's biggest offseason acquisition, had two goals and two assists to lead the Blackhawks over Nashville in the teams' season opener.
Havlat's empty-net goal with 54.8 seconds left came after David Legwand and Steve Sullivan had scored in a 4-minute span ending at 18:23 to pull Nashville within 7-6. The Predators squandered a 4-3 lead when Chicago scored four straight times starting with Martin Lapointe's power-play goal at the end of the second period.
Wild 3, Avalanche 2, OT
At St. Paul, Minnesota, Todd White scored 1:03 into overtime and Minnesota overcame two goals by Colorado's Brad Richardson to win its season opener.
Richardson tied the game with 6:06 remaining in regulation on a long wrist shot from behind the right circle, using Petteri Nummelin as a screen. Colorado gained control after a Wild turnover, when Gaborik was hooked by John-Michael Liles without a penalty call and lost the puck.
Coyotes 6, Islanders 3
At Glendale, Arizona, Ladislav Nagy scored two goals and Steven Reinprecht had a goal and four assists as Phoenix opened its 10th season in the desert.
Shane Doan, Joel Perrault and Derek Morris also scored for the Coyotes, who tied a club record for goals on an opening night. The Nagy, Doan and Reinprecht line had four goals and seven assists. Phoenix goalie Curtis Joseph earned his 429th career victory. He is eight shy of Hall-of-Famer Jacques Plante, who ranks fifth in league history.
Oilers 3, Flames 1
At Edmonton, Alberta, Petr Sykora scored his first two goals with Edmonton and Dwayne Roloson turned aside 31 shots to lead Edmonton to victory in the teams' season opener.
Defenseman Daniel Tjarnqvist also scored for Edmonton, the defending Western Conference champions, and Jarome Iginla had Calgary's goal in a penalty-filled game.
Sharks 5, Blues 4, OT
At San Jose, California, Joe Thornton had three assists in regulation and Curtis Brown scored on a rebound with 2:48 left in overtime to carry San Jose over St. Louis in both clubs' season opener.
Milan Michalek scored two goals during 5-on-3 advantages on assists from Thornton. Mark Bell and rookie Matt Carle also scored for the Sharks, and Vesa Toskala recovered from two soft first-period goals to make 31 saves.
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Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
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