The Calgary Flames celebrated in style on Wednesday night, earning back-to-back wins for the first time this season with a decisive 5–1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Nazem Kadri, suiting up for his milestone 1,000th NHL game, led the way with a goal and a spirited performance that ignited the Saddledome crowd. The Flames came out firing early, scoring twice in the opening minute and never looking back.

Morgan Frost opened the scoring just 56-seconds in, redirecting a shot past Columbus goaltender Jet Greaves. Moments later, Blake Coleman doubled the lead with his fifth of the season. The Blue Jackets responded later in the first with a shorthanded goal from Kirill Marchenko, who beat Dustin Wolf five-hole on a breakaway.

But the night belonged to Kadri and the Flames. Early in the second period, Kadri buried a top-shelf finish off a feed from Joel Farabee to restore Calgary’s two-goal cushion. Less than a minute later, Adam Klapka made it 4–1, holding onto the puck on an odd-man rush and ripping a shot glove-side. Mikael Backlund added an empty net goal to seal the deal. 

Wolf stopped every shot he needed to the rest of the way, making a career-high 42 saves, picking up his fourth win of the year to move to 4–7–1 on the season.

The Flames improve to 4–9–2, while Columbus falls to 7–6–0.

Three Takeaways

1. Kadri’s milestone moment

Nazem Kadri became the 407th player in NHL history to skate in 1,000 career games — and he made it count. The veteran centre not only scored a big goal but brought energy and poise all night. Kadri now leads the Flames in scoring with 11 points (4G, 7A) through 15 games.

2. Quick strikes define the night

The Flames’ offence found its rhythm through bursts of momentum. They scored twice within the first 92-seconds of the game and later added a pair of goals just 37-seconds apart in the second period. That kind of timing proved too much for Columbus to handle.

3. Kuznetsov earns first NHL point

Defenceman Yan Kuznetsov, recalled from the AHL Wranglers on Tuesday, made his season debut and recorded his first career NHL point with an assist on Klapka’s goal. Despite a few early jitters in his own zone, the 23-year-old settled in and showed flashes of composure as the game went on.

It has been a busy 24-plus hours for the Pittsburgh Penguins, who put three players on injured reserve, sent a player back to the AHL, and recalled three other players. 

And it comes as no surprise that the roster move getting all of the attention is the call-up of top goaltending prospect Sergei Murashov, who thoroughly impressed in training camp, just won AHL Goaltender of the Month honors, and has dominated at every level of professional hockey.

While the two other call-ups may not be young or nearly as exciting for some fans, they were call-ups well-earned - and they are two players at an important crossroads in their careers.

Veteran forward Danton Heinen and veteran defenseman Ryan Graves were those other two players recalled, and this represents a second-chance NHL opportunity for them with the Penguins. Both players were waived at the conclusion of NHL training camp and went unclaimed, and they were re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (WBS) in the aftermath.

To their credit, a lot of veteran players get discouraged and don't take those situations very well. In this case, both players handled it as best they could - and they took the opportunity and ran with it. 

The 30-year-old Heinen returned to the NHL Tuesday in a tie for the AHL lead in points with 14, and Graves - also 30 - led all defensemen on the team with a goal and seven points in 10 games on the season. Both players could have taken a wrong turn in the wake of their AHL assignment. 

But that's not what happened.

Penguins Call Up 3 Players & Announce Several Roster MovesThe Pittsburgh Penguins have made a series of roster moves.

"At the end of the day, it’s the kind of person you are, too," Graves said. "You’re not going to go there and sulk and complain. You’re still playing hockey for a living. That’s pretty cool. There’s been some aspects of it that have been really hard. But I’ve been on the side of it where you’re a 20-year-old kid and coming into the American League, and there’s some guys that I’ve played with that came down and you could see both sides of how guys take it.

"You can either go there and ride into the sunset and just take it with a bad attitude and be miserable, or you can go there and you can try to play and work on your game and get better. It’s a good league, so just go there, put in work and try to come back.”

And, now, Graves is just trying to make the most of his second opportunity.

“Obviously, this is where you want to be. It’s a tough situation," Graves said. "Obviously, you want to play in the NHL. It’s the best league in the world. It’s hard to be here. I have an appreciation for that. You go there [to the AHL], you want to go with a good mindset and you want to be back here. So I’m just trying to make the most of the opportunity.”

Sergei Murashov’s First NHL Shot With The Penguins Is HereSergei Murashov is set to make his NHL debut with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the coming days.

Heinen gave a pretty similar response. 

"You always try to learn from mistakes, learn from things," Heinen said. "I don’t think you can look back with regrets. You’ve just got to keep looking forward.

“I just want to prove that I believe I’m an NHLer and I believe that I can help this team win. That’s what I’m coming up here to do and do everything I can to show it.”

Obviously, an AHL assignment for someone who has been playing in the NHL for a long time is never easy. But it helps that Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is off to a hot start in the AHL, and it fostered an environment for Heinen and Graves to thrive.

"The coaches put a good system in.," Heinen said. "They communicate well. It’s a great group of guys, good hockey players… It’s definitely well run.”

Penguins' Top Prospect Ben Kindel Gets Big OpportunityThere have been a ton of boxes checked for <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins">Pittsburgh Penguins</a>' rookie sensation Ben Kindel in the last two months.

And even if the ultimate goal is always to play at the NHL level, Graves was able to pull a lot from his experience with the AHL squad. 

“There’s a lot you can take from it," Graves said. "It’s how you approach it. You go down there. You get a lot of opportunity to play. You play in all situations. You play a lot of minutes, some of them [in situations] you might not play here. It’s nice to be able to build confidence and feel the game. And you can work, and you can make mistakes and you can keep playing because you’re going to play a lot. And you just try to build your game and build confidence.

"So, that’s the approach you have to take to it. I feel like I played well down there. So, again, I’m just trying to make the most of the opportunity here.”

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More than likely, the Pittsburgh Penguins won't have to wait much longer for one of their forwards to return to the lineup. 

On Wednesday, forward Kevin Hayes - who has been on injured reserve with an upper-body injury since training camp - took line rushes and was a full participant in practice. He skated on the fourth line with Blake Lizotte and Connor Dewar. 

Hayes, 33, is in the final year of a seven-year contract, and the Penguins are responsible for $3.57 million of his $7.1 million total cap hit. In 64 games with the Penguins last season, the 6-foot-3, 217-pound center registered 13 goals and 23 points.

Just days ago, it appeared that the Penguins were going to have some very hard decisions to make regarding the roster in order to activate Hayes. However, things have changed very quickly. 

On Tuesday, Pittsburgh placed three players - forwards Justin Brazeau and Noel Acciari as well as goaltender Tristan Jarry - on injured reserve and re-assigned young defenseman Owen Pickering to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (WBS) to get more AHL reps after a few shaky games at the NHL level.

In a few corresponding moves, the Penguins recalled forward Danton Heinen, defenseman Ryan Graves, and top goaltending prospect Sergei Murashov. However, because of the optioning of Pickering, the Penguins still have one open roster spot, as they're actively carrying 12 forwards, eight defensemen, and two goaltenders. This means they can activate Hayes without a corresponding roster move.

The Penguins play the Washington Capitals on Thursday, and Hayes appears poised for a potential return. Pittsburgh have yet to activate him from injured reserve. 

Penguins Call Up 3 Players & Announce Several Roster MovesThe Pittsburgh Penguins have made a series of roster moves.

Other injury notes:

- The Penguins announced that Brazeau (upper-body) would be out at least four weeks, Acciari (upper-body) would be out at least three weeks, and Jarry (lower-body) would be out at least three weeks. No further details were given on their injuries or when they were sustained, although head coach Dan Muse said that Jarry was injured during Monday's 4-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

- Forward Filip Hallander left Wednesday's practice early on and did not return to the ice. He was briefly rotating in on the fourth line before he departed. No update was given on his status.

- Forward prospect Rutger McGroarty continues to rehab in WBS and appears close to returning to the lineup at the AHL level. The 21-year-old McGroarty missed the entirety of training camp and the first month of the regular season with an undisclosed upper-body injury he sustained sometime during the summer. 

Penguins Provide Injury Updates On Three Key PlayersThe Pittsburgh Penguins provided some injury updates to three players on Wednesday.

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Well, so much for building in the right direction.

The St. Louis Blues thought they had things figured out the past three games, ones in which they were 1-1-1 and conceivably could have won them all.

And then Wednesday happened.

Well …

They fell off a cliff. And it was a hard fall.

It was a complete fail in a 6-1 loss to the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.

And on top of the Blues’ ineffective play in this game that dropped their record to 4-8-2 overall and 1-5-2 in their past eight games, Alex Ovechkin scored his 900th NHL goal becoming the first player in league history to reach the feat.

Alexey Toropchenko did score for the Blues, their first shorthanded goal of the season:

Alexey Toropchenko with a spin-around backhand goal under the bar. #stlbluespic.twitter.com/xp2VLR5o4M

— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) November 6, 2025

But it was an inept first two periods that proved costly.

Let’s look at the game observations:

* Montgomery wanted a physical lineup – Coming off a 3-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers, one might have figured the same lineup against the Capitals, but coach Jim Montgomery inserted Nathan Walker and Logan Mailloux in for Mathieu Joseph and Matthew Kessel to provide more nastiness and bite.

Well, someone forgot to check in at the door that requirements for success in this game was going to take winning wall battles, loose pucks and the like.

The Blues were torched in that department that led to a number of Capitals goals, including the first one, scored on the power play by Tom Wilson; not the actual goal itself, but the three-plus minute shift that lasted in their zone that ended with Colton Parayko, whose shift was 2:59, took a cross checking penalty (Dylan Holloway’s shoft lasted 3:01, Dalibor Dvorsky’s was 2:55):

Impeccable goal-scoring touch from 43#ALLCAPS | @aerovironmentpic.twitter.com/YLcdZnjd7v

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 6, 2025

Also the first of Anthony Beauvillier’s two goals that made it 3-0 at 4:33 of the second period was another case of a lost wall battle that led to his backhand goal into an empty cage.

And then there’s John Carlson’s goal that made it 4-0 at 9:28, a shot from the slot that turned into the Capitals winning another loose puck and being hungrier for pucks that ended Jordan Binnington’s night at four goals allowed on 15 shots, including no saves and three goals allowed in the second period.

And the greatest example of competing for wall battles was on Beauvillier’s second of the night at 16:20 that made it 5-0 when the Blues, this time, were in the offensive zone, puck was in the corner along the wall, lose that battle and the puck (again), the Capitals break out with it, make a hand pass that Mailloux either didn’t see or wasn’t aware of the rule that if he doesn’t touch the puck in that situation and Beauvillier does, the play is dead. But he dives, and it was a hustle attempt, touches the puck rendering it live and Beauvillier beats Joel Hofer from the left circle:

while we've been in 900 land, the boys decided to add three more goals

👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/9FglHRussN

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 6, 2025

It was just a microcosm of everything that went wrong from opening puck drop to that moment. One team came ready to play with an attitude of wanting to compete, the other didn’t. It’s as simple as that. No compete whatsoever from this group on Wednesday.

It's mind-boggling to think that the #stlblues held Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins without a shot on goal combined Monday for the first time with that trio in the same game during the regular season, to follow that up with this.

— Lou Korac (@lkorac10) November 6, 2025

* Despite being pulled, Binnington kept team in it in first period, slip-up started downward spiral – Binnington was busy in the first period, not diving from post to post, but with the Blues spending much of the period in their own end, he came up with some solid saves stopping 11 of 12 shots and keeping it a 1-0 deficit.

But on the Ovechkin goal, Binnington got his initial clear into the corner knocked down by the ‘Great 8’ and the puck doesn’t get cleared, it winds up back in the corner and Ovechkin blind backhands the puck from a sharp angle into the net at 2:39 of the second period to make it 2-0:

THE #GR8 IS THE FIRST PLAYER IN NHL HISTORY TO SCORE 900 GOALS pic.twitter.com/71gnsJQcYN

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 6, 2025

It marked the third time (first for Binnington) a Blues goalie has been pulled from a game this season through 14 games.

This game marks the seventh time(!) the Blues have allowed five or more goals in a game. That didn’t happen until Game 52 last season.

And on a night in which Binnington tied Mike Liut for most games played by a goalie (347) in franchise history, that's rubbing some salt in the wound. 

* The penalty kill is simply not good – Pius Suter was brought in this year to help the Blues' 28th-ranked penalty kill from last season.

I get one player isn't going to be the do-all, tell-all, but the penalty kill at the start of this season is pitiful again.

After Wilson scored nine seconds into Washington's power-play, oh by the way which was 0-for-13 coming into the game, it was the second straight penalty kill the Blues allowed a goal within the first 10 seconds (Edmonton scored eight seconds into theirs) and 11th time in 14 games the Blues' PK has allowed a goal, including the fifth straight game and eighth in nine.

And it was another case of a skater (Wilson) in front of a Blues goalie waiting for a deflection or tip with little or no resistance.  

The PK was 74.2 percent last year and is now a woeful 67.6 percent. What's amazing is that there's four teams with worse numbers than the Blues.

* Was changing the lineup wise? – I get what Montgomery was doing when he decided to insert Walker and Mailloux into the lineup, some more physicality on the fourth line and a bigger body on the blue line. But was it wise?

This group just came off a solid win with the lineup it had with Joseph and Kessel in it and deservedly winning for the first time in 16 days. I’m not a coach here, but sticking with that same group would allow these players to continue to build in the right direction.

It just looked like it was bad mojo from the outset breaking up a lineup that really worked well together on Monday, one that kept Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins all without a shot on goal for the first time in a regular-season game that the trio played together.

OK, you make a swap of Walker and Joseph, but in inserting Mailloux, who Montgomery said pregame didn’t want players sitting for too long, he started the game with putting veteran Cam Fowler there and putting Tyler Tucker with Justin Faulk because of the lack of trust in playing the two guys with the least amount of experience together.

I actually was caught off-guard by the changes at the morning skate, just because of the cohesion that the previous game’s lineup had together.

It’s easy to second-guess now with such a poor loss, but the result speaks for itself.

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The future is now for the Pittsburgh Penguins after they called up goaltending prospect Sergei Murashov on Tuesday. 

Murashov was called up to the NHL squad from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, along with forward Danton Heinen and defenseman Ryan Graves, before the Penguins announced on Wednesday that forwards Justin Brazeau and Noel Acciari, along with goaltender Tristan Jarry, will be out for multiple weeks with injuries. The Penguins also sent defenseman Owen Pickering back to WBS.

Brazeau has missed the last two games with an upper-body injury, while Acciari and Jarry sustained their injuries during Monday's game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. 

This will be Murashov's first chance to show what he can do in the NHL after lighting up the AHL to start the 2025-26 season. He was named the AHL's Goaltender of the Month on Tuesday after finishing October with a 5-1 record, a 1.68 goals-against average, a .935 save percentage, and a shutout. He also allowed only 10 goals on 154 shots last month.

He was asked about that honor after Wednesday's practice and thanked his teammates for their efforts. He also confirmed that his confidence comes from what he's doing in the process, not the results.

"My confidence always comes from what I’m doing from the process, not from results," Murashov said. "So yeah, I think it was a really good process. First and foremost, I would like to say thanks to my team. They were all battling, and efforts all around were really, really high, and I truly appreciate that. I think it’s a good to work with all of the coaches in the Penguins organization. And yeah, I think again, it’s all about the process and what I’m doing, and enjoying my time."

Overall, he's 5-2 with a 1.73 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage this year. He's a significant reason why the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are off to an 8-2-0 start. He also got time with the WBS Penguins last year and won his first 10 starts, setting a new franchise record for the longest winning streak in a rookie season. 

He always looks so calm and composed while he's in the crease. Everything comes naturally to him, and his athletic ability is freakishly good. He still needs to work on his rebound control a bit, but it has improved to start this year.

Up to this point, the Penguins have rotated starts between Jarry and Silovs, and head coach Dan Muse was asked if that will continue now that Murashov is up. He didn't want to tip his hand just yet. 

"I mean, I guess I'll even go on the start of that with the going 50/50. That's been the case up to this point. At no point did we say this is something we're locked in and has to be this way; we're like everything else. We're constantly evaluating, we're constantly looking at what those options are. In terms of right now, in terms of how we're gonna go through things, we're still having conversations," Muse said after practice. "We're having conversations with the coaching staff, conversations with (Penguins goaltending coach) Andy Chiodo, and the rest of the staff. We're gonna continue to have those conversations, make decisions based on what we think is best, and those conversations will continue to go from game to game."

Penguins Call Up 3 Players & Announce Several Roster MovesThe Pittsburgh Penguins have made a series of roster moves.

The Penguins are about to go through a stretch where they'll play three games in four days. Murashov will get at least one of those three starts, but could he get two? The Penguins are set to play Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Thursday. Wouldn't it be something to see Murashov go up against Ovechkin in his first NHL start? If he got that start, he'd get one of the two games over the weekend since the Penguins play the New Jersey Devils on Saturday and the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday.

However, Muse could opt to play it safe and give Silovs the start on Thursday before splitting the weekend back-to-back. 

Nevertheless, he's going to play at some point this week (and after), and he'll have the chance to show everyone that he could be the Penguins' goaltender of the future. 

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