NEW YORK - Jimmy Howard made 32 saves to lead the Detroit Red Wings to a 2-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Wednesday night.

Thomas Vanek and Drew Miller scored for Detroit, which improved to 2-2-0.

After beginning the season with two straight losses, the Red Wings have won consecutive games.

And they have Howard to thank for their latest win as New York had the better of play for wide stretches. The Rangers outshot Detroit 33-18 for the game and Howard was forced into making highlight reel stops to keep the Red Wings in the game.

New York led 1-0 as Mika Zibanejad redirected Ryan McDonagh's slap shot from the right point past Howard 1:09 into the game. The Rangers carried the 1-0 lead into the first intermission, following an opening 20 minutes in which they outshot the Red Wings 14-7.

Zibanejad's goal accounted for all of New York's offense, and the Rangers have alternated wins and losses through their first four games.

Their lead could have been larger as Jimmy Vesey and Brady Skjei had shots that hit goal posts late in the first, and Michael Grabner, Rick Nash and Mats Zuccarello all misfired on quality scoring chances in the first three minutes of the second period.

New York's inability to convert and Howard's play proved costly when Vanek tied the game 6:15 into the second with a power-play goal.

The game remained tied until 59 seconds into the third period. Luke Glendening's forecheck forced Henrik Lundqvist into committing a turnover behind his net, and Miller fired a shot into the net before the New York goaltender could fully recover for his first goal of the season.

Jester Fast appeared to tie the game with 3:38 left in regulation by redirecting Kevin Klein's shot from the point, but the goal was immediately disallowed as the New York wing had played it with a high stick.

Lundqvist made 16 saves on 18 shots.

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Off the board second. On the scoreboard first.

In the first in-game meeting between No. 1 and No. 2 overall draft picks Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine, it was the Winnipeg Jets sniper cashing in first with a quintessential marker.

Watch Laine control the puck on a hard pass from Dustin Byfuglien, then spin and fire over the shoulder of Frederik Andersen through a tight and somewhat awkward shooting lane.

His goal had the building chanting "Laine's better!" as the Jets tilted the ice on the Maple Leafs in the final frame.

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EDMONTON, Alberta - Thursday's game between the St. Louis Blues and Edmonton Oilers will mark a few homecomings.

All eyes will be on Nail Yakupov, who the Oilers traded to the Blues before the start of the season. Yakupov has been widely regarded as a draft bust; the first overall pick in the 2012 draft, the Russian right winger got only 50 goals in 252 games as an Oiler.

In four games with the Blues, Yakupov has a goal and an assist.

"It is weird," Yakupov told Oilers play-by-play man Jack Michaels in a 630 CHED interview. "When I was here, I didn't expect that I would stay in a hotel in this city, because I lived in this city. But, it's different. But, it's really good, now, we have a good team and a good group."

"He is fitting in," said Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo of his new teammate. "It's a different environment coming in -- and new linemates. I think he's playing a pretty hard game. He's created some really good chances. It's new systems for him ... but he's adjusting pretty well."

But it's another Russian who is lighting it up for St. Louis. Vladimir Tarasenko is tied for the league lead with four goals.

And, Thursday will also mark the final time Ken Hitchcock will coach an NHL game in his hometown.

Unless he has a change of heart, Hitchcock, an Edmonton native, is in his final season as a head coach. The Blues visit Rogers Place only once this season.

The Blues have started Hitchcock's final season in blistering fashion. Despite losing 2-1 in overtime in Vancouver on Tuesday night, the Blues are 3-0-1. It marks only the second time in team history that the Blues have earned points in the first four games of a regular season.

Meanwhile, the Oilers have won three of their first four, and scored 17 times in the process. Thursday's game, though, is the team's fourth home game of the season already -- the Oilers have played just one road date.

Because October is filled with so many home games for the Oilers, coach Todd McLellan said a good start to season isn't a want, it's a need.

"Having home games, and needing to put some points in the bank, knowing eventually you've got to go out on the road, we've been able to do that," he said. "I don't think anybody is comfortable yet, so we got some things we really need to work on. It keeps us on our edge, maybe I'm being too critical of our group."

The issue is that the Oilers have scored 17 (most in the Western Conference), but given up 15 (also most in the Western Conference). Each of the four games played so far this season have felt like a return to the Air Hockey Era of the 1980s.

But Oilers goalie Cam Talbot turned in his best performance of the season Tuesday, stopping 31 of 33 shots after giving up six goals in a loss to Buffalo on Sunday .

"I need a big bounce-back game, after the game I had last. As a team, I think that sometimes we let those losses kinda snowball in the past."

On Wednesday, Talbot and his wife welcomed twins to their family.

Oilers defenseman Mark Fayne left Tuesday's win over Carolina with a lower-body injury. He was placed on injured reserve Wednesday and the Oilers called up defenseman Ben Betker from their AHL affiliate in Bakersfield, Calif. The Oilers did not practice Wednesday.

The Blues placed Jori Lehtera, who hurt his hip Saturday in a win over the New York Rangers, on injured reserve Wednesday, which opens up a roster spot.

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It would appear Erik Karlsson has established a standard for costumes that NHLers will wear at Halloween parties over the next few weeks.

There was not a single shortcut taken in the planning and audacious execution of Karlsson's getup, which is making the rounds on Instagram.

(Image courtesy @melindacurrey)

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Without their superstar netminder last season, the Montreal Canadiens were exposed as dysfunctional and flawed. One week into this season, the belief is that his absence has revealed something different altogether.

With five points in three games without Carey Price, who has been bedridden with the flu, the Canadiens have uncovered confidence in themselves and at the prospects of competing when the goaltender returns.

"No one was hoping (Price) would be out of the lineup, but for us to start without him we understand we have a really good team here. When we get him back we'll only be that much stronger," Brendan Gallagher told NHL.com's Arpon Basu.

"It's not a terrible thing for us to be a team, to not be reliant on one single individual, one single talent, as good as he is. We want to be a team."

Sensitivity to the notion they're susceptible without Price has been omnipresent in the Canadiens' locker room for some time. And while the opening week won't dispel that perception, Gallagher's comments do illustrate just how important it was to have the results not go the opposite route in the netminder's absence.

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It's been a long time since we've seen Bobby Orr round the net, picking up top speed in the opposite end as he prepared to attack an opposing defense.

But we can see a superimposition coming on.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Orr's debut with the Boston Bruins, TSN's Bob McKenzie sat down with the defenseman that revolutionized the game, and asked whether he could hang with client and current transcendent star Connor McDavid.

Perhaps, he'd explain. But only if the race was on his conditions.

"I'd give him a run if I had a little start," laughed Orr. "But from a standstill - this kid is quick. And with the puck."

For the full interview with the hockey great that refuses to age, click here.

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For now, its existence is only in the mind of Patrik Laine. But that doesn't make it any less real to him.

Ahead of his first meeting with the only player chosen ahead of him at the draft last summer, Laine perked up at the thought of forming an authentic head-to-head rivalry with Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs, wishing to be a part of moments that he enjoyed while watching the NHL as a youngster.

"(Alex) Ovechkin was my idol," Laine told TSN's Mark Masters. "He had that kind of rivalry against (Sidney) Crosby so it was quite awesome to watch those Penguins-Capitals games. There was just so much, so much between those teams and between those two players and it would be quite awesome to feel that, feel that moment, and I think we could have that kind of moment today against Auston and Toronto."

Related: Why everyone should stop talking about a Matthews-Laine rivalry

Laine has picked his spots since the lead-up to the draft, when he promised he was the better of the two prospects. He took a team-first mentality when asked about Matthews' four-goal debut, and recently told Sportsnet's Chris Johnston: "I don't need a rivalry between us. I just focus on my own job."

Yet on game day, he can't help but daydream about starring in his own rivalry - much like the duels that once piqued his interest - and being entrenched in the narrative that makes this game the one to watch.

And perhaps having the opportunity to validate what he continues to believe, as well.

Problem is, the stone-faced Matthews is as proficient in avoiding the bait as he is in debuts. He's never indulged the second overall draft pick that considers him the Crosby to his Ovechkin, and is putting no extra stock into his first trip to Winnipeg.

"I don't think either side is making too much of it," Matthews told Jeff Hamilton of the Winnipeg Free Press. "We came here to get two points."

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PHILADELPHIA - Ed Snider created a Philadelphia Flyers franchise stocked with so many great moments, all it takes is a simple crane of the neck toward the banners hanging from the rafters to rekindle 50 years of memories.

Banners celebrate division titles (remember the Patrick Division?), conference championships and numbers of retired greats. Bernie Parent. Mark Howe. Bobby Clarke. All among the Flyers immortalized with one of sport's highest honors.

Two banners have been raised for each of the Flyers' Stanley Cup championships.

Walk around the Wells Fargo Center and see concourses stuffed with history; every hat - and even a bra or two - tossed on the ice for a hat trick, plaques, newspaper clippings, a scroll in honor of all 112 individual and business season ticket holders of the Flyers' first season in 1967-68 are on display. The Flyers have long been known for their ode to the past, yet what's in public view barely scratched the ice of what the team has preserved.

''Ed Snider was very proud of the history of the Flyers from Day 1,'' said archivist Brian McBride. ''They saved and collected stuff from the get-go. You don't often think of things as history when it's happening, and then it's history, and you think, we should have saved that.''

Take a winding staircase to reach what employees dub ''the bat cave,'' and Flyers history is stacked floor-to-ceiling with programs, magazines, slides, photos and sports sections that have documented 50 years of history.

The Flyers (1-1-1) open the home slate of their 50th anniversary season Thursday against Anaheim for the first time in team history without Snider. Snider died of cancer in April.

His foresight to save, save, save, helped turn space inside the arena into a sort-of sports edition of ''Hoarders,'' only with a tinge of nostalgia sweeping through every step of would could stand for the franchise's cluttered Hall of Fame.

''He was always appreciative of the history,'' McBride said.

Only the Flyers save more than Bernie Parent.

Snider, who enjoyed greeting his players with a handshake in the locker room, ordered cameras for players and employees so they could snap photos during the Flyers' 1970s heyday. Flip through one of the piles of photo albums and find plastics sheets holding shots of Clarke hoisting the Stanley Cup trophy, but also of Snider shaking hands with fans during the parade and candid snapshots like late announcer Gene Hart swimming in a pool.

Think the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto would want some of this gear: An All-Star game jersey from Eric Lindros, and, a full Clarke equipment set from the 1977-78 season with jersey (with Barry Ashbee patch), stick, pads and gloves.

Clarke, the greatest Flyer, has spent 45 years in various roles with the team. He's the career leader in games played and points and delivered a poignant speech about what he hoped happened to him when he died at Snider's funeral.

''I really hope that when I get there, I get another chance to play one more game in the orange and black under Mr. Snider's Philadelphia Flyers,'' he said.

The Flyers don't have their first game on tape. The earliest recording in possession is the first two periods of the Jan. 4, 1968 game against Boston.

But who needs TV in what could be a fan cave?

Pull up a chair (plucked from their old home, the Spectrum), flip through the record collection and put the needle on a vinyl album of ''God Bless The Flyers.'' Forget video clips or games stored on the DVR. The album includes ''exciting play-by-play action, highlights and interviews of the `73-'74 championship season.'' Thirsty? There are unopened cans of soda from decades ago stamped with the Flyers logo on the shelf.

And for the brave man who wants to smell like a champion today, there's even a bottle of ''Bully'' cologne.

Duck! But don't worry, if a loose puck bops you on the head, the Flyers still have plaques for ''The Loyal Order of the Unducked Puck.''

''To you, brave fan, who courageously stopped a puck without leaving the stands, the Philadelphia Flyers award full membership in the loyal order of the unducked puck, with all the rights and privileges appertaining thereunto.''

None of the sprays, plays and collector's items would be stored without that need for the first score sheet.

California Seals 5, Flyers 1. Oct. 11, 1967. The lineup: Jean Gauthier and John Miszuk on defense; Lou Angotti at center; Brit Selby at left wing; Wayne Hicks at right wing; and Parent in net.

The Flyers have simply saved most of the memorabilia, though many pads, pucks and Polaroid's have been donated from players or employees.

There's no guarantee the Flyers will add another banner for this season.

But that bobblehead, yearbook, and foam finger will surely be preserved for decades to come.

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Ryan Miller appears to be doing better than he was 24 hours ago.

The Vancouver Canucks netminder sat out Tuesday against the St. Louis Blues after arriving to the morning skate with "tightness." In turn, the Canucks were forced to dress University of British Columbia goalie Matt Hewitt as the backup.

Miller returned to practice Wednesday and said he feels good and the tightness is an issue he deals with roughly 10 times a season.

The 36-year-old will back up Jacob Markstrom on Thursday when the club takes on the Buffalo Sabres.

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Ryan Miller appears to be doing better than he was 24 hours ago.

The Vancouver Canucks netminder sat out Tuesday against the St. Louis Blues after arriving to the morning skate with "tightness." In turn, the Canucks were forced to dress University of British Columbia goalie Matt Hewitt as the backup.

Miller returned to practice Wednesday and said he feels good and the tightness is an issue he deals with roughly 10 times a season.

The 36-year-old will back up Jacob Markstrom on Thursday when the club takes on the Buffalo Sabres.

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