NHL Stages 10 Halloween Games: Canadiens Chase a Fifth Straight Win as McDavid Leads the League in Scoring
The National Hockey League (NHL) stages its Halloween game day on October 31, with 10 games on the schedule, including four on Sportsnet in Canada. According to NHL.com, it is the busiest Halloween game day since 2015.
One of the night's headline games is in Montreal, where the Montreal Canadiens host Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Bell Centre in search of a fifth straight win. The Canadiens are 8-3-2, and the streak has come without captain Nick Suzuki, who is expected to miss his fifth straight game with an upper-body injury and could be sidelined another one to three weeks.
Montreal's run has been built on balanced scoring: nine players have scored during it, with Jake Evans, Cole Caufield and Alex Newhook and defenseman Kaiden Guhle scoring two goals each. Goaltender Jacob Fowler could return to the net after Jakub Dobes made 17 saves in Thursday's 5-2 win at Dallas. Fowler is 6-1-0 with a 1.54 goals-against average, a .942 save percentage and two shutouts in seven starts this season, and is 3-0-0 with two goals against on 101 shots during the winning streak. The Penguins (5-6-2) have points in three straight games, and Crosby needs one power-play point to tie Hall of Fame defenseman Phil Housley for 10th most in NHL history, at 612.
The afternoon slate has its own marquee matchup: the New York Islanders host the Edmonton Oilers at UBS Arena, putting 2025 No. 1 pick Matthew Schaefer on the same ice as 2015 No. 1 pick Connor McDavid. McDavid leads the NHL with 36 points (eight goals, 28 assists) in 13 games and has extended his NHL-record season-opening assist streak to 13 games; a four-point Halloween would tie Mario Lemieux's record for points in October, 38, set in 1988. Edmonton (9-2-2) is also riding a team-record five-game road winning streak to start a season.
Elsewhere, the Boston Bruins host the Chicago Blackhawks, with Boston captain David Pastrnak one goal from passing Patrice Bergeron (427) for third on the Bruins' all-time list, and Chicago's Patrick Kane one assist from becoming the 21st player in NHL history, and the first born in the United States, with 900. The Buffalo Sabres visit the Los Angeles Kings, where center Tage Thompson tied the NHL record for points in a Halloween game four years ago with six (three goals, three assists).
There have been 23 hat tricks on Halloween in NHL history, the most recent by Elias Pettersson in 2023; he and the Vancouver Canucks host the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight. The day's 10 games start at 1 p.m. ET, and the last one, the Calgary Flames at the Colorado Avalanche, begins at 10 p.m. ET.
Related: Canadiens Beat Stars 5-2 for Fourth Straight Win: Caufield and Newhook Each Score Twice
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：Montreal 的 Bell Centre 内景，Montreal Canadiens 主场（资料图）。Ken Lund 摄，CC BY-SA 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Inside the Bell Centre in Montreal, home of the Montreal Canadiens (file photo). Photo by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
