Day 2 of NHL season includes 12 games Thursday night

The second day of the NHL season featured 24 teams in action and gave us a little bit of everything. A little bit of acting. A coach turning into the devil. Significant injuries. Ugly hits. And even a fat joke.

One of the reoccurring themes in last year’s playoffs was the way teams kept blowing two-and three-goal leads. We are just two days into the 2014-15 season and it’s happening again.

1. Taylor Hall’s speed can sometimes be his downfall - Look, Taylor Hall might very well be one of the fastest hockey players alive. But sometimes that means he opens himself up to dangerous injuries like the one he suffered on Saturday. It’s a real shame Hall has missed so much time to injury over the last couple of seasons, and Oilers fans can only hope his most recent one won’t keep him off the ice for too long.

2. Ben Scrivens is still working out the kinks - The Oilers netminder has had an inconsistent season thus far, and that beat continued against the Canucks.

Boyle was injured in the second period when attempting to block a shot. After playing two shifts in the third period, he had to leave the game and was not able to return after logging 14 minutes of ice time.

It still may end up happening for them, but now they’re going to have to wait a few weeks.

Don’t change anything about this, Washington. This needs to be a nightly thing.

Amazingly, there was no penalty called on the play, but there is a good chance that Stephane Quintal, the NHL’s new disciplinary czar, might want to hand a penalty of his own.

These two players have a bit of a history going back to last season, when Upshall squirted Gudas with water from the bench.

GIF via @CapitalsHill

Twenty-four NHL teams are in action on Thursday night, the second full night of the 2014-15 season. Four of those teams also played a night ago to open the league’s season, but all 12 games Thursday night will be home openers for teams involved.

The Buffalo Sabres kick off a season they hope will end with the top overall draft pick and Connor McDavid, while in the nation’s capital, Barry Trotz takes over a Washington Capitals team that’s thinking playoff berth after a year out of the postseason in 2013-14. Division rivals face off in six of the 12 games: New Jersey vs. Philadelphia, Boston vs. Detroit, Florida vs. Tampa Bay, Chicago vs. Dallas, Colorado vs. Minnesota and Calgary vs. Edmonton.