NHL opening night: Blackhawks raise banner; Leafs trip Habs

The 2013-14 NHL season kicked off on Tuesday night with a trio of games that featured a little bit of everything.

The Blackhawks raised another Stanley Cup banner to the rafters and outlasted the Washington Capitals at the United Center, while the Maple Leafs went into Montreal and knocked off their rivals with a 4-2 win. The biggest headline to come out of that game however will be the fact that Canadiens forward George Parros had to leave the game on a stretcher after he hit his head on the ice during a fight with Colton Orr.

Joel Quenneville thought Mike Green did something bad, but the referees didn’t see Mike Green do anything bad. The result is this GIF.

Gazdic, known more for his toughness than his skill throughout his career in the minor leagues, was claimed on waivers by the Oilers just before the start of the season as they tried to add some toughness to their lineup.

He immediately made his presence felt. It just wasn’t the way the Oilers were expecting.

The damage was done when Orr fell to the ice and grabbed on to Parros’s jersey, pulling him down as well. Parros ended hitting the ice face first. He remained on the ice for a quite a while while the training staff attended to him and as he was carted off there was a noticeable cut on his chin.

The Canadiens announced after the game that Parros suffered a concussion and that he is undergoing further tests.

Here it is taking its place alongside the Blackhawks’ previous four championship banners.

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Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty played just four minutes of his team’s season opener on Tuesday night before he had to return to the locker room with an injury.

Pacioretty was on the receiving end of a big hit from Toronto Maple Leafs forward Colton Orr in the corner. He was slow in getting back to the bench, and did not return for the remainder of the first period.

Poor Brooks Laich. After battling a year of injuries last season, Laich was injured almost immediately after training camp started. He stated on Tuesday that he will be playing against Chicago and that he is fully healthy. Is he really? How will he play?

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Hybrid icing is coming to the NHL for the 2013-14 season. The NHL Players’ Association passed the motion to implement the rule change on Monday.

The goal of hybrid-icing is to lessen the threat of injuries that typically occur when players collide with the endboards following a race for an icing call. Hybrid icing is a combination of no-touch and touch icing, and it simply moves the finish line of that race from the goal line to the faceoff dot -- further away from that collision point with the boards.

Here’s the rest of Chicago’s forward combinations from practice on Monday, via Dan Rosen of NHL.com:

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Murray sustained the undisclosed injury during practice on Sunday, according to Michel Therrien. It’s the second such instance of Murray sustaining injury during the preseason portion of the 2013-14 season, as he dealt with a lower-body injury previously. The 33-year-old defenseman signed a one-year, $1.5 million deal as an unrestricted free agent with Montreal this offseason.

Montreal has indicated that the club won’t call-up a player from the Hamilton Bulldogs of the American Hockey League and that Jarred Tinordi will replace Murray, which is a good thing, according to Andrew Berkshire of Eyes on the Prize:

Laich has missed time due to a hip flexor issue that limited his preseason activity to a single exhibition game. The player sat out Washington’s final preseason contest this past Saturday against Chicago as a precautionary measure.

Laich stated on Saturday that he likely would have played had it been a regular season contest and that the extra time off would allow him to prepare for opening night, via the Washington Post: