NHL scores: Devils, Penguins big winners on a wild night of hockey

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.

In Pittsburgh, during the first game of the Mike Johnston era, the Penguins raced out to an early 3-0 lead only to watch Anaheim storm back with three goals of its own, only to have the Penguins strike back with three more goals to earn the 6-4 win. While that was happening, the New Jersey Devils, a team not known for its offense, played a nearly identical game against Philadelphia that included the Flyers scoring three goals in just four minutes late in the second period to erase a 3-0 deficit. But like Pittsburgh, New Jersey was able to regroup and come away with a win against a Flyers team playing with a depleted defense.

In the late games, the Winnipeg Jets were big winners in their season opener against Arizona (also known as the old Winnipeg Jets) thanks to Blake Wheeler scoring two goals just 15 seconds apart, while the Edmonton Oilers learned once again that no matter how well they may play their goaltending still isn’t very good.

Blue Jackets 3, Sabres 1

Devils 6, Flyers 4

Penguins 6, Ducks 4

Canadiens 2, Capitals 1

Red Wings 2, Bruins 1

Lightning 3, Panthers 2

Rangers 3, Blues 2

Predators 3, Senators 2

Blackhawks 3, Stars 2

Wild 5, Avalanche 0

Flames 5, Oilers 2

Jets 6, Coyotes 2

1. The Colorado Avalanche were not ready for the start of the season. At least that’s the way it seemed against the Minnesota Wild as they were kicked all over the ice for 60 minutes. The Avalanche are going to be an interesting team to watch this season to see if their success last season, which was built largely on goaltending and shooting percentage, was for real. It was not a promising start.

2. Winnipeg can’t even find solace in their backup netminder. It’s almost universally accepted that starting goalie Ondrej Pavelec

3. Rick Nash can still score. He will face scathing criticism every time he doesn’t score and will be seen as a disappointment no matter what he does, but at the end of the year he’s still going to end up with 30 goals and be one of the Rangers’ top offensive players. He got off to a good start in the opener with a pair of goals, including the game-winner late in the third period.

You never want to see injuries, especially just two days into the regular season, but a couple of potentially significant injuries stole some headlines on Thursday. The New York Rangers lost Dan Boyle for four-to-six weeks thanks to a broken hand and the Winnipeg Jets may be without Evander Kane after he suffered a knee injury in their win against the Arizona Coyotes.

With his first period assist on a Mike Cammalleri goal, New Jersey Devils forward Jaromir Jagr moved into sole possession of sixth place on the NHL’s all-time points list with 1,757 points. Next up on the list for Jagr: Marcel Dionne at 1,771