NHL scores: Maple Leafs lose thriller; Sharks crush Kings

No team knows crushing defeat quite like the current Toronto Maple Leafs roster, and they already seem to be in midseason form after dropping a 4-3 decision to the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday, thanks to a wild ending that saw a pair of goals and a game-saving stop by Carey Price in the final two minutes.

Even in defeat, it was at least a somewhat encouraging night for Toronto. After dumping their fighters, the Maple Leafs have the look of a deeper, more balanced team this season and are receiving some promising play from youngsters Stuart Percy and Brandon Kozun. Unfortunately for Percy, he was the recipient of some poor puck luck late in the third period when an innocent-looking shot from Tomas Plekanec bounced off of him and into the net for what turned out to be the game-winning goal. It was a tough ending, but there were some reasons for optimism.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Kings were celebrating their second Stanley Cup win in three years. The fun, however, stopped soon after the banner was raised as the Sharks played a nearly flawless opening game on their way to a 4-0 win.

Chris Kelly's goal late in the third period was the difference in Boston's 2-1 win against Philadelphia, while the Canucks were able to get Willie Desjardins his first NHL coaching win by knocking off the Calgary Flames.

Bruins 2, Flyers 1

2. Radim Vrbata was already an underrated scorer during his time in Phoenix. Now that he's going to get a chance to play alongside two players like Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin, he could be on the verge of a huge season in Vancouver. He got it started on Wednesday with a goal in the Canucks' 4-2 win in Calgary.

3. The Sharks' new leadership hierarchy doesn't seem to be all that different from the old one. After stripping Joe Thornton of the captaincy and Patrick Marleau of his assistant captain status, the Sharks opened the regular season with no captain and three alternates. The alternates in the opener: Thornton, Marleau and Joe Pavelski. This will probably end up being much ado about nothing in the end and outsiders are probably going to spend more time worrying about it than the guys that actually have to deal with it every day.

Phil Kessel is not going to miss many opportunities when you leave him wide open on the doorstep. That wasn't the case Wednesday, however, as it appeared he was going to score a game-tying goal in the closing seconds, but Montreal's Carey Price was able to barely get a pad on the shot and secure Montreal's season opening win. There is a fine line between winning and losing in the NHL on most nights and on Wednesday the Maple Leafs were on the wrong side of it. Again.

Patrice Bergeron is great. We already detailed his dominance of Claude Giroux, but it wasn't just Philadelphia's top line that he frustrated on Wednesday. There were 27 total shot attempts between the two teams during his 15 minutes of even-strength ice time, and 21 of them belonged to the Bruins. when he's on the ice, nothing good is happening for your team. Oh, and he also won 78 percent of his faceoffs on the night.

• The Phoenix Coyotes were hours away from moving to Seattle.
• Good or bad, the 2014-15 Pittsburgh Penguins are going to be exciting.
• For the Chicago Blackhawks, it's all up to Corey Crawford.
• In Edmonton, they're hoping the hot stove is nothing but hot air when it comes to defenseman Jeff Petry.