The Hockey News Morning Skate: Joel Hofer Shines For Blues, Martone Struggles Early For Flyers, And More

Welcome to The Hockey News Morning Skate, where we give a quick recap of all the action from the NHL every weekday morning so you stay up to date.

The first weekend of the 2026-27 regular season just wrapped up and there was a ton of action around the league to recap.

Let's run through the biggest storylines that emerged from this weekend's slate of action, and make sure to check out the video version of this story above.

It was a tale of two goaltenders for the St. Louis Blues this weekend. Joel Hofer put together a 25-save shutout in a 4-0 win over the Dallas Stars in their season opener before losing 6-1 to the Colorado Avalanche the next night with Jordan Binnington in net.

Binnington is coming off the worst year of his career and the Blues will likely need to start Hofer more than the 43 times he did last season if they want to push for a playoff spot in the Central. Although, to be fair to Binnington, the Avalanche have come out firing, outscoring opponents 14-5 in their first two games.

Things haven't gone as planned for Calder Trophy favourite Porter Martone in his first three games of the season. The 19-year-old hasn't recorded a point yet and has only averaged 12:31 of ice time in the process.

While it's still early, this story will probably be monitored very closely by Philadelphia Flyers fans. Matvei Michkov's usage was a major topic of discussion last season, and if Martone continues to sit lower in the lineup, there will likely be more questions that Rick Tocchet will have to face regarding his deployment strategy.

While it's widely projected that the Calgary Flames will be competing for the top pick in the 2027 NHL Draft, nobody anticipated them to be losing in this fashion. The Flames fell 6-1 to the Seattle Kraken twice in four days and have been outscored 16-3 in their first three games.

The good news for the Flames is that Landon DuPont made his NCAA debut with Michigan this weekend and he looks as advertised. If the lottery balls fall in their favor, DuPont could end up being a franchise-altering addition for them.

The hockey world was stunned to see defenseman Tristan Luneau sign a $43-million extension with the Anaheim Ducks with only 14 NHL games under his belt, but he's been worth every penny through his first two appearances.

The 22-year-old picked up an assist in his first game and has played over 26 minutes in back-to-back games on the team's top pairing alongside Jackson LaCombe. After a summer with multiple big-ticket contracts for GM Pat Verbeek, this looks like one that could end up being a bargain if things continue to progress well.

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