The first three days of the earliest leaguewide start in NHL history delivered scores straight out of the 1980s.
Edmonton and Vancouver played 6-5 and 9-7 games. Pittsburgh routed Philadelphia 7-0. Colorado beat Los Angeles 8-4.
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Buffalo Sabres center Jiri Kulich, right, celebrates as Minnesota Wild goalie Jesper Wallstedt skates away after overtime of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
Carolina Hurricanes' Jackson Blake, center, collides with Philadelphia Flyers' Travis Sanheim, left, during the first period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) checks Minnesota Wild defenseman Quinn Hughes (43) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim)
Anaheim Ducks center Leo Carlsson (91) and right wing Beckett Sennecke (45) celebrate after Sennecke scored against the Vegas Golden Knights during the first period of an NHL hockey game Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Edmonton Oilers' Evan Bouchard (2) celebrates his hat trick goal against the Vancouver Canucks during third period NHL hockey action in Edmonton on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026. (Codie McLachlan/The Canadian Press via AP)
“There’s a lot of goals being scored, which tells you that there’s some loose hockey still being played,” New York Islanders coach Peter DeBoer said Thursday.
The hockey has been sloppy, scoring is up slightly and goaltenders are stopping the puck less than last season. But with the first 60 or so games in the books following shorter training camps and less exhibition action, there's little evidence to suggest that it has drastically altered the play on the ice compared to previous starts that come with gaps in fundamentals and the occasional blowout.
“I think it’s been like that for the last 100 years, so I was not expecting this year to be any different,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said.
The first 65 games have featured 405 goals — led by Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard with six. Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin even has one from shooting and scoring into an empty net.
That's an average of 6.24, up a tick from the 6.23 over the first 60 games a year ago. Power plays are clicking at a 20.8% success rate, compared to 19.7%, led by Columbus, Winnipeg and Utah at 40% apiece.
“Maybe less time to practice special teams,” said Utah's Dylan Guenther, who leads the league with six power play points. “We had a pretty big emphasis on that in camp because we did a lot of special teams, so it’s good that a little bit of that is paying off.”
The average save percentage so far is .891. Netminders combining for an .896 last season was the lowest in the NHL since 1994, and it's not getting any easier for hockey's masked men.
There are a similar amount of giveaways, more than 32 a game, and plenty of odd-man rushes to be found.
“Teams can score, like there’s so much skill,” New Jersey defenseman Brenden Dillon said. “Teams have so much skill, so on the defensive side, all it takes is one stick being in the wrong spot or one guy being out of position and teams are going to make you pay.”
It is an annual debate every fall how to get the most out of camp, Devils coach Sheldon Keefe said, which leads to plenty of teaching early in the regular season.
"Do we roll out everything and then introduce it, but then you don’t get good at anything?" Keefe said. “Or do you just roll out a few things at a time and try to really grasp onto that and then you build out from there? You have to do that even more so in the shortened camp. You’ve got to kind of prioritize a few key areas you focus on, and then you just keep kind of building it out as you go.”
Player fitness is not a concern in this day and age when summer skates are commonplace. It may take several more weeks to determine if fewer preseason games contributed to any sort of increase in injuries.
More games are slipping away from teams with big deficits, though. There have been 28 decided by three or more goals, a little more than usual.
“Everybody’s pretty sharp pretty early,” Islanders captain Bo Horvat said. "You get the odd game here and there where it gets a little sloppy. But I think obviously play will pick up, and things will get a little bit crispier as the season goes on."
Teammate Kyle Palmieri said the Islanders discussed taking advantage of some of the sloppiness around the league, hoping that being more disciplined in the fall can pay dividends. Dillon understands coaches probably would have liked another week or two to iron some things out, but there isn't much clamoring to go back to the old ways.
“It’s nice having a shorter camp,” Guenther said. “I’m not going to complain about that.”
Good thing, then, because this is the NHL's new normal. As part of that, everyone seems to acknowledge this is how early-season fall hockey goes — a long way from playoff races in the spring and the lockdown, tight-checking intensity chasing the Stanley Cup.
“I think there’s a lot of clean up to do from everybody,” Tourigny said. “At this point, I don’t think there’s any team who’s perfectly perfect on anything.”
See AP’s full NHL coverage here
Buffalo Sabres center Jiri Kulich, right, celebrates as Minnesota Wild goalie Jesper Wallstedt skates away after overtime of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
Carolina Hurricanes' Jackson Blake, center, collides with Philadelphia Flyers' Travis Sanheim, left, during the first period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) checks Minnesota Wild defenseman Quinn Hughes (43) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim)
Anaheim Ducks center Leo Carlsson (91) and right wing Beckett Sennecke (45) celebrate after Sennecke scored against the Vegas Golden Knights during the first period of an NHL hockey game Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Edmonton Oilers' Evan Bouchard (2) celebrates his hat trick goal against the Vancouver Canucks during third period NHL hockey action in Edmonton on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026. (Codie McLachlan/The Canadian Press via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal immigration officers opened fire on a Dominican man in New York because he drove his car into officers' vehicles and they believed their lives were in danger, a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said Friday.
The 28-year-old man, whom New York City police identified as Oscar Belgal, was shot “superficially” in the neck as ICE officers attempted to arrest him, said Marcos Charles, head of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations. Authorities have not released details of Belgal's condition.
Officers used their vehicles to block the man as he attempted to drive away, but he accelerated toward them, Charles said during a news conference with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in Washington. The Department of Homeland Security said the news conference was about the “dangerous consequences of sanctuary city policies.”
“Our officers, using their training and believing that their life and the life of the partners and the general public were in danger, used their training and fired weapons,” Charles said.
Belgal had his 5-year-old son in the car with him when the shooting happened, officials said.
Mullin said ICE agents didn’t know the child was in the car, but that Belgal “was aware” and chose to put the boy at risk by trying to evade officers.
Belgal was associated with a robbery crew that used mopeds and weapons, and was convicted of grand larceny last year and sentenced to five years of probation, Charles said, adding that he evaded officers in September when ICE tried to arrest him for deportation.
The Legal Aid Society, which was representing Belgal in an ongoing drug case, called Friday for a “full and transparent” investigation of the shooting, the officers involved to be held accountable and an end to “ICE’s escalating presence in New York City.”
Belgal has pleaded not guilty to narcotics-sale charges in the drug case. The Legal Aid Society did not comment further.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, both Democrats, said late Thursday that they had pressed Mullin and Republican President Donald Trump to release Belgal, but to no avail. They also urged the administration to immediately release ICE officers' body camera footage of the shooting and to halt immigration enforcement operations in the city.
Mullin said Belgal was being held in a “highly secured” detention facility outside New York City but declined to say where.
Attorneys representing Belgal filed an emergency petition Thursday night calling for his release. A hearing is scheduled for Friday afternoon.
He also confirmed ICE officers were wearing body cameras that were activated, but didn’t say when any of that footage would be released. Under agency policy, bodycam video can be released within 72 hours if “determined that it is in the best interests of the agency."
On Friday, New York City police released footage from its officers as they arrived at the scene following the shooting. The department previously said its officers were not involved in the arrest and not at the scene when the shooting happened.
The video shows a city officer responding to a chaotic scene where Belgal — sitting on the ground with his hands behind his back and head drooping to one side — was surrounded by several officials. The video shows officers lifting Belgal and placing him in a black SUV. Police said he was taken to a hospital.
“Yo put pressure. Put pressure,” an officer can be heard saying as the SUV reverses down the block.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Belgal was pulling into a parking space when a federal officer in plainclothes approached with his gun drawn, followed by another federal officer who also wasn’t in uniform. Belgal started to pull the car forward, and at least one of the officers fired seven rounds, hitting the man below his left ear.
Protesters and local officials decried the shooting as an example of the dangers of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
“There is no justification for what we have seen today,” Mamdani said late Thursday at the scene of the shooting.
Federal officers who surrounded the vehicle wore construction vests and masks, making it difficult to identify them as immigration officers, he said.
Mullin devoted much of Friday’s news conference to criticizing Mamdani and New York City’s limits on cooperation with ICE. The Democrat, who took office in January, has restricted local cooperation with immigration enforcement operations and repeatedly called for the abolition of ICE.
“Sanctuary politicians, they create an environment for criminal activity to thrive, not for the American citizens to be safe,” Mullin said.
ICE has asked local officials in New York to hold onto more than 14,000 people for federal officers to collect and place in immigration detention, he said.
“Silence. Absolute silence is what we have gotten back,” the secretary said. “Why would they release these individuals back onto the streets?”
“We’re enforcing our nation’s laws. We’re not picking and choosing,” Mullin continued. “Why is that controversial? We should all want law and order on our streets.”
During Trump's second term, Homeland Security has often accused suspects of attempting to ram officers with vehicles or otherwise pose a threat and using that as justification for opening fire. But evidence from other shootings involving immigration enforcement officers has sometimes called into question that rationale.
In the Jan. 7 shooting death of Renee Good in Minneapolis, Homeland Security officials initially claimed an ICE officer opened fire in self-defense after Good attempted to run him over with her vehicle. Videos filmed from multiple angles challenged the administration’s narrative.
On July 10, ICE officers fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston as the Mexican national was driving his construction crew to a job site. DHS maintained Salgado Araujo rammed an ICE vehicle, but the three men inside his vehicle disputed the narrative.
Last year in a Chicago suburb, immigration officers fatally shot Silverio Villegas González after they say the Mexican national drove at them and dragged one with his car, causing “serious injuries.” But body camera videos from local police showed the agent who shot Villegas González walking around afterward and dismissing his own injuries as “nothing major.”
Marcelo reported from New York. Associated Press reporters Anthony Izaguirre and Jennifer Peltz in New York City and Ryan Foley in Iowa City, Iowa, contributed.
In this image taken from police-worn body camera video released the New York City Police Department (NYPD), law enforcement personnel tend to a Oscar Belgal, 28, a Dominican man who was shot by Federal immigration officers, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in New York, as he drove his car with a 5-year-old boy inside. (NYPD via AP)
In this image taken from police-worn body camera video released the New York City Police Department (NYPD), law enforcement personnel tend to a Oscar Belgal, 28, a Dominican man who was shot by Federal immigration officers, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in New York, as he drove his car with a 5-year-old boy inside. (NYPD via AP)
Marcos Charles, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Executive Associate Director, speaks during a news conference at ICE Headquarters, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Law enforcement work the scene of a shooting Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
People gather at the scene of a shooting as law enforcement work the area Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New York City police try to block protestors near the scene of a shooting on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani talks during a news conference near the scene of a shooting on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, speaks during a news conference at ICE Headquarters, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
