NHL Saturday Preview: 14 Games on Tap, Headlined by Wild at Bruins and McDavid's Return to Toronto

Hockey fans have a feast of options on Saturday, Nov. 14, with 14 NHL games on the schedule and a remarkable eight of them puck-dropping at 7 p.m. ET. Broadcasts are spread across ESPN+, NHL Network and the league's streaming hub, with betting lines provided by DraftKings. From an international finale in Finland to late-night action on the West Coast, here is what to know about the day's biggest matchups.

The action starts early, at 1 p.m. ET, as the Seattle Kraken and Carolina Hurricanes close out their season series at Veikkaus Arena in Helsinki. Carolina took Thursday's meeting 4-1 behind two goals from Finland's own Sebastian Aho, and Seattle will need to generate far more offense after managing just 13 shots on goal compared to 30 for the Hurricanes. The Kraken could also weigh a goaltending change from Philipp Grubauer to Joey Daccord. At 3:30 p.m. ET, the red-hot Winnipeg Jets visit the Chicago Blackhawks. Winnipeg has won five straight games by a combined 27-14 score since its record-setting comeback against Montreal on Nov. 3, though Chicago won the teams' first meeting this season on an Artyom Levshunov overtime goal.

The marquee matchup of the night is Minnesota at Boston at 7 p.m. ET, even if the Bruins slipped behind Tampa Bay and Montreal in the standings on Thursday. The Wild won the first meeting 4-1, getting two goals from Kirill Kaprizov and another from Quinn Hughes while Jesper Wallstedt stopped 26 of 27 shots. This time the game is in Boston, where Jeremy Swayman is expected to start opposite Wallstedt, and David Pastrnak will try to solve the Wild's stingy netminder.

Also at 7 p.m. ET, Connor McDavid leads the Edmonton Oilers into Toronto. McDavid, one of the greatest players ever to come out of the Greater Toronto Area, has four goals and seven assists in his past four games at Scotiabank Arena, production that would aid both his pursuit of 200 points this season and Edmonton's bid to avenge a 7-2 home loss to the Maple Leafs on Oct. 24. William Nylander scored twice in that one, with Anthony Stolarz making 30 saves.

The rest of the crowded 7 p.m. window is loaded with storylines. Colorado visits Montreal in the teams' first meeting of the season, a game featuring Nathan MacKinnon on one side and Cole Caufield and Lane Hutson on the other; both clubs made the 2026 playoffs and beat Toronto within the past week. Detroit is at Tampa Bay, where Nikita Kucherov leads the Lightning with 28 points despite a trade request, while Detroit's Dylan Larkin is out of the lineup after his own request; Tampa Bay won the opener 4-2. Ottawa, which traded Brady Tkachuk to Florida and added William Eklund in a busy offseason, brings a 12-6-2 record into Pittsburgh against a 7-10-2 Penguins team facing questions about its veteran stars.

New Jersey and Washington meet for the second time in three days after the Devils' 5-2 win in Newark on Thursday, a game broken open by Vladislav Kolyachonok's go-ahead goal in the third period. Devils goaltender Connor Hellebuyck is 6-0-0 since arriving in a trade from Winnipeg, while Alex Ovechkin has now gone more than a month without a goal. The teams do not meet again until Jan. 24. Elsewhere, Philadelphia visits Columbus with Matvei Michkov leading the Flyers with 15 points and 10 goals, while Zach Werenski paces the Blue Jackets with 12 assists and ranks second in the league at 28:09 of average ice time, behind only Hughes.

Florida's trip to St. Louis is a homecoming for Matthew and Brady Tkachuk, who were raised in the area. Matthew leads the Panthers with 28 points, while the Blues counter with Jimmy Snuggerud, their leader with 14 points and 10 goals, and goaltender Joel Hofer, who ranks seventh in the NHL with a 2.15 goals-against average and is tied for third with a .926 save percentage.

The later window features Buffalo at Dallas at 8 p.m. ET, a rematch of the Stars' 4-0 win on Oct. 8. Dallas scoring has been top-heavy, with Mikko Rantanen at 21 points and Jason Robertson at 20, while Buffalo counters with eight players at 10 points or more who must find a way past Jake Oettinger. At 9 p.m. ET, San Jose visits Utah in a game with early playoff stakes: the Mammoth hold the second Western wild-card spot, four points ahead of the Sharks.

The night closes with two 10 p.m. ET games. The New York Islanders, tied with Washington at 20 points, visit an Anaheim team sitting third in the Pacific with 21 points; the Islanders won the first meeting 3-2 on Oct. 20. And Calgary visits Los Angeles in a curious clash: both teams rank in the bottom eight in goals allowed, with the Flames at 3.47 per game and the Kings at 3.53, yet both also sit in the bottom seven in scoring, at 2.47 and 2.76 goals per game respectively.

Saturday also carries a piece of hockey history. On Nov. 14, 1998, Brett Hull recorded his 1,000th career point for Dallas in a 3-1 win over Boston, in his 815th game. On the same date in 2024, McDavid joined the 1,000-point club in his 659th game, the fourth-fastest in history behind Wayne Gretzky (424 games), Mario Lemieux (513) and Mike Bossy (656).