Jeremy Swayman was the first player introduced before the Bruins’ home opener on Thursday night and he took the ice to a huge ovation.

No hard feelings from the Boston fans over the contract holdout that kept him out of training camp until he signed a $66 million contract on Sunday, two days before the season started.

“It’s such an incredible thing to be back playing and in this building again. It’s a boatload of gratitude,” Swayman said after stopping 21 shots to lead the Bruins to a 6-4 victory over the Montreal Canadiens.

Elias Lindholm and Cole Koepke each had a goal and two assists for Boston, which lost 6-4 to the Florida Panthers in its season opener on Tuesday night. Charlie McAvoy and David Pastrnak also scored to help the Bruins open a 5-2 lead.

Brendan Gallagher scored twice for Montreal, the second with four minutes left to make it a one-goal game. Kaiden Guhle had a goal and an assist and Cayden Primeau made 23 saves for the Canadiens, who beat Toronto 1-0 on Wednesday night in Montreal.

Los Angeles 3, Buffalo 1 >> Anze Kopitar scored a natural hat trick in the third period to rally the Los Angeles Kings to a season-opening win over the Buffalo Sabres.

Darcy Kuemper stopped 32 shots in an outing where the Kings overcame a 1-0 deficit. Kopitar tied the game at 1-1 by scoring 13 seconds into the third period. He scored the go-ahead goal on a power play with 1:38 left and then capped the scoring with an empty-netter.

Alex Tuch converted his own rebound on a shorthanded breakaway with 3:05 left in the second period, and Buffalo dropped to 0-3 after opening the season with two losses to New Jersey in Prague last weekend.

Ottawa 3, Florida 1 >> Linus Ullmark made 30 saves in his first game for Ottawa, helping the Senators open the season with a victory over the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.

The Panthers lost captain Aleksander Barkov to an injury late in the third period when he crashed into the end boards.

Tim Stutzle opened the scoring on a first-period power play and put it away in the third with an empty-netter. Shane Pinto also scored for Ottawa in the first period.

With the Senators holding a 2-1 lead late in the third, Ullmark made saves on Anton Lundell, Mackie Samoskevich and Carter Verhaeghe.

Gustav Forsling scored for Florida with 4:12 left, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves. The Panthers opened the season Tuesday night with a 6-4 home victory over Boston.

Toronto 4, New Jersey 2 >> Steven Lorentz had a goal and an assist, goalie Dennis Hildeby won his first NHL game and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the New Jersey Devils. Hildeby, Toronto’s fourth-round pick in the 2022 draft, stopped 22 shots in his NHL debut.

Max Pacioretty, Bobby McMann and John Tavares also scored for the Maple Leafs.

Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier scored goals for New Jersey. Jacob Markstrom had 18 saves for the Devils.

The loss spoiled the home debut of Devils coach Sheldon Keefe, who was fired in May after guiding the Maple Leafs for five seasons. He replaced Lindy Ruff, who was let go by New Jersey near the end of the last regular season.

Utah 5, N.Y. Islanders 4 >> Josh Doan tied it with 1:54 left and Dylan Guenther scored his second goal of the game in overtime to give Utah a victory over the New York Islanders.

Doan tied it 13 seconds after Islanders newcomer Max Tsyplakov scored his first career goal to give New York a 4-3 lead.

Lawson Crouse and Barrett Hayton also scored and Connor Ingram stopped 21 shots to help Utah improve to 2-0 in its first season in Salt Lake City after moving from Arizona. Utah beat Chicago 5-2 at home on Tuesday night.

Anthony Duclair, Bo Horvat and Jean-Gabriel Pageau also scored for New York in its opener. Semyon Varlamov made 21 saves.

Pittsburgh 6, Detroit 3 >> Anthony Beauvillier scored twice, Joel Blomqvist made 29 saves in his NHL debut and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Detroit Red Wings.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, each with two assists, figured in four of the six goals as the Penguins rebounded from season-opening 6-0 home loss to the New York Rangers.

Marcus Pettersson, Erik Karlsson, Kevin Hayes and Drew O’Connor also scored for Pittsburgh.

Alex DeBrincat scored twice for the Red Wings in their opener. Vladimir Tarasenko added a goal.

Dallas 4, Nashville 3 >> Dallas scored three goals on consecutive shots in the second period to hold off the Nashville Predators in the season opener for both teams.

Mason Marchment scored two goals in the win, while Roope Hintz and Jason Robertson each had a goal apiece for Dallas. Logan Stankoven had three assists.

Filip Forsberg scored the first goal for Nashville in the second period and had an assist. Tommy Novak scored in the third. Ryan O’Reilly gave the Predators a fighting chance with 1:35 remaining by scoring a goal with six Nashville skaters on the ice.

It wasn’t enough as O’Reilly and Steven Stamkos both hit a post in the final 50 seconds.

The Predators were big spenders to kick off free agency looking to boost the power play. That didn’t come to fruition in the season opener, with Nashville finishing 1 of 6 with the man advantage.