NHL Scores from Monday night

The Buffalo Sabres are off to their best start in franchise history and are one victory away from equaling the 1993-94 Toronto Maple Leafs for the best start in NHL history. The Sabres improved to 9-0-0 after beating the Montreal Canadians 4-1. Chris Drury scored his 10th goal of the season and picked up an assist for his 14th point of the year. Montreal dropped to 4-2-2 on the year.

The Atlanta Thrashers continued their hot start to the season with a 6-3 victory over their hosts, the Florida Panthers. Ilya Kovalchuk netted his fifth career hat trick and the Thrashers rallied from a 2-0 deficit to improve to 7-1-1 while the Panthers fell to 4-5-1. Marian Hossa added his 10th goal of the year and added an assist for the Thrashers.

Mike Modano scored on a 5-3 power play and lifted the Dallas Stars past the Vancouver Canucks 2-1 in Dallas. The Stars are now 8-1-0 on the year while the Canucks fell to 5-4-1.

San Jose picked up their seventh win of the year after skating to a 3-0 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Sharks are now 7-2-0 while Columbus dropped to 2-4-1. For Vesa Toskala, the Sharks goalie, it was his 12th straight win in the net and fifth career shutout.

The Colorado Avalanche scored five second period goals and overwhelmed the Los Angeles Kings in Denver. The 6-1 victory moved the Avs to 4-3-2 on the year while the Kings dropped to 3-5-2. Colorado scored six unanswered goals after trailing 1-0 early in the first period.

The Edmonton Oilers remained unbeaten at home after beating the Phoenix Coyotes 5-2. The Oilers moved to 6-2-0 on the year while Phoenix fell to 2-7-0.