Two members of the NHL’s 2014 draft class and one member of the 2015 class will hit the 10-game mark tonight and eat up Year 1 of their entry-level contracts. They are Buffalo’s Sam Reinhart (2nd overall in 2014), Winnipeg’s Nik Ehlers (9th overall in 2014) and Buffalo’s Jack Eichel (2nd overall in 2015).
The Canucks are still test-driving the 6th-overall and 24th-overall picks from that 2014 draft — Jake Virtanen and Jared McCann, respectively — and have a few games left to decide whether they stay.
Sportsnet’s Thomas Drance argues today that McCann should stay and Virtanen should go back to junior. I’m on the fence about Virtanen, but I don’t know how you boot your leading goal-scorer off the team. Willie Desjardins is worried that a slight guy like McCann could wear down over an NHL season, but there’s no rule that says you have to play him every night if you keep him. McCann could probably handle 50-60 games and a lot of NHL practice. He played 56 last year. And hey, at his current scoring rate, that’s 30 goals the Canucks could use.
Now on with the Morning Skate…
THE HOME TEAM
The Canucks are in Dallas tonight (5:30 p.m., SNP) to play a 7-2 Stars team that everyone but me expected to be one of the NHL’s most improved teams this year. I looked at their roster and figured all the optimism was being wasted on a bunch of newly acquired veterans who were past their primes. I thought the Stars would disappoint.
They haven’t so far, and Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News gives five reasons why:
With a few veterans hurt, Nill has been able to rely upon rookies Radek Faksa and Mattias Janmark, who have been dependable forwards. Just as exciting, the Stars have even more forwards waiting in the AHL (Devin Shore, Jason Dickinson, Remi Elie) and also have Brett Ritchie due back in December after wrist surgery. Mix that with the fact the Stars might now have one of the best groups of defensemen in the NHL under the age of 25, and there’s a lot of optimism for this team.
It also doesn’t hurt that one of the veteran forwards who has remained healthy, Jason Spezza, is looking like the Spezza of old with nine points in nine games.
If we assume Ryan Miller is starting, he’ll go into the game having played almost eight more minutes than any other goalie in the NHL. Next opportunity for a rest is tomorrow night in Arizona.
We may also see Brendan Gaunce play his first Canucks game tonight or tomorrow, filling in for the injured Brandon Prust. He and Alex Biega flew to Dallas yesterday. Biega is insurance for a Dan Hamhuis injury that’s supposed to keep him out a least a couple of games.
FISHIN’ THE PACIFIC
The Calgary Flames lost again last night (5-4 in a shootout in Ottawa) to fall to 2-8 on the season. The game featured some nifty moves behind the Ottawa net by Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau:
It also featured Flames goalie Jonas Hiller getting steamrolled by Bobby Ryan and having to leave the game with a lower-body injury because of it:
That’s not going to help the Flames, whose start is much worse than anyone expected. GM Brad Treliving says he isn’t panicking because he believes he has a better team than the record shows. That’s the smart thing to say if you are indeed seeking offers for Kris Russell or Dennis Wideman. Treliving may be right, though. The team is doing better in the Corsi department than last year’s relatively successful team (47.24% at 5-on-5 vs. 44.43% in 2014-15) and its PDO is now second from the bottom in the NHL, so an uptick isn’t out of the question.
San Jose Sharks captain Joe Pavelski is pretty badass. Watch him get cross-checked to the ice by two separate Nashville Predators, mutter an F-bomb, then get up and whack a loose puck past Pekka Rinne:
The Sharks lost 2-1 on home ice, though. The Predators’ win boosts them to 7-2 on the season, and if you’re scoring at home, their new acquisition Cody Hodgson has averaged 10:42 of ice time over his nine games and has the same number of points as Montreal’s Zack Kassian — who has been in rehab since the preseason.
The Edmonton Oilers, who host Montreal tonight, are 3-7. That sounds pretty Oiler-ish. The underlying numbers show that, despite the addition of Connor McDavid, this edition of the Oilers isn’t discernably better than the six that preceded it, writes Jonathan Willis.
CANADIAN CONTENT
Team Canada is expected to name its coach for the World Cup of Hockey soon. The smart money is on Mike Babcock, although Sportsnet’s John Shannon argued yesterday that Joel Quenneville should be the man. (It’s worth noting that Shannon seemed more concerned about what would be best for the Toronto Maple Leafs than what would be best for Team Canada.)
Speaking of Team Canada, it doesn’t sound like Josh Ho-Sang will be part of it at this year’s World Junior Championship. The 2014 first-round pick (28th overall), whom the New York Islanders famously sent home for oversleeping on Day 1 of training camp, hasn’t been selected for the OHL Subway Super Series games against Russia. That’s a bad sign, writes Bob McKenzie.
AROUND THE NHL
Alex Ovechkin was held off the scoresheet during the Washington Capitals’ 3-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins last night, but he needs only three more goals to tie Sergei Federov for most goals by a Russian in the NHL. Canuck legend Pavel Bure sits fourth on that list, behind fellow ex-Canuck Alex Mogilny. However, Bure is right behind Ovechkin in goals per game: 0.627 to 0.623. If Ovechkin slows down over the latter part of his career, Bure could take over top spot.
IN OTHER SPORTS
The Vancouver Whitecaps will have a home-and-away set with one of their Cascadia rivals to start their bid for the MLS Cup. The Seattle Sounders downed L.A. Galaxy 3-2 last night to remove the Galaxy from the postseason. Erik Friberg scored the winner during a fire drill in the Galaxy’s penalty area, and was quite happy to talk about it after the match as long as he didn’t have to speak Spanish:
The Whitecaps’ most likely opponent remains the Portland Timbers, but if Portland loses to underdog Sporting KC tonight, then the Whitecaps will be off to Seattle on Sunday and back here against the Sounders on Nov. 8. Good news for the Caps: Pedro Morales is back in action on the practice pitch.
Over in the Eastern Conference, DC United knocked out the New England Revolution 2-1, but Juan Agudelo’s opening goal for New England should have been worth two:
I don’t really watch the English Premier League, mostly because I want to be able to enjoy MLS and I’m afraid a steady diet of EPL would ruin it. The Brits apparently don’t think much of our league:
MLS getting a mention in today's Evening Standard (London paper)…. https://t.co/65lnjLXykH—
Danny Karbassiyoon (@dkarbassiyoon) October 28, 2015
Drogba and the Impact visit Toronto FC for a knockout match tonight.
NBA UNIFORMS AS SOCCER KIT
Montreal designer Alexandre De Seve has reimagined a dozen NBA uniforms as soccer kit. For example, here’s the Chicago Bulls:
Go visit his site to see the rest. There’s a message button on the right side. If De Seve gets enough requests for a Vancouver Grizzlies soccer kit, maybe the dream will come true…
WORLD SERIES
Kansas City Royals starter Johnny Cueto bounced back nicely from his Game 3 shelling by the Blue Jays last night. After allowing six hits and eight runs in two innings and accusing the Jays of stealing his signs from the centre-field stands, Cueto pitched a complete-game two-hitter in Game 2 of the World Series, giving the Royals a 7-1 win and a 2-0 series lead.
It’s been 30 years since the Royals were last in the World Series. Buzzfeed takes a hilarious look at what the world was like in 1985. It includes this prediction of how Michael Jackson would look in the year 2000:
In other words, just like Lando Calrissian:
Here’s a couple of Royals fans getting high on Sportscenter during Game 1:
Former Mets World Series hero Lenny Dykstra used to have a unique way of shrinking his strike zone: He would hire private investigators to dig up dirt on umpires, then blackmail them during his at-bats. At least that’s what Dykstra told Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd this week.
You decide if he’s telling the truth.
The Toronto Blue Jays are losing their general manager, after Alex Anthopolous rejected the club’s offer of a contract extension. It might seem a bit shocking so soon after the team’s first postseason run in 23 years. While Anthopolous was by all accounts a good guy, the Jays’ record under him was barely above .500 at 489-483. He was fairly successful, but fairly replaceable as well.
And in other late-breaking Toronto front-office news, MLSE has hired Air Canada exec Michael Friisdahl to replace outgoing CEO Tim Leiweke.
SO MONEY
Floyd “Money” Mayweather sent a pair of signed boxing gloves to Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Devon Still and his daughter, who is a cancer survivor:
Still plans to auction off his glove to raise money for cancer research. He seems happy about Mayweather’s gesture.
I’m not sure whether Mayweather mailed the gloves before or after walking into a strip club on Monday night carrying $50,000 worth of shrink-wrapped cash:
(How much cash does he carry on a Saturday night?)
Anyway, Floyd, if you have any of that $50,000 left you might want to think about buying your glove back.
GOOD ANSWER
John Cullen once did very well in a Canucks-blogging competition organized by Province Sports. He lost out narrowly, but has apparently rebounded with a teaching gig. We thank him for sharing this yesterday:
Coincidentally, this is how they thought Michael Jackson would look in 2010:
That’s it for today. Jonathan McDonald takes you Skating tomorrow.
