The Morning After The Night Before, 2 November 2016

Tonight sees the return of our Vancouver Canucks - and what a few days it has been. The Canucks blogosphere has gone into overdrive since that 5-2 loss against the Caps; rumblings of Willie Desjardin’s firing, to the decline of the Sedins, the return of Nikita Tryamkin to the 3rd pairing, the usage of Troy Stecher, and even hailing the return of Derek Dorsett.

No matter how you feel about this team right now, at least we’re interesting. Plenty of NHL teams out there are not.

So, what’s happening around the league?

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• Yesterday was repeat-the-last-year-of-Canucks-rumors day, as we are apparently (still) chasing a 20-goal scorer. This is not news, but on a day where there is none, this suffices. [Province]
• Chris Tanev may not return tonight after all, which means we should see Troy Stecher for at least one more game.

• Practice lines yesterday. Thing to take away: Burrows will likely be playing in his hometown for the last time. Barring a resurgence and a league minimum deal next season.

• Sneak peek at tonight from a Montreal perspective. Montreal = good, Vancouver = bad. [Montreal Gazette]
• The Ducks beat the Kings 4-0 last night. Big whoop, right? WRONG. That marked the third consecutive shutout loss for the Kings - the first time since 1968/69 that they’ve been so offensively inept. This is a team laden with scoring talent: Anze Kopitar, Tanner Pearson, Tyler Toffoli, Jeff Carter, Drew Doughty and others. So if you’re feeling glum about the Canucks’ season so far, spare a thought for Kings fans. Okay, don’t, it serves them right.

• Tyler Motte scored an incredible goal for the Blackhawks last night:

• Henrik Lundqvist made his 60th career shutout last night. He now sits alone in 17th all-time. He’s also 2nd in terms of active players, 12 shutouts behind Roberto Luongo. [The Score]
• Your NHL Three Stars for October: Connor McDavid, Shea Weber and Jonathan Marchessault. Montreal won the trade, done deal. [NHL]
• I said to everyone for about two months: "OFFER SHEET NIKITA KUCHEROV". Benning didn’t. He has 12pts in 9 games. Azzy is sad. [NHL]
• If any of you are analytics-mad, this is the place to be. [Canucks Army]
• In really stupid news, Connor McDavid is eight months away from being able to discuss a new contract, and he’s already being tabbed as the highest cap hit in the league. If Edmonton does that, they should be banned from the league. It’s Alexei Yashin all over again. LET THE KID WIN SOMETHING BEFORE PAYING HIM THE EARTH. [Sportsnet]
• CBC looks at the HUGE first encounter of McDavid-Matthews, which turned out to be a completely pointless buildup as neither scored and Nazem Kadri stole the headlines. When will the media learn? [CBC]

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Question of the day: Which 20 goal scorer should the Canucks be acquiring, and what would he cost?