THE ROUNDUP- Oct 30/18: The Walking Dead, Eh?

CANUCKS NEWS: Heading into last night’s game against Minnesota, you couldn’t be blamed for thinking it was going to be a long night. The Canucks were coming off one of their worst performances of the season in a 5-0 loss to Pittsburgh, while the Wild rolled in, winners of 5 straight. Someone forgot to tell the Canucks that this was a game they probably should have lost.

From Elias Pettersson playing what was probably his best game of his 7 in the NHL to date, to the inspired performance of Markus Granlund, and Jacob Markstrom with a huge bounce back game, this was one of those games that gives you hope. And in case you weren’t sure just how much of an impact Elias Pettersson has had on the Canucks so far, this should clear it up for you.

It was a costly win though, as another player fell to the injury parade, this time Brandon Sutter who might have suffered a separated shoulder after hitting the boards hard following a hit from Matt Dumba. Sutter’s been huge on the PK since Jay Beagle went down, and this is not good news for a team that seems to get called for breathing too loudly and other such ticky tacky calls. Yes, the PK has been good, but long term this is a recipe for disaster. Travis Green needs to get his troops to stop taking so many penalties if they hope to stay above water in the Pacific. As far as a call up they have some options. They could bring Sam Gagner back from exile in Toronto, or we could see Reid Boucher, Zack MacEwen or even Jonathan Dahlen called up from Utica. Or they could try some other options...

Here’s your morning reading, folks... Speaking of Gagner, he’s determined to prove the Canucks wrong for demoting him, in a great piece over at The Athletic... Quinn Hughes is off to a hell of a start at Michigan... Botch brings it with The Athletties as always... Comets GM Robert Esche was on Sportsnet650 this morning talking about the pending expiration of the affiliate deal with the Canucks... Just leaving this here... Here’s the recap from our friends over at Hockey Wilderness... Some goalie news for you...

AROUND THE NHL: Just one other game in the NHL last night, and that one saw the Calgary Flames score 3 in the 3rd to down the Leafs 3-1 in Toronto.

Mark Borowiecki got a well-deserved 3 game suspension from DoPS... The Jets and Panthers are in Helsinki to play regular season games Thursday and Friday...