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CANUCKS NEWS:
“Jacob Markstrom has been granted a leave of absence to attend to a family matter and is expected to rejoin the #Canucks on the road this weekend. Respectfully, we will not offer any further comment.” - GM Jim Benning
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) October 14, 2019
Everyone here at Nucks Misconduct would like to wish Jacob and his family the best as they deal with this situation.
With Markstrom out of the picture for at least the next two games, that means we’ll see Thatcher Demko back to back tomorrow night against Detroit, and in St Louis on Thursday as the Canucks kick off a 4 game road swing. They’ve called Zane McIntyre up from Utica to be the back up for Demko. If everything goes well for Markstrom, he could be back either for Saturday afternoon’s contest against New Jersey, or the next day against the Rangers at MSG.
big week for #Canucks Quinn Hughes: turns 20 today. Faces brother Jack for first time in #NHL on Saturday in Jersey. And a former U of Michigan standout sees Red Wings twice
— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) October 14, 2019
While we’re sure he’s adjusting to the spotlight already, Quinn Hughes is definitely going to be under the microscope a lot over the next week. Along with J.T. Miller, Tanner Pearson and Markstrom, Hughes has been absolutely phenomenal to start the season, and with his 1st NHL goal out of the way, it feels like he’s really starting to push the pedal to the floor in terms of showing what he can do offensively. Along with Christopher Tanev and Alex Edler, he’s given the Canucks D the kind of offensive capability we haven’t seen from this team in years, something that if it should continue, could be a factor in this team making the post season.
After 4 games, there’s not really enough of a sample size of anything the Canucks have done so far to get too worked up over (though it should be said anytime the Power Play wants to catch up to the awesomeness of the Canucks Penalty Kill, we’d all be grateful). And yet, there’s always going to be some hot takes, and you have to hand it to Corey Hirsch, who’s trying to make a name for himself as one of the more daring dealers of Hot Takes in the Petterssphere:
"He was put in the wrong role, for me, right off the start. I don't think he's a guy that can play with Pettersson."@CoreyHirsch joined #TheStartingLineup and offered his take on Micheal Ferland's slow start with the #Canucks pic.twitter.com/KqovzlkGYB
— Sportsnet 650 (@Sportsnet650) October 14, 2019
It’s not that he’s necessarily wrong, but I think that maybe another week might have helped this take, and perhaps the Canucks were guilty of some expectations that were a tad high? I won’t be surprised to see him get another look down the road, especially if he heats up.
AROUND THE NHL: To the surprise of no one, Connor McDavid is the first Player of The Week after a ridiculous 5-0-0 start from the Edmonton Oilers. Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine and Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby were the other two stars... And with the Oilers off to that surprising start, we feel it’s our duty to warn you that the Edmonton media are back on their bullshit again. I understand being excited about the start, but this is some Galaxy Brain bullshit, ladies and gentlemen:
Ken Holland early leader for NHL executive of the year, says NHL insider https://t.co/6NNhYgPUEd pic.twitter.com/chWzhrskZr
— Edmonton Journal (@edmontonjournal) October 14, 2019
And just gonna leave these here...
Jonathan Quick stopped 86.1% of the shots he faced last night. That brought his save percentage for the season up to .793.
— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) October 14, 2019
To clarify, that's 10 years after next year -- so 11 years in total of our goaltender being better than yours.
— LA Kings (@LAKings) June 28, 2012
You really hate to see it, folks. Looks so good on them (especially the a-holes behind their Twitter account. Oh, and Wil Wheaton can eat that, too!).
COMETS NEWS: The Comets moved to 2-0 on the season as they beat the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 4-3 in OT Saturday night. Reid Boucher (2), Carter Bancks and the OT winner from Lukas Jacek gave them the win. Zane McIntyre stopped 37 shots in the victory. After a slow start to the season, the Comets see themselves with 3 games in 4 nights starting with their home opener against the Syracuse Crunch Wednesday night. After that it’s the Charlotte Checkers on Friday and the Rochester Americans Saturday night. No word yet on whether it will be Michael DiPietro or Richard Bachman getting the start on Wednesday, but I would expect we see the Comets rookie get at least one of these starts.