After a day off on Saturday, the Vancouver Canucks are back on the ice at UBC for a Sunday practice ahead of Monday night's game against the Dallas Stars.
A couple of roster items to note—on Friday, the team re-assigned Michael Chaput and Cole Cassels to the Utica Comets. Cassels has officially been on the Vancouver roster since suffering an upper-body injury in a preseason game against Calgary back on September 22. Apparently he's back to full health right in the middle of that 4-to-6 week period that seems to be the standard for hockey injuries.
Chaput was recalled by the Canucks on October 16, after Loui Eriksson was injured, and served as the team's extra forward for six games. With Brendan Gaunce now on his conditioning assignment in Utica and Eriksson still sidelined, the Canucks were carrying just 12 (presumably) healthy forwards after Chaput's re-assignment, so Jayson Megna was officially recalled on Sunday.
I would assume this is just a matter of making sure that no player gathers rust for too long. Megna had appeared in four of the Comets' five games heading into this weekend's back-to-backs in Charlotte, and recorded his first assist of the year last weekend in Rochester. I expect he'll join defenseman Patrick Wiercioch in keeping the press box warm here in Vancouver and be ready to play in the case of any sudden injuries or illnesses up front.
Brock Boeser did leave Friday's practice early, but Travis Green downplayed that situation.
My guess is that if Boeser's injury was something to be concerned about, the team might have been more inclined to call up a scoring winger like Nikolay Goldobin or Reid Boucher, who could play a similar role.
Boeser isn't on the ice for Sunday's practice, but that doesn't necessarily mean he won't be able to play on Monday.
UPDATE: After Sunday's practice, Travis Green described Boeser's injury as a "foot contusion."
It is a shame to see that second power-play unit already changed after it was so effective against Washington on Thursday. Hopefully it's just temporary!
The Comets dropped a 5-1 decision to the Checkers in Charlotte on Saturday, with Richard Bachman in net. In his first game action since last March, Brendan Gaunce scored the only goal for Utica. Attendance at the awesomely-named Bojangles Coliseum on Saturday was listed at an impressive 6,473—not far off the 7,892 that the NHL Hurricanes drew in Raleigh for their home game back on October 10. Their last couple of home games have been in the 10,000 range.
With Thatcher Demko back between the pipes, the Comets and Checkers are back on the ice already for their early Sunday matchup. At the first intermission, Utica leads 3-1 on goals from Goldobin, Boucher and Even McEneny and have outshot the Checkers 23-8. I guess there's a reason they aren't called the Shooters.
That's Goldy's fourth of the year, scored on the power play with an assist from Chaput. Boucher's third of the year was set up by Goldobin.
McEneny's goal is his first of the year.
The back-to-back games seem to have ignited some tempers. Captain Carter Bancks and Charlotte's Patrick Brown were ejected for fighting off the opening faceoff, while Joe LaBate and Zach Stortini got tossed for dropping the gloves after McEneny's goal.
Coming into Sunday's contest, the Comets were sitting in the middle of the AHL's North Division standings with a 3-3 record, but had won three in a row before Saturday's loss.
Even with Goldobin in the minors, the Canucks are currently on the winning side of the trade that brought him to the team last February. The player he was traded for, Jannik Hansen, was healthy-scratched for the San Jose Sharks for the third straight game on Saturday. The Sharks are now 5-5-0 for the season.
Hansen had one assist in seven games. He was replaced by Joel Ward, who had been scratched for the previous five games and remains pointless for the year so far.
Ward and Hansen are far from being the only Sharks struggling to score so far this season. Their production drops off fast after Logan Couture (11 points) and Joe Thornton (seven points). Brent Burns has six assists but doesn't have a goal yet and Joe Pavelski has a relatively pedestrian five points in 10 games.
Still, I'm surprised to see Hansen scratched, when he can also do so much on the other side of the puck.
Meanwhile, the Canucks prospects continue to do great things in their respective leagues.
From Friday:
That's Gaudette's first-ever NCAA hat trick. He's now up to 13 points in seven games with Northeastern this season—ahead of his impressive pace of 52 points in 37 games in his sophomore year. The fifth-round draft pick from 2015 is looking more and more like he has the tools to take a real run at an NHL career.
Gaudette and Elias Pettersson were the standouts as they battled each other at the Canucks' development camp scrimmage this past July—and Pettersson is also turning heads with his performance in the Swedish League.
Pettersson turns 19 in two weeks, on November 12. He is already leading his team, Vaxjo, with 15 points in 13 games. The club is second overall in the SHL standings with an 11-3 record and Pettersson is currently ranked fifth in league scoring
per QuantHockey, ranked behind a 31-year-old, a 34-year-old, a 23-year-old and a 30-year-old. Pretty extraordinary stuff.
Pettersson's name is also coming up in discussions about Sweden's Olympic roster, according to Swedish hockey reporter Uffe Bodin.
Pettersson still needs to bulk up and get stronger but at this point, it looks like Jim Benning and his crew weren't wrong in their assessment of their first-rounder's natural skillset—and his determination. It'd be great to see him at the Olympics. He should certainly be in the mix for World Juniors.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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