DANGLE THIS WEEK: THE FINGER

In the wake of Johnny Gaudreau’s injury, I’ve seen a lot of people shrug and say “Welp, the Flames are screwed.” Hey, maybe you’re one of them. 

It’s hard to deny that life without Johnny Hockey is a lot tougher. But done? Come on. It’s mid-November. As a couple of seasons ago taught us, the Calgary Flames know how to pull a rabbit out of their hat from time to time. If the goaltending improves from its rough start, and it looks like it’s starting to, anything is possible. The Pacific is wide open.

Connor McDavid hasn’t scored since October 28th. What’s that? Oh, you’ve already had that useless nugget of information crammed down your neck hole for like three weeks now? My bad.

Over the 10 consecutive games McDavid hasn’t scored in, he still has seven assists. That’s still great, it’s just not the ridiculous standard McDavid has already set for himself.

Personally, I’d be more concerned about Lucic having zero points in the past five games. How many new Star Wars movies will be released by the time that contract is up? What about a bit more production from the back end?

McDavid will score goals; there’s no doubt about that. The guy’s gonna need a hand, though.

On a completely different note, Kassian’s fight with Manson was pretty insane by today’s standard.

If you randomly daydream about hockey instead of doing other stuff like I do, you’ve probably thought about Mitch Marner and gone “Hey what’s the record for points by a Leafs rookie?”

Apparently the answer is 66 points, scored by Peter Ihnacak in 1982-83. Marner is on pace to smash that with Nylander and Matthews sniffing away as well. I wrote all about it on my Sportsnet blog.

Also you deserve to see this again. Poor James. Connor Carrick’s look of “Holy Jesus this guy’s on MY team” is pretty great, too.

AH! AHH! AHHH! OH GOD! OH GOD WHY?!?

Hopefully Brad Richardson recovers quickly. Nobody deserves that. 

In other news, there are Evander Kane rumours again. It feels like Evander Kane rumours are mandatory, like we’re not allowed to have an NHL season without them.

Part of me want the Canucks to avoid this deal because I can’t imagine how they’ll pull it off without mortgaging the future. Another part of me just wants to see how deep the Benning rabbit hole goes.

J.D. Burke wrote about this potential deal in July. Worth a read.

Check out Mark Scheifele with the virtual hockey honours!

As for real hockey honours, holy crap, he’s the NHL’s leading scorer!

Well, OK, he’s tied with Nikita Kucherov and he’s played two more games. So what? That’s a pistol hot start for him and he’s still only 23. He doesn’t turn 24 until March! 

Laine has been getting most of the national coverage when it comes to Winnipeg but it’s time for Scheifele to get some more love.

Brendan Shanahan being on the Red Wings’ team for the Centennial Classic alumni game is pretty awesome. I definitely did a double take the first time I saw it. As long as you understand you have to give him back after!

Man I wanna see a fight so bad.