What Did You Miss Thursday?

--Mikko Koskinen made 40 saves for his first career NHL shutout as the Oilers beat Chicago 4-0. In other games, Calgary scored 5 in the third to beat Colorado 6-5,  Patrik Laine had a hat-trick in his native Finland as Winnipeg beat Florida 4-2 in the first of two games between the two teams in Helsinki. Montreal scored two goals in two seconds (one in an empty net) as they beat Washington 6-4 and Pekka Rinne made 42 saves as he returned from injury leading Nashville to a 4-1 win over Tampa

--Colorado's Mikko Rantanen was named the NHL player of the month for October while Vancouver's Elias Pettersson was named the league's top rookie. Rantanen had 21 points in 12 games for the Avalanche while Pettersson had 10 points in eight games to lead all rookies. 

--The first month of the 2018-19 NHL season was a good one for scorers. There were 1,102 goals scored in the 178 games played during October. That's an average of 6.2 per game, matching 2017-18 for the highest-scoring season through 178 games since 2005-06 (6.4 goals per game). The 2017-18 season finished with an average of 5.9 goals per game (in 1,271 games), the highest since 2005-06 (6.2 goals per game in 1,230 games). All that offense led to 80 comeback wins, including a nine-day stretch from Oct. 20-28 that saw at least one team rally from down two or more goals to win. In all, there were 13 multiple-goal comebacks during that span and 22 overall in October.

--Odell Willis apologized to CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie Thursday after saying he was not impressed with the fine he was handed for his headshot on Zach Collaros last Saturday night.  Willis claimed he led with his shoulder and not his head and that next time he will lead with his head since he is going to get fined. He apologized a while later saying he is sorry if the original tweet came off as negative or threatening. 

--Nick Mullens found out he was going to be the starting QB for the San Francisco 49ers about three hours before kickoff.  He calmly directed the Niners to touchdowns on the first two drives of his young career and going on to post the best passer rating by a quarterback in his first start since the merger in 1970. With Mullens at the helm, the 49ers blew out the Raiders 34-3 in what was the final "Battle of the Bay" before the Raiders relocate to Las Vegas.

--Bryson DeChambeau said he will take advantage of a new rule in 2019 that allows golfers to putt from the green while leaving the flagstick in and unattended. DeChambeau, winner of four PGA Tour titles and known for his scientific approach to the game, recently told Golf.com at a photo shoot that he plans to leave the flagstick in while putting -- unless he's at the U.S. Open, where the sticks are made of a different material.  Before the change was made, it was a two stroke penalty if the ball hit the flagstick while putting from the green.