Scenes from Canucks practice: Pettersson still out with illness, Boudreau talks Nils Höglander in the AHL
1 year ago
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After a day off yesterday following their home loss on Monday night to the St. Louis Blues, the Vancouver Canucks were back on the ice at Rogers Arena today for a roughly hour-long practice.
Here’s what went down at today’s Canucks practice.
What we saw
- Elias Pettersson remained out with the same illness that’s kept him away from the Canucks for the past six days.
- JT Miller skated at centre between Ilya Mikheyev and Brock Boeser, presumably in place of Pettersson.
- Bo Horvat found himself on a line with Conor Garland and Andrei Kuzmenko, while Nils Aman centred the Canucks’ third line with Dakota Joshua and Curtis Lazar on his wings.
- The most shocking thing about the line rushes at practice today, and the thing we’ll surely be keeping a close eye on at morning skate tomorrow, was that Ethan Bear was skating as the extra defenceman. Riley Stillman and Kyle Burroughs made up the Canucks’ third pairing at practice today.
SCENES FROM MORNING SKATE PRESENTED BY BETWAY
What was said
JT Miller spoke about today’s practice.
“We did a lot of different drills. Stuff we need to work on and execution. Getting a little confidence back as a group is really important going into tomorrow,” said Miller.
Miller also spoke about having the day off yesterday, as the Canucks held their family skate at Rogers Arena.
“Some good quality family time this time of year. We really just need to bear down for two days here and get back to .500 going into the break. We’re feeling really good about ourselves, but obviously taking care of business tomorrow, we’ve got two really good opponents.”
Head coach Bruce Boudreau also spoke about what he’s hoping to see from Nils Höglander when he eventually returns to the NHL level.
“I think with Nils, he’s a good player,” said Boudreau. “He’s just got to have more puck touches, and that’s the only reason he’s down there. He doesn’t handle the puck enough when he’s up here, and when he does he seems to lose it. So if he can learn that composure thing, and keep all his other good habits together, it will be a good thing.”
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