There’s no shortage of rumours and rumblings in Vancouver right now.

It’s all but confirmed that Rick Tocchet will take over as head coach behind the Canucks’ bench in the very near future, and every NHL insider and their dog have reported that Bo Horvat trade talks are getting very serious.

It’s a wild time in Vancouver, but nonetheless, we’ve got a game to preview. The Colorado Avalanche are in town tonight, and will look a little bit different than they did the last time they came to Vancouver.

But before that, we’ve got an eventful morning skate to talk about.

Here are the lines for a game that feels totally secondary to what’s going on with this team right now.

Bruce Boudreau initially wasn’t on the ice for morning skate, which led to a firestorm of speculation on social media.

Boudreau joked about “fooling everyone” when he decided not to go out on the ice for Canucks morning skate. Like everyone else, Boudreau knows he’s as good as gone, and in typical Bruce Boudreau fashion, he’s choosing to have some fun with it while he still can.

And with that, let’s get to our “what was said” section

 

Bruce Boudreau is all anyone is talking about right now, and for good reason. Boudreau even said his wife phoned him to ask if everything is okay after she learned he wasn’t on the ice for morning skate.

When asked about how he’ll personally approach the Canucks’ back-to-back games and if he’ll savour it, Boudreau said:

“I don’t know yet. I really, you know, I mean, I’d be a fool to say that I don’t know what’s going on. Just like I said before, you come to work and you realize how great the game is.”

The worst part of the availability undoubtedly came at the end, when Bruce was asked what it means for him to be an NHL head coach. Near tears, Boudreau ended his availability and said he’d talk later.

And with that, we’ll close out today’s scenes from morning skate. It’s an absolute shame that Boudreau — who has over 600 wins under his belt — has to go through this, and that’s all we can really say right now.