Scenes from morning skate: Myers out 2-4 weeks, Hughes gets the night off in Canucks vs. Coyotes
1 year ago
Today marks the final Scenes from morning skate of the preseason, as the Canucks welcome the Arizona Coyotes to their NHL arena for Vancouver’s final preseason tune-up opportunity before heading out to Edmonton to kick off the regular season next week.
Here’s what we saw from Canucks morning skate.
Line Rushes
- Quinn Hughes took rushes with Luke Schenn, but didn’t skate for long, with Hughes being among the first to leave the ice. Hughes didn’t take part in power play drills, with Oliver Ekman-Larsson slotting in to quarterback the first man advantage unit. Hughes is not injured, and is just getting the night off, per Bruce Boudreau.
- Expect to see Christian Wolanin — who has impressed so far in the preseason — slot in tonight, as he got reps in on the Canucks’ second power play unit alongside Jack Rathbone, who we expect to see play with Schenn at even strength.
- Linus Karlsson gets another chance with Elias Pettersson, who Bruce Boudreau hinted yesterday could be the best centre to play with Andrey Kuzmenko. Kuzmenko once again finds himself on Pettersson’s wing.
- Nils Höglander is getting a shot playing with J.T. Miller and Tanner Pearson to continue his already strong preseason. We wrote about Höglander, plus three others who have impressed us this preaseason, earlier this morning. You can read that article by clicking here.
Now for the bad news…
What was said… injuries!
We’ve got more unfortunate injury news for you, Canucks fans.
Defenceman Tyler Myers, who was absent from Thursday morning’s practice, is out 2-4 weeks with a lower-body injury, head coach Bruce Boudreau told reporters.
While that’s certainly not ideal, there was also some positive injury news delivered by the Canucks head coach as well this morning!
Brock Boeser, who has been skating hard while rehabbing from hand surgery, could be a full participant in Sunday’s skate, although Boudreau did use the word “optimistic” when delivering that update to reporters.
Ilya Mikheyev, who’s recovering from a lower body injury he sustained in the first game of the preseason, will “likely” skate with the team on Sunday in a non-contact jersey.
Boudreau added that he expects both players to travel with the team to Edmonton, which is certainly a good sign.
Boudreau also added that he’s cheering for the Blue Jays in their Wild Card series against the Seattle Mariners, for those that were wondering.
Now for the task at hand…
“It’s the last practice game to get ready, but we’re certainly not trying to treat it like that,” said J.T. Miller. “You know, we’re gonna have pretty much a full full team going. We want to have our habits down, get our feet moving… it’s gonna feel like a real game for us. So that’s why it’s really important for me, just try to get back to playing my game and moving my feet and [I’ve] felt a little bit more comfortable as the preseason has gone on, so I’m excited to get back to play another game.”
Puck drop is at 7 PM from Rogers Arena, and once again will be available via livestream on canucks.com, which you can access by clicking here.
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