With a compressed schedule down the stretch, practice time is hard to come by for National Hockey League teams. The Vancouver Canucks took Thursday as a full team day off after back to back games against Montreal and Calgary. And with another set of back-to-backs this weekend against Chicago and Utah, Rick Tocchet was careful about how hard he pushed his hockey club on Friday.
The Canucks skated for about 35 minutes at the University of British Columbia. 

What we saw

Thatcher Demko’s first skate with the group in five weeks was the big news of the day. The plan all along was for Demko to take part in a handful of drills before leaving the ice earlier than his teammates. He’s not an option to play this weekend, but it was promising at the very least to see him involved in drills and not look like he was limited in any way.
Demko was out early along with Arturs Silovs and goaltender coach Marko Torenius. Kevin Lankinen hopped on the ice when the rest of the skaters joined the group. 
Tyler Myers was a full participant at practice after missing Wednesday’s game against the Flames due to injury. And defenceman Elias Pettersson was fully involved in practice, too. That’s encouraging, given the treatment he received from Calgary’s Connor Zary that resulted in Zary being suspended for a pair of games. Head injuries are no joke, and so it was great to see that D-Petey did not suffer a concussion that would have forced him to miss key games at crunch time.
The Canucks patch-worked their lines and defensive pairings on Friday with both Filip Hronek and Conor Garland taking maintenance days. Hronek logged more than 28 minutes on consecutive nights earlier in the week, while Garland, who was seen around the rink, is dealing with the usual wear and tear that comes with the territory at this time of year. Both Hronek and Garland are expected to be available for the games this weekend. Captain Quinn Hughes also took part in Friday’s session – his first full practice with the team in a couple of weeks.
With UBC playing host to both the men’s and women’s U Sports basketball championships this weekend, the Doug Mitchell Winter Sports Centre has the hardwood down. That left the Canucks to not only skate on one of the secondary sheets of ice on campus, but they also had to use the attached minor hockey locker rooms rather than the varsity facilities they normally use to change in.
The Canucks are expected to have an optional morning skate on Saturday ahead of their game against the Blackhawks. Rick Tocchet wouldn’t reveal his goaltending plans for the weekend, but he did mention he didn’t think it was fair to ask Kevin Lankinen to play three games in four nights with Winnipeg here on Tuesday. So look for Arturs Silovs to get the call on Saturday, saving Lankinen for Sunday. Silovs’ lone NHL victory this season came against the Blackhawks on November 16th.

What we heard

Rick Tocchet on trying to protect Quinn Hughes from punishment down the stretch: “Do I want him to take the hits? No. You can be team tough by a pack of wolves I call it. Be hard on their best players is another thing. We’re more of a pack mentality. I told our players don’t go after their best players, but play their best players hard that’s the way you’ve got to do it. We don’t want Quinn taking hits or getting taking advantage of. Absolutely not. That’s something we’ll have to address down the road.”
Quinn Hughes feeling better by the day: “I feel healthier now. I feel back to where I want to feel. Now it’s just about performing which I’m going to try to do.”
Tyler Myers on missing the game in Calgary with a lower body injury suffered late in Tuesday’s game against Montreal: “I feel pretty good. It was one of those things if it wasn’t a back to back, I probably could have gone. I wasn’t quite ready, but feeling good now. There was a possibility I could have played, but it wasn’t quite ready by the time we got close to the game.”
Watch the raw footage of Demko back at Canucks practice here:
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