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Scenes from morning skate: Höglander debuts, Lankinen starts for Canucks vs. Red Wings
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Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Jeff Paterson
Dec 8, 2025, 15:09 ESTUpdated: Dec 8, 2025, 16:19 EST
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The Vancouver Canucks (11-15-3) host the Detroit Red Wings (15-11-3) in a 7 pm PT faceoff at Rogers Arena.
After a 4-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday, the Canucks will be looking to win back-to-back games for the first time since mid-October.

What we saw

As the Canucks play their 30th game of the season, Nils Höglander will play his first after recovering from preseason ankle surgery. Höglander will start the night on the fourth line with Drew O’Connor in the middle and Arshdeep Bains on the opposite wing.
O’Connor is being asked to play centre for a second straight game because Elias Pettersson remains out of the lineup with an undisclosed upper-body injury. The Canucks say Pettersson is still undergoing medical evaluation and hope to have a better sense of the extent of the injury later in the day. Adam Foote also revealed that Teddy Blueger will remain out until after Christmas. He has not played since October 17th. 
With no Pettersson up front, Kiefer Sherwood and Aatu Räty took turns in the bumper on the team’s first power play unit. Sherwood leads the club with 12 goals, but Räty would play faceoff man for the top unit.
Kevin Lankinen gets the start in goal tonight. He is 0-4-1 in his last five starts, including a 4-1 loss to the Utah Mammoth on Friday night. Nikita Tolopilo will back him up. Thatcher Demko, who is celebrating his 30th birthday today, was also on the ice for the team’s morning skate.
Lukas Reichel and P-O Joseph are expected to be the healthy scratches tonight.
The Canucks are coming off a 4-2 win over Minnesota on Saturday. Aatu Räty had a pair of goals as part of his first career three-point night. The 23-year-old has had a hand in five of the last six goals the Canucks have scored. Tom Willander scored his first NHL goal and also had an assist against the Wild. 
The Canucks are wearing their alternate black jersey tonight and again on Thursday against Buffalo to conclude this four-game homestand.
Former Canuck Kevin Bieksa was on hand at the morning skate and shared a quick moment with Adam Foote before the head coach conducted his media availability.

The Opponent

The Red Wings are here after a 4-3 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Saturday. Patrick Kane’s fifth goal of the season with 2:29 remaining was the game-winner. Emmitt Finnie, Andrew Copp and James van Riemsdyk had the other Detroit goals. John Gibson made 24 saves for the win. The Wings are 2-0-2 in their last four games. 
Kane has scored in consecutive games and now has 497 goals in his illustrious career. With three more goals, the first overall pick in the 2007 Draft will become the 50th player in league history to reach the 500-goal milestone. The 37-year-old enters the night on a four-game point streak (2+4=6).
Van Riemsdyk has scored in three straight games. The veteran winger scored in his season opener and then went 16 games without a goal. He has six goals on the season, and five have come in the past six games.
Finnie has been one of the biggest surprises in the NHL this season. The 2023 seventh-round draft pick is tied for fifth in rookie scoring with six goals and 14 points. The 20-year-old, who had 37 goals for the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers last season, is averaging 16:28 of ice time in his first NHL season.
Captain Dylan Larkin leads Detroit with 15 goals, and he and Lucas Raymond share the team lead with 31 points. Alex DeBrincat has 14 goals, including a team-high seven on the power play. The Red Wings have the seventh-best power play in the NHL, operating at 24.5%. 
The Wings have split their goaltending this season, with Gibson starting 15 games while Cam Talbot has started 14. Talbot has registered nine of the team’s 15 victories. Detroit’s team save percentage ranks 30th in the NHL, ahead of only Ottawa and Edmonton.
Strangely, Detroit is the lowest-scoring first-period team in the league, with just 14 goals in the opening 20 minutes, and the highest-scoring team in the second period, with 42 goals.

News and notes

The Canucks will make their lone visit to Detroit this season one month from tonight as the second stop on a six-game Eastern road trip. The teams split their two games last season, with each winning in overtime in the other team’s building. Jake DeBrusk and Alex DeBrincat scored the OT winners. 
The referees for tonight’s game are Chris Schlenker and Eric Furlatt.

What we heard

Adam Foote on getting Nils Höglander into the lineup for the first time this season: “Well, it’s great to have a guy like that back. He plays with a lot of energy, he’s hungry on loose pucks and his forecheck is good. He just needs to go out and not overthink it.”
Foote on how O’Connor became an option to fill fourth line centre spot: “He’s played a little bit in the past. He’s a bigger guy and he doesn’t mind playing down low. He took a big hit for the team having a lot less ice time. He’s been playing pretty good for us and I like the way he was a team guy there. For him to take less minutes and not be bothered by it was pretty nice for the team.”
Don’t forget to join Rink Wide Vancouver for full postgame coverage after this game – and every game. The livestream starts moments after the final buzzer. Rink Wide is the place for full postgame analysis and discussion. Join the live YouTube chat with your thoughts on the hockey game.
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