For the fifth time this season, the Vancouver Canucks will attempt to pick up their first win.
The Canucks are in Minnesota to take on the Wild after a slightly less disappointing loss against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.
Tuesday night’s overtime loss marked the Canucks’ first point in the standings of 2022-23.
It also improved their NHL record of becoming the first team in history to lose their first four games of the season by blowing a multi-goal lead in each game, which they originally set after their third game of the season.
But that’s in the past, and as head coach Bruce Boudreau said Tuesday night, getting a point is something for this team to build on.
With that, let’s get to what went down at morning skate!

Line Rushes

Some notes about these lines:
  • Andrey Kuzmenko has been reunited with Elias Pettersson. The duo — namely Pettersson — was one of few bright spots through the Canucks’ first three games of the season, but were separated Tuesday night in Columbus.
  • With that, Nils Höglander, who most recently skated on a line with Vasily Podkolzin and Pettersson, will be the odd man out of the Canucks’ lineup as Conor Garland returns after a controversial healthy scratch on Tuesday.
  • On defence, Tucker Poolman wasn’t present at morning skate, which opens the door for Kyle Burroughs to return to the lineup. Burroughs was arguably the Canucks’ best right shot defenceman through the first three games of the season, and probably didn’t deserve to come out of the lineup in the first place. Bruce Boudreau called Poolman a game time decision.
  • There’s still no guarantee that Jack Rathbone will finally suit up for the Canucks, as the smooth-skating left-shot defenceman rotated in and out with Riley Stillman, according to Patrick Johnston.

What was said

We’re largely going to skip the “what was said” section of this article, because what can you say about this team, really?
Their first four games have been an utter disappointment, and they’re at risk of taking the ice at Saturday’s home opener against the Buffalo Sabres without a win.
Minnesota is no slouch, but they’ve had similar struggles as the Canucks.
The Wild, along with the Sharks and the Canucks, are the only teams in the league who have yet to pick up a win this season.
The Wild are sure to come out firing, and the Canucks absolutely have to match their intensity level tonight, at the very least.
Conor Garland didn’t want to talk about his healthy scratch on Tuesday night.
“It’s in the past,” said Garland. “Just onto this game, got a couple days in between, moved on, ready for this one.”
Bruce Boudreau gave this explanation for his decision to scratch Höglander tonight:
Puck drop is at 5 PM Pacific tonight.