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Scenes from practice: Lankinen and Kane day to day as Canucks prepare for Vegas
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Photo credit: © Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images
Jeff Paterson
Apr 6, 2026, 15:49 EDT
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With time winding down on their season, the Vancouver Canucks returned to the practice ice at Rogers Arena on Monday morning. Three veteran players – Kevin Lankinen, Filip Hronek, and Evander Kane – were absent from the 40-minute on-ice session.
Two of the three are nursing injuries and are unlikely to play on Tuesday night against Vegas.

What we saw

Adam Foote didn’t provide much of an update on Kevin Lankinen’s status other than to say the netminder is day to day with an upper-body injury. When pressed whether the injury was game-related, Foote suggested it may have been “a buildup from games played.” Lankinen recently started five straight and appeared in eight in a row. Nikita Tolopilo, celebrating his 26th birthday, and Jiri Patera were the two netminders on the ice for practice and are expected to be the two goalies in uniform on Tuesday night against Vegas.
As he has been for the better part of a month now, Filip Hronek was excused from practice with a maintenance day, but he will be ready to play against the Golden Knights.
Evander Kane is unlikely to play on Tuesday. Kane was saluted by the hockey club for his 1000th NHL game prior to Saturday’s contest with Utah. The winger played just 11:52 seconds – his third lowest ice time of the season. Foote mentioned again after practice that Kane has been dealing with a nagging injury for a while now. The coach said the club will not be shutting Kane down for the season yet, but with just six games remaining on the schedule, it may get to that point. Foote name-checked Ty Mueller and Nils Höglander as guys he wants to give more ice time to in the final games of the season. Those two skated as the wings on the fourth line at practice with Aatu Räty in the middle.
Curtis Douglas skated as the extra forward on Monday.
At the end of practice, injured forward Filip Chytil emerged from the tunnel and took to the ice wearing a full bubble to protect his face. He and Adam Foote had a lengthy conversation before Chytil joined the few players that were still skating. Chytil then stayed out after his teammates had left the ice and had a long one-on-one session with Canucks skills coach Jason Krog. Foote was asked if there was any chance Chytil could dress for one of the team’s final games, but the coach essentially shot down that notion. Foote said the medical staff would like to see Chytil participate in a couple of practices before he heads home for the summer so that he feels positively about his recovery. But it does not sound like Chytil will play again this season.

What we heard

Adam Foote on what he’s looking for from late season practices: “Guys were going. They were skating hard. It’s almost like you don’t want it to come to an end here. You want to keep going and keep building. So that’s what we’re going to keep doing. They had a great attitude today. They’ve been pushing hard and I don’t see that changing.”
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