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Scenes from practice: Canucks promote Linus Karlsson to top line; Rossi absent due to illness

Photo credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images

By Jeff Paterson

Oct 19, 2026, 17:30 EDTUpdated: Oct 19, 2026, 17:28 EDT

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For the first time in almost two weeks, the Vancouver Canucks skated at Rogers Arena on Monday morning. Following the team’s six-game road trip and a day off Sunday, the Canucks were back at practice ahead of a three-game homestand. Head coach Manny Malhotra took full advantage of the rare opportunity to work his players through a series of drills.

What we saw

Jeff Paterson

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#Canucks at practice Monday DeBrusk-EP40-Karlsson Cotter-Chytil-Boeser Ohgren-O’Connor-Lekkerimaki Bains-Sasson-Gallagher DPetey-Hronek Oleksiak-Willander Buium-Schenn Brisebois-Mancini

6:12 PM · Oct 19, 2026

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The Canucks showed a couple of new looks in their forward groups ahead of a Tuesday game against the Carolina Hurricanes. Linus Karlsson, with seven points in 10 games this season, was promoted to the top line with Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk, while Jonathan Lekkerimäki found himself on a line with Drew O’Connor and Liam Öhgren. Lekkerimäki had just three third period shifts in Saturday’s 4-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Marco Rossi, who missed the game with the Lightning due to illness, is still under the weather and did not participate in practice. His status for Tuesday night remains up in the air. Without Rossi, all other forwards on the roster were pressed into duty. Filip Chytil centred a line between Paul Cotter and Brock Boeser, while Max Sasson was between Arshdeep Bains and Brendan Gallagher.

On defence, veteran Luke Schenn, a healthy scratch for the past two games, partnered with Zeev Buium while Victor Mancini skated alongside Guillaume Brisebois at practice. Elias Pettersson and Filip Hronek were paired together while Jamie Oleksiak skated with Tom Willander.

The Canucks divided their 90-minute session into two halves with an ice scrape in between. The first half of practice focused on 5-on-5 play and a series of battle drills. After the intermission, the team worked on the power play and then finished with a small area game.

The power play units at practice included Lekkerimäki on the top unit with Pettersson, Boeser, DeBrusk, and Hronek. The second group featured Buium along with Chytil, Cotter, Karlsson, and Öhgren.

Jeff Paterson

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Thatcher Demko an interested observer at #Canucks practice today

6:03 PM · Oct 19, 2026

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Thatcher Demko took in some of the early portion of practice from the bench. Afterward, Manny Malhotra said the veteran goalie had ‘dialled back’ his on-ice recovery in the past week, but maintained he is still making progress. As has been the organization’s policy when it comes to Demko updates, Malhotra refused to put any sort of timeline on a possible return to practice and game action.

What was said

Manny Malhotra on the benefit of practice time for his struggling group: “The schedule doesn’t lend itself to too many of these days, so it was really nice to work on some things and get some proper touches. It was important for us to get to those bump and grind drills today where they are quite competitive and they are quite combative. I always talk about those as being learned behaviours. Learning how physical you have to be in those puck battles and how getting body position means everything, so when we have an opportunity to have those types of drills, it’s good for the guys to get into them.”

Luke Schenn on fighting frustration through a seven-game losing skid: “We need to be a heck of a lot better. You come back (from road trip) pretty humbled to say the least. We’ve got a long ways to go, for sure. I totally understand it’s about the process and getting better over time, but within that process, you definitely want to see some progress. Everybody wants to get better, but in saying that, it’s up to guys in this room to want to make that happen. We obviously have to hold each other to a higher standard, for sure.”

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