The Vancouver Canucks returned to practice at UBC after a team day off following their 5-0 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday evening.

After sporting a red non-contact jersey during Tuesday’s practice, Nils Höglander had shed that jersey and was back in a regular Canucks practice jersey. Höglander has been out of the Canucks lineup since March 22 in a matinee match against the New York Rangers. The Swedish forward played just 7:03 of the game before not joining his teammates for the third period.

Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet said after last practice that Höglander was biting at the bit to play, but he was held out of the lineup on Wednesday night. Tocchet shared that although Höglander is close and will try his best to convince him to play against the Anaheim Ducks tomorrow afternoon, he’ll probably sit out again. But all signs point favourable to Höglander’s return.

Halfway through practice, Nils Aman appeared to fall hard into the boards and was left lying down on the ice. Practice stopped as players and coaches tended to the injured Aman after the scary-looking incident. The centreman had to be helped off the ice, only being able to put weight on one leg and did not return to practice.

Tocchet did not have an update on Aman’s status but confirmed he was still being evaluated. After practice, Aman was seen exiting the rink wearing a sling on his left shoulder – not a great sign for his availability tomorrow against the Ducks.

The energy level seemed to be sucked out of the practice after the injury to their teammate. However, to finish off practice, Rick Tocchet worked with Drew O’Connor and Teddy Blueger on their board play and cycle game. Yogi Svejkovský worked on the other end with the team’s top power play unit of Quinn Hughes, Brock Boeser, Jake DeBrusk, Pius Suter and Jonathan Lekkerimäki.

Since Elias Pettersson went down with his injury, the Canucks power play ranks 10th worst in the NHL, converting at a 18.2%. Their lone two goals came in the first period against the Columbus Blue Jackets, off the sticks of DeBrusk and Linus Karlsson.

Tyler Myers, who suited up Wednesday night against the Kraken but was held out for the final 11 minutes of the third period, was absent from today’s practice. Tocchet labeled Myers “day-to-day”, but probably won’t suit up tomorrow.

The Canucks’ top two centreman were also absent from practice, Elias Pettersson and Filip Chytil, but they were in attendance. Tocchet shared that both players skated on what he called “injured ice” before practice. The coach gave an update on the forwards, saying that Pettersson is feeling a little bit better and that Chytil is still in concussion protocol, but shared that it was a positive that he’s skating.

Tocchet on the preparation at this point of the season and how he can keep his team motivated: “I think for me it’s habits. Good habits preach good foundation. It reinforces a lot of good things if you have good habits. What we’ve been chasing all year is that consistency level. We’ve just got to keep preaching good habits and build that foundation. But it starts today.”

Höglander on the key to his success after his run of strong play since January: “Play harder, play around the net, play physical, like my type of game. That’s the biggest change I think I did after New Year’s. You get more confidence, and you get more opportunity, too.”

Höglander on how hard it was mentally for him to turn the page on a bad first half of the season but his ability to turn his thinking off to provide for the team positively: “Yeah, it was. Every play, when I play good and when you’re not playing good, it’s hard to turn and go back to your normal you. I’m pretty proud that I could turn it around, and hopefully, I can come back here and have a strong finish.”

He later shared that he was injured on just a normal battle and that it was nothing crazy.

DeBrusk on how he’s able to keep the room light with the young guys to keep the negative energy of the out-of-town scoreboard: “Yeah, I mean, we obviously have gone through a lot as a group. I think that there’s lots of good friendships and things where guys are pretty good at keeping it light in some ways. Obviously, it’s a very serious time, and especially with the young guys getting called up here that want to stay and try to help get us in the playoffs, it could be a little bit of a pressure cooker. I think those first couple of games really helped them, and now they’re kind of doing their thing. They’ve helped us. I wish I could be leaned on more; I just don’t know Swedish.”