The changes to the line-up that Rick Tocchet hinted were coming in the wake of Monday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes never really materialized as the Vancouver Canucks returned to the practice ice on Tuesday.
A visibly agitated Tocchet called out Nils Höglander and had pointed comments about his power play moments after the loss to the Hurricanes. But in the light of day, the line-up remained relatively unchanged as the team stepped on to the ice in the noon hour at Rogers Arena.

What we saw

Arshdeep Bains and Noah Juulsen amounted to the notion of change to the Canucks line-up ahead of Wednesday’s game against New Jersey. Bains swapped spots with Nils Höglander in the third period against Carolina, which remained intact at practice a day later. And Juulsen slotted in for Vincent Desharnais on the team’s third defence pair with Erik Brännström. Otherwise, it was status quo for the Canucks.
That included the power play where Tocchet came right back with the same first unit that went 0 for 3 on Monday, managing just one shot on goal in those three attempts. Daniel Sprong accounted for the team’s two other power play shots against Carolina so the second unit created more than the top unit.
The Canucks concluded practice on Tuesday with a few power play sequences. The top unit had Conor Garland on the left half wall and JT Miller on the right flank, with Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson rotating high and low in the slot.
Tuesday was another full practice for Dakota Joshua, who is nearing his season debut. He took a few rushes on left wing with Elias Pettersson and Conor Garland. Rick Tocchet said that the organization had discussed an AHL conditioning stint internally for Joshua, however the coach said he has not discussed that idea with the player. Tocchet then mentioned he was likely more inclined to start Joshua in the NHL and manage his minutes, slowly ramping him up to a point where he can take on some penalty-killing duty, too.
Tocchet also mentioned that Thatcher Demko has had four really good days of recovery this week. It certainly beats the alternative, but it’s hard to know what exactly four good days means at this stage of the saga. Demko still hasn’t been anywhere close to sharing the practice ice with his teammates. So all of his work is still being done behind the scenes.
Tuesday’s practice began with a longer-than-usual session at the whiteboard. Then, the coaching staff split the forwards and defencemen and worked them on separate ends of the ice for 15 minutes. That was followed by transition drills with the Canucks working on trying to find the trailer jumping up into the rush. It was a while before the team began working in line combinations and defensive pairings.
Tocchet said he had not yet made a decision about his starting goalie for Wednesday.

What we heard

Rick Tocchet on making subtle changes to his line-up at practice: “I don’t want to overreact. We know we have to improve on a few things. I don’t want to go too crazy with too many changes.”
Tocchet on his harsh criticism of Nils Höglander and dropping him down the line-up on Monday night: “Hoggy has played really well for me. I think sometimes he needs to get back to who he was. I put Hoggy with Sutes and Spronger and actually I didn’t think they were that bad when I switched them. And I can switch him back in games. It’s not forever.”
Conor Garland on power play struggles against Carolina: “They just – I hate using the word outwork – but just how fast they came at us. We didn’t do what we were told and you could see it,  kind of discombobulated and that pressure affected us. Good to learn from that when you go against high pressure teams, you have to be ready and now we’ll understand what we’ll do and how we’ll beat it.”
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