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Scenes from Canucks practice: Garland returns; Kämpf centres second line
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Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Jeff Paterson
Nov 19, 2025, 16:05 EST
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It was back to work for the Vancouver Canucks who held a rare home ice practice on Wednesday morning at Rogers Arena. With a compressed schedule to start the season and more road games than home contests, practices on home ice have been few and far between.
But with just two games in nine days, the Canucks will have opportunities to work on things. And the team certainly needs to address its play in its own zone. That was the focus of a brisk 45-minute practice. 

What we saw

Conor Garland returned to the ice with his teammates after missing Monday’s 8-5 loss to the Florida Panthers with a minor injury suffered in a first period fight on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Lightning. He was the only one of the team’s injured players back with the group. Adam Foote addressed the injuries after practice.
David Kämpf took part in his first practice with his new team after signing with the Canucks on Saturday and making his debut with the team on Monday. Kämpf, who profiles more as a defensive centre, skated on a line between Brock Boeser and Conor Garland. Kiefer Sherwood stayed on the right wing with Elias Pettersson and Evander Kane, while Jake DeBrusk and Drew O’Connor flanked Aatu Räty. Lukas Reichel found himself on the wing on the fourth line with Max Sasson and Linus Karlsson.
To the surprise of many, there were no changes on the blueline despite giving up eight goals and a season-high 41 shots on Monday. Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek remained together, as did the second pair of Marcus Pettersson and Tyler Myers. Elias Pettersson and Tom Willander formed the third pair while P-O Joseph was an extra and skated with Arshdeep Bains to give the Canucks four defensive duos during drills. Mackenzie MacEachern was also an extra during practice.
Players spent a good portion of the session working on down-low and net-front coverage. At one point, clearly not enamoured with what he was seeing, Adam Foote stopped the proceedings to bark at his players about the need to defend better.
The Canucks are home for a pair of games this week. The Dallas Stars are here on Thursday, while the Calgary Flames visit on Sunday. The Flames are in Buffalo on Wednesday night after playing Chicago on Tuesday. They will hurry home to face Dallas on Saturday at the Saddledome before making their way here. It will be the second time this season the Canucks have faced a Calgary team that has played the night before. It also happened in a 5-1 Canucks win in their season opener.

What we heard

Adam Foote on defence-focussed practice on Wednesday: “You guys know the numbers. A goal and a half has to stop. We have a lot of young guys and we just keep teaching extend your coverage. Close. Sort out the system with them. Sometimes you’re too early on the play. Sometimes you’re late. We go over it. And go over it again and again. Continue to do it. We’re slowly getting it.”
Quinn Hughes on the need to control play more than they have of late: “We have to defend better. We have to close plays quicker. You waste so much energy defending all night. When you do get the puck, it’s hard to do anything with it because you’ve just defended for 35 or 40 seconds. The more we close plays quicker and get out of our zone quicker, then we can play offence and limit some of that pressure.”
David Kämpf on settling in to life as a Canuck: “It’s a nice group, a good group of guys. Today was my first practice so I’m still trying to figure it out a little bit, but overall no problems.”

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