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Scenes from Canucks practice: Malhotra shuffles forward lines ahead of weekend back-to-back

Photo credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images

By Tyson Cole

Oct 2, 2026, 17:51 EDTUpdated: Oct 2, 2026, 18:28 EDT

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The Vancouver Canucks held practice at UBC on Friday morning ahead of this weekend’s back-to-back home games against the Vegas Golden Knights and Calgary Flames.

Following Thursday night’s goal-fest, head coach Manny Malhotra shuffled up his forward lines at practice.

What we saw

Tyson Cole

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#Canucks lines rushes at practice: Rossi - Pettersson - Karlsson Öhgren - Cotter - Boeser *O’Connor - Räty - Gallagher* Bains - Sasson - Lekkerimäki Buium - Hronek Oleksiak - Willander Pettersson - Schenn *O’Connor, Gallagher & DeBrusk have been rotating in together.

6:45 PM · Oct 2, 2026

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Malhotra switched up all four of his forward lines. The most notable change is on the top line, moving Marco Rossi from the middle of the ice to the left wing with Elias Pettersson and Linus Karlsson.

The second line is the same as what we saw when Malhotra shook up his lines for the final two periods of Thursday night’s game, seeing Paul Cotter centre a line with Liam Öhgren and Brock Boeser – Rossi’s old position and linemates.

However, there was some confusion in the bottom six. Once line rushes began, Drew O’Connor, Aatu Räty and Brendan Gallagher formed one line, with Arshdeep Bains, Max Sasson and Jonathan Lekkerimäki. This left Jake DeBrusk seemingly skating as the extra. However, as line rushes continued, DeBrusk filled in for Gallagher on the next rush, and O’Connor on the final one.

It’s worth noting, however, that DeBrusk missed practice before the season-opener after taking a Lekkerimäki shot off the ankle in the Canucks’ preseason finale. Said injury has not kept DeBrusk out of the lineup so far this season. So we are truly unsure of how the team will lineup tomorrow.

Malhotra was very non-committal on DeBrusk potentially being the extra skater post-practice: “I think you’re reading into a lot. The idea today was just to obviously shake things up, try new lines, and see what type of chemistry we could form through practice.” The Canucks head coach is keeping his lineup changes close to his chest.

The defence stayed the same as in both regular season games: Zeev Buium with Filip Hronek, Jamie Oleksiak paired with Tom Willander, and Elias Pettersson and Luke Schenn forming the bottom pairing.

After Malhotra blew the final whistle to end practice, he squared up against Räty in the faceoff circle for a two-part battle on either side. We believe Räty won on his dominant side, but did not have the final tally. However, Malhotra edged out the victory in battle two.

Tyson Cole

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Manny vs. Räty in the faceoff circle. Didn’t get a count on the first go around, but the he second went 3-2-1 for Manny. Coach still got it! #Canucks

7:09 PM · Oct 2, 2026

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The main focus of practice appeared to be attacking off the rush and wall work. More specifically, they worked in the corners, dug the puck out of battles, and made clean passes along the boards.

What we heard

Malhotra on the give and take with scoring a bunch of goals, but allowing even more: “Obviously, the fact that we’re able to score that number of goals is great. We want to capitalize on our opportunities. The fact that we need to score that many goals is problematic. Usually, it’s a race to three in this league, but to give up that number [nine], that’s always the magic number is how many you give up. So the defensive aspect of it for me is is where we need to be sharper.”

Karlsson on the challenge of being line-matched up against Connor McDavid for the last two games: “That was a tough matchup. Like, he’s probably the best player in the world, and yesterday was a tough one. I don’t know what to say about yesterday. I really like the opportunity to play against the best. That’s something I’m gonna grow. I had a learning lesson yesterday, like what to do, what not to do. So I mean, I’m gonna get better too when I play against better players, and that’s something I’m really looking forward to. It’s fun to play against the best, and that’s gonna make you better, too.”