After missing the team’s last six games with an oblique injury, captain Quinn Hughes returned to practice and was a full participant as the Vancouver Canucks skated in suburban Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon.
Hughes was reunited was usual partner Filip Hronek and the hope is he will return to the lineup when the Canucks face the LA Kings on Wednesday night.

What we saw

Hughes last suited up for the Canucks on January 31st in Dallas. That was the same day the club traded JT Miller and acquired Marcus Pettersson along with Drew O’Connor and Victor Mancini. Hughes has not yet played with any of the newcomers. Despite missing six games with this latest injury and 10 games overall since Christmas, Hughes still leads all Canucks scorers by 24 points.
Marcus Pettersson was paired with Tyler Myers at practice while Carson Soucy, a healthy scratch on Sunday in Utah, returned to the rotation and skated with Mancini. Rookie Elias Pettersson took shifts with Derek Forbort and with the veteran shifted to his right side, that seems like an indication he was part of the extra pair at practice.
Up front, the Canucks made significant changes to their forward lines after scoring just two goals in their last two games. Nils Höglander bumped up to the wing with Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk while Filip Chytil became the latest centre to take a turn between Conor Garland and Dakota Joshua. That left Pius Suter to centre Brock Boeser and Drew O’Connor while Kiefer Sherwood returned to the fourth line with Teddy Blueger and Arshdeep Bains. Nils Aman was the odd man out at today’s practice.
The Canucks will scoreboard watch on Tuesday night as Calgary plays in Washington, Utah hosts Chicago and St. Louis is at home to Seattle. The Flames can leapfrog the Canucks and grab the second wild card spot in the West with a win. Utah can pull within two points of the Canucks while the Blues can close to within three points of Vancouver.
The Canucks will face the Kings at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday. Los Angeles is 14-1-1 in its last 16 home games and is coming off wins over Utah and Vegas since the break.

What we heard

Rick Tocchet on impact of having Quinn Hughes back at practice: “Just having Quinn on the ice the practice level went up one level. He gets pucks to the net and it makes people go to the net. When he gets the puck at the blueline and he does his dance, it makes people get to the net. And I think that’s something we’ve lacked since he’s been out.”
Rick Tocchet on working with his group to generate more offence: “We had a good video session. I thought it was one of our best practices. We worked on a lot of stuff — getting pucks to the net, saw a lot of creativity. We did some drills where we needed some guys to make some plays and I saw that today. Now we have to transform that into a game.”
Elias Pettersson on being reunited on a line with Nils Höglander: “He’s a little pitbull out there. Just hard working, strong on the puck. Bring that game, maybe win me some pucks or vice versa. It’s fun to play with him.”
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