After a 3-2 shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday night, the Vancouver Canucks were back to work in the noon hour on Saturday practicing at UBC. Still looking for a win early in the season, Rick Tocchet shuffled his line combinations, looking to spark his top six in particular.

What we saw

Danton Heinen moved to the right side with Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk, while Nils Höglander was bumped up to the left wing on a line with JT Miller and Brock Boeser.
Now, it’s important to note that Conor Garland was given a maintenance day to deal with the same nagging issue that kept him out of the team’s final preseason game a week ago. Rick Tocchet said the problem shouldn’t be an issue moving forward, and the club hopes that by Garland taking Saturday off and then travelling with the team on Sunday, he’ll be ready for a Monday practice in Tampa Bay.
Without Garland, the third line had Teddy Blueger between Pius Suter and Kiefer Sherwood, while Daniel Sprong, Nils Aman, Aatu Raty, and Arshedeep Bains all took turns rotating through fourth-line shifts during the hour-long workout.
The defence pairings were impacted by the absence of Tyler Myers, although the Canucks sound like they got good news on that front with the big blueliner listed as day to day after leaving Friday’s game against the Flyers after his first shift with an apparent knee injury.
With no Myers on the ice, the club kept its top pairing of Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek together, while Vincent Desharnais slotted in for Myers alongside Carson Soucy. Derek Forbort and Noah Juulsen skated together as the third pair.
Elias Pettersson, off to a sluggish start with just one point and two shots on goal in his first two games, was among the first players on the ice for practice and was the last player off the ice. As teammates filtered off the ice at the end of practice, Pettersson and Arshdeep Bains competed in battle drills on the sideboards. Pettersson then engaged in a lengthy conversation with assistant coach Yogi Svejkovsky after everyone else had left the practice ice.
Sunday is a travel day for the Canucks as they head out on their first extended road trip of the season making stops in Tampa, Sunrise, Florida, Philadelphia and Chicago.

What we heard

Rick Tocchet updates Tyler Myers’ lower-body injury: “He’s day to day. I think we might have dodged a bullet. It looked worse. He was hurt, but talking to him today and after the game, he might have dodged a bullet. We’ll see what happens on day to day here.”
Tocchet on his team not finding its complete game in the early going: “For me, it’s simple things. It’s changes. It’s guys overextending and staying out for 50 seconds. We’re doing stuff that we didn’t do last year for the majority of the time. Both were winnable games. We had the lead going into the third period and we gave it up. We have to make sure we get to our staples. We have to start going through people. I don’t think we’re battling as hard as we should. It’s early and we’ve got to it. That’s my take right now.”
Tocchet on Pettersson taking steps to find his game: “He came out early with us 20 minutes before with myself and the Twins and Krogger (skills coach Jason Krog). Just has to work on certain parts of his game. It was one of his better practices today and I think there were some reasons for it. Going out early and working on his game, I think he’s going to have to have that approach now for a while. And that will get his confidence. We have a plan with him and just chip away at his game.”
Quinn Hughes on the approach if the team has to play games without Tyler Myers on upcoming road trip: “I thought we did a really good job with the five man unit (after Myers left). I think I played with every guy yesterday and I think we played pretty well. This whole time, preaching that I want to play with Fil (Hronek), but also we have a really good D-corps and I’ve played with Jules, can play the right side with Soucy or Forbs. I’ve told Footy that I’m good to play with anyone.”
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