The Vancouver Canucks were back in action in front of even more fans as we’re told that students in the Abbotsford school district have a Pro-D day today.
There are plenty of jerseys in the crowd and fans eager to watch their Vancouver Canucks in action.
Those fans are getting a treat too, because shortly after 10 AM, the Canucks will have a scrimmage. We’ll keep you posted and update this article with the events of the scrimmage but for now, here are the notable things that took place when Group B hit the ice this morning.
  • After struggling in the bag skate yesterday and rolling around on the ice after the fact, Olli Juolevi was demoted off of the pairing with Tyler Myers. Devante Stephens took his place while Juolevi alternated between playing with Brady Keeper and Viktor Persson.
  • The veterans were not pleased with Juolevi’s snow angel antics yesterday, and it’s certainly safe to assume the coaching staff and management feel the same way. J.T. Miller and Tyler Myers could both be heard telling Juolevi to get on his feet after the bag skate.
Some former NHLers, including Maxim Lapierre weighed in on the Juolevi skate gate:
  • Jack Rathbone looks poised to go out and run with the opportunity he’s been given. He’s been going into puck battles hard and is showing excellent defensive awareness. He took a questionable hit from Vincent Arseneau into the boards, and wasn’t afraid to go right back at Arseneau, giving him a hard cross-check and making his displeasure with the hit known.
  • In other news, Vasily Podkolzin had the crowd ooo-ing and aww-ing:
Scrimmage is minutes away, so stay tuned!
SCRIMMAGE:
As expected, the Canucks’ anticipated shutdown pairing of Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Tucker Poolman was out to start for Team White, while Stephens and Myers formed the first pairing for Team Blue.
The best chance of the first few minutes came when Vincent Arseneau was sprung on a partial break for Team White. He took a wrist shot from the hash marks that was promptly absorbed into Thatcher Demko’s chest protector.
Zack MacEwen rang a shot off the bar for Team Blue, but the score remained 0-0.
Vasily Podkolzin skated alongside Miller and Conor Garland and looked right at home. He was filling lanes correctly and was mixing it up in front of the net causing all sorts of issues for Demko.
Kyle Burroughs scored the first goal of the scrimmage for Team Blue, beating Jaroslav Halak on a chance in close. With about seven minutes left in the first, we saw an on the fly goalie change as Spencer Martin came in to relieve Halak of his duties.
In the second half, Jonah Gadjovich scored for Team Blue to make it 2-0 after a sequence where Podkolzin and Rathbone both got knocked to the ice:
The score was extended to 3-0 after Nic Petan extended the lead with a shot that beat Michael DiPietro.
The final score stood as 3-0.
Group A will hit the ice shortly after the ice gets flooded.
Here’s who skated in Group A:
Travis Green was on the ice running practice. The group took part in some defensive zone rush drills, and the lines and defence combinations appear to remain unchanged from yesterday.
The day is going to conclude shortly with the goalies getting back out onto the ice.
UPDATE: Tyler Motte, Guillaume Brisebois, and Carson Focht are out on the ice as the shooters for the goaltending drills.