Penticton, BC — What an exciting first day it’s been. Earlier today, we announced that Halford and Brough will be joining us starting September 28th (more info here), and now, it’s time to officially kick off Vancouver Canucks training camp!

What better way to do that than with a live blog to keep you updated with the day’s events on this beautiful Thursday, LIVE from Penticton, BC, at the South Okanagan Events Centre.

Canucks GM Ryan Johnson revealed yesterday that, as expected, goaltender Thatcher Demko wouldn’t be a full participant in training camp. While I strolled through the BC Sports Hall of Fame, Jeff Paterson caught video of Demko going through some light individual on-ice workouts.

An interesting thing to note was that Lucian Bernat and Akil Thomas (both of whom aren’t in the training camp groups) were Demko’s shooters. Bernat, who the Canucks drafted in the sixth round of June’s draft, missed the prospect showcase with an injury, and we can now assume that Thomas isn’t going to be healthy enough to participate in camp as well.

The Canucks announced their two groups, along with the day’s schedule. First, the two groups.

Some things that stand out (remembering that it’s just trainign camp, but that these are going to be the first lines we’ve seen Manny Malhotra assemble as Canucks bench boss):
-Zeev Buium and Filip Hronek are in different groups, meaning the two won’t start training camp getting reps on the same pairing.
-Hronek is in the same group with Jamie Oleksiak. I would guess those two will get reps together.
-I’m interested to see how the Group B defence pairings shake down. Buium and Tom Willander spent time together last season, and I would assume if those two open camp together, that DPetey will skate with Luke Schenn
-We’ll know later this afternoon when they skate, but we could get a look at the BRÖ line featuring Öhgren-Rossi-Boeser in Group B.
-Braeden Cootes, Brooks Rogowski and Adam Novotny are in the same group.

The schedule reads: Group A at 10 AM (goalies), 10:20 AM (main), and 11:25 (practice sheet); Group B at 12:05 (goalies), 12:25 (main), and 1:30 PM.

The Group A line combinations courtesy of our very own Tyson Cole (who is sitting beside me in Penticton right now):

The group opened a neutral zone forechecking install drill. The drill isn’t appropriate for drawing conclusions about the Canucks’ new systems under their new head coach. But speaking of the new head coach…

One thing that was very noticeable right from the get-go: Manny Malhotra’s intensity was high, and if a player was coasting through a drill or doing it incorrectly, the Canucks’ new bench boss wasn’t shy about letting them (and everyone in the building) hear about it, whether it was a veteran player or a player attending their first camp.

A board battle drill was next, and the intensity was very high. The towering Brooks Rogowski excelled in that drill, as did Adam Novotny. Both players, drafted over the summer and attending their first NHL training camps, fared fine in the drill against legitimate NHL players. That doesn’t mean others didn’t, but those two certainly caught our attention.

The next drill was a good opportunity to see some defensive zone work. In the drill, the Canucks showed a zone coverage system, even though they started the drill’s reps in a box+1 formation. Here is some video:

Stay tuned all day long for updates!