Penticton BC — We’re through two days of Vancouver Canucks training camp here at the South Okanagan Events Centre, and the expectation is that today, we will see the team do some work on special teams.
This would suggest that we’ll see a change in group personnel, as players like Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk have been in Group A, while JT Miller, Quinn Hughes, and Brock Boeser have skated in Group B during the first couple of days.
One thing I’ll be watching for today is where Jake DeBrusk lines up on PP1 (if he’s there) and how it might affect Brock Boeser’s positioning. One of those players will likely play the net front position while the other goes to the bumper. In Boston, DeBrusk was most often used as the net-front presence on the Bruins’ power play, so we will see how the Canucks want to deploy him. Those groups won’t be coming out until later this morning, however, so be sure to tune back into the live blog throughout the day for updates.
In case you missed our coverage the past couple of days, here are the stories you should be up to date on:
-Elias Pettersson talked about expectations for himself, and gave his early thoughts on playing with Jake DeBrusk and Jonathan Lekkerimäki on day one. Pettersson also talked about his knee injury, calling it a “nagging injury that doesn’t want to go away,” but adding that it isn’t giving him trouble right now and that he feels good about managing it heading into the new year. Read Pettersson’s media availability in full by clicking here.
-Rick Tocchet said yesterday that Dakota Joshua “wouldn’t be out long”, and that while he has no specific target date in mind, the Canucks aren’t too worried about not having Joshua around for long. Tocchet also praised defence prospects Sawyer Mynio and Kirill Kudryavtsev at the end of day two, and you can read about that by clicking here.
-Teddy Blueger skated in a no-contact jersey as he continues to rehab after a minor offseason surgery.
Groups
Dylan Ferguson has been demoted to Group C (9:30 AM), while Ty Young moves up to Group B (12 PM). Group A is filtering onto the ice right now, as Jiri Patera and Arturs Silovs get some warmup in with Jason Krog and the Sedin twins.
Group A
Group A is out on the ice, and the lines remain unchanged. Jonathan Lekkerimäki’s work on the rush is undeniable, and for the third day in a row, he hasn’t looked out of place alongside Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk.
They haven’t gotten to much special teams work yet, and since the groups are relatively unchanged, I would assume that they’ll bring out special teams personnel from both groups at some point.
I noticed that Kirill Kudryavtsev, who Tocchet spoke highly of yesterday, is on a pairing with Tyler Myers today. The team is working on 5v5 rush drills, and we’ve got some Lekkerimäki footage:
 Group B did the same drills as Group A, and unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the Canucks will do special teams work today. Tocchet said they will get some work done in that department before the scrimmage on Sunday, so I suppose that does it for today’s shorter live blog. We’ll have plenty of quotes from the players coming later today, so be sure to keep checking out CanucksArmy all weekend long!
See you tomorrow for the scrimmage!
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