Canucks special teams get a special look as the opening night roster begins to take shape

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When the skates hit the ice on Wednesday at Rogers Arena, the course going forward was obvious: There may still be two weeks before the 2021-22 regular season begins, but the Vancouver Canucks are already beginning to look towards their roster. opening night.

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All the names that we thought were obviously intended for AHL Abbotsford, the Karel Plaseks and John Stevenses and Madison Boweys, were absent. Bubble boys like Phil Di Giuseppe, Matt Highmore, Olli Juolevi, Kyle Burroughs and Brad Hunt were still on the ice, part of a group of 21 skaters.

Part of the story about who was on the ice Wednesday was about the fact that Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes weren’t here yet, their new contracts are still being negotiated, as well as Travis Hamonic, who remains absent for “personal” matters, which are understood to refer to the NHL’s COVID-19 vaccination protocols.

But the bigger story was a move to get down to business: The Canucks practiced their power play, and while Hughes and Pettersson weren’t around, there was still a lot to see in how units lined up.

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Brock Boeser has been a mainstay in the Canucks ‘first power play unit pretty much from the moment he arrived as a rookie in 2017. But with the Canucks’ deeper forward depth, it was inevitable that things would turn in the lead of the men.

And so Wednesday saw Boeser line up with Jack Rathbone, Nils Höglander, Nic Petan and Tanner Pearson.

The first unit featured Bo Horvat with Alex Chiasson, Conor Garland, JT Miller, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

Horvat said he liked that the two groups split up that way, especially because of the energy it added to their practice.

“To have that competitiveness between each group, obviously we both want both units to want to score,” he said. “I think it is a good competition within our group that is going to push us to be better in a game, in practice. We wanted to score more goals than the other group and I’m sure they felt exactly the same. “

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Green noted that the team’s success in the power game two years ago was something the club needed to get back to.

“It’s important, I think if you want to have a good power play, two years ago everyone was talking about how we had pretty good numbers (power play), obviously having (Pettersson) all year was a big part of that, but our second unit also scored some goals, ”he said. “And hopefully you’re a deep enough team to be able to have two pretty good units and I think we can get there this year.”

On the other side of the coin, there was the possibility that some RPGs showed off their skills as penalty shooters. With Brandon Sutter yet to show up on training ground, there are plenty of opportunities to make an impression as a penalty shootout killer.

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On Wednesday, Di Giuseppe, an off-season signing who played the last two seasons with the New York Rangers, took a look at PK with Jason Dickinson. Highmore skated with Justin Dowling, a candidate to fill the fourth row center spot while Sutter is unavailable, while rookie Vasily Podkolzin got a glimpse of Zack MacEwen.

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Di Giuseppe said that learning to be a better defensive player was part of how he had made his career as a professional and thus this was another opportunity to show his usefulness to his new team.

“I think it suits my game. I don’t think I’ve had the opportunity to do a lot of that in my career, “he said. “I was a skill type. Now I think my defensive game has gotten stronger. So I think where I am in my career and how can I skate and defend, I think it suits me. It is something that, away from the track, I am making video and I try to review it. I felt good in the last match, obviously there are some little things that I had to modify, but overall I felt good.

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“When I went to Michigan, it was sheer skill. And then as you move up the ranks, if you’re not scoring, you need to add some value in other areas of the game, so just pay attention to detail, outdo the guys, check well, check well, that’s it ( running) little things (like) that when you succeed. “

As for Podkolzin taking a look at the death penalty, Green’s response was well considered. It takes time to get good at it at the NHL level, so it was about him seeing things at this level as much as anything else.

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“Penalties are probably much more difficult for the youngsters than the power game,” he said. “To be honest, offensive things, they’ve been in power his whole life. They have killed penalties, but not against the level of competition they face at this level. But he’s a guy that I potentially think could see death sentences, and we’ll see where that goes. “

ICE CHUNKS – Green had no update on Sutter’s condition. The veteran power forward was reinstated to a one-year contract this summer, but has not been seen since the Canucks reunited for training camp last week, and the team said he has been dealing with fatigue and seeking advice. doctor. … Neither Jonah Gadjovich nor Will Lockwood participated in Wednesday’s practice. Gadjovich needs waivers assigned to the AHL, but Lockwood does not. Green said some players who weren’t in the main group on Wednesday could appear in preseason games, but that both wingers were knocked out of the main group suggests they are both likely destined for the minors. Gadjovich scored a ton on the diluted AHL last year and it could be of interest to another NHL team.

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