Canucks welcome Matthew Highmore back to lineup, PK gets tweaked

Article content

Returning to the ice with his teammates was a long time coming for Vancouver Canucks winger Matthew Highmore.

Article content

He landed on the COVID-19 list two Mondays ago and, fever-free, under the province’s policies would have been eligible to play last Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

But the National Hockey League requires another PCR test to be administered for a player to be officially declared positive and while he was clinically negative, he didn’t return a test that detected a low enough level of residual infection to be deemed officially negative by the league (what’s known as a CT-value, a number above 37 is considered negative).

So Highmore tested daily and skated on his own.

Until Wednesday. His Tuesday test was finally negative in every respect. And that meant he could finally practice with his teammates again.

Article content

“I was super excited. I didn’t sleep really well last night actually, because I just couldn’t wait,” he said after Wednesday’s practice. “It’s been a little bit of time since I’d been out there with them and felt good. It was a lot of fun.”

Like most of his teammates have reported, Highmore had few, if any, symptoms despite his negative test.

“It’s just kind of the way it goes. Like I said, I was lucky and just kind of had to wait my time to get my level back to being right.”

Head coach Bruce Boudreau had Highmore back skating on a line with Juho Lammikko and Tyler Motte.

Boudreau said physically he had no worries about putting Highmore immediately back into his regular checking and penalty-killing role, despite his missing the last three games. Almost every Canuck who has had COVID has been back to full health when he’s returned to the lineup, he noted.

Article content

“And like Highmore has been skating on his own. So I mean, it’s not like he’s jumping into something where his leg has been hurt and he’s got to just ease in and he ca n’t take body contact or whatever, ”said Boudreau.

“I worry a little bit about if they were sick or their energy level, but that hasn’t been evident in anybody that’s come back from COVID from our team.”

NEXT GAME

thursday

Vancouver Canucks at San Jose Sharks

7:30 pm, SAP Center. TV: Sportsnet Pacific. Radio: Sportsnet 650.

PK a practice focus

The Canucks spent a good portion of Wednesday’s practice working on their penalty kill. Oliver Ekman-Larsson said it was needed.

“I think it’s not a secret that we want the special teams to be better than what we have been lately,” he said. “I think 10 games ago, I felt like we had got a little bit better (but since) we’ve kind of creeped in a little bit again, making some bad reads and letting in some goals.”

Article content

It’s pretty simple math from Boudreau’s perspective.

“Statistically, if you look at our five-on-five game, it’s pretty good. Our special teams can always be better,” he said. “Other than the Leaf game, the penalty killing has been really good, but the Leafs have been doing that to every team in the league on the power play. So if our special teams get better and we can continue at the five-on-give goal ratio that we have, I think, we’ll be in the hunt.”

The coach isn’t wrong, either: At even strength, the Canucks have been break-even in terms of shots for and allowed, as well as a shot-quality. But on the penalty kill they have yielded the second-worst shot rate of any team in the league when they have a player in the penalty box.

[email protected]

twitter.com/risingaction

The Canucks Report, powered by Province Sports, is essential reading for hockey fans who eat, sleep, Canucks, repeat. Sign up here