The Vancouver Canucks are finally back in action against an opponent SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! The first of six pre-season games will kick off in Seattle at 5:00 p.m. in Climate Pledge Arena. We don't know who will be tapped for the game, but there are some things to watch out for.
The vibe coming out of training camp has been full-bore optimism. Pretty standard boilerplate for any pro sports squad, though. Even players on teams that know they are in tough will praise the new faces/signed veterans and "plans for the future" and all that. That's not the case here. The team has sounded more relaxed, oddly enough.
A lot of this is coloured with Retr-O-Spect Glasses(tm), but this group that missed the playoffs sounds more confident than last year's bunch, who were coming back from the third-highest point total in Canucks history. They sound ready.
The biggest difference between now and a year ago is probably health. Thatcher Demko's knee, Dakota Joshua's cancer, and whatever was going on in the dressing room had everyone on edge. None of that is around the arena this year.
As is typical with these pre-season games, only some of the established veterans will play tomorrow. With that in mind, here's a quick look at what we're looking for.
Demko says he is completely healthy and looking forward to the season. And, with the extra time put in, he's figured out how to best work around his popliteus injury. There was a lot of second-guessing how to best protect his knee while still being effective as the season went on last year. That resulted in the worst numbers of his career. That's not going to happen again.
He and Lankinen are obviously sharing the workload this season, but then who? Jiří Patera's injuries last season also kept him off the ice, and he didn't show up in Saturday's scrimmage. Patera has NHL experience and was signed with the intention of being the Canucks' third goaltender behind Demko and Arturs Silovs. That... didn't work.
But now he finds himself in third place behind Nikita Tolopilo and Ty Young in Abbotsford. Young played in Kalamazoo before joining Abbotsford as an injury replacement, and he showed well enough that the team wants him moved up a level. Sure, keeping Patera in the system would be great insurance, but he won't be happy about life in the ECHL.
Quinn Hughes can switch onto frikkin' cruise control for another two weeks. He's ready to go. But we want to give the young guys a chance beside actual NHL veterans. We know who the top four are going to be, so it's up to the rest of the set to sort themselves out. Pierre-Olivier Joseph is the barrier any of the kids need to clear if they want to start in the NHL, and he's not making it easy for them.
Joseph has looked really good in scrimmages, adding pressure onto even Elias Pettersson to prove himself. As good a skater as Tom Willander is, he hasn't been up to speed against this level of competition yet. And that's not including the startling Kiril Kudryavtsev, who I didn't expect to get this far, never mind doing it in three years. Victor Mancini is also likely ahead of Willander at this point, and that's fine. A year - or even a few months - in the AHL won't do him any harm.
But it's going to be very interesting to see who gets that 6/7 spot. Derek Forbort was a penalty-killing anchor on last year's squad, so whoever pairs with him will probably need those chops, too.
We'll have to see who is sent to Seattle and who will kick off their season in Abbotsford. There will be enough veterans to keep things interesting, and on a guess, Coach Foote will want his top lines to be the lines he wants to start the regular season with. Wherever Brock Boeser goes, he'll probably have Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk with him. Likewise, Filip Chytil, Evander Kane, and - surprise, surprise! - Jonathan Lekkerimäki.
The other nine forwards will probably be a mixed bag of veterans and rookies or new arrivals. The point isn't really to win these games but to see who can work where in Vancouver's system, either full-time or as a call-up. So far, two players have really stood out in a pleasant way.
Filip Chytil looks angry. He knows his reputation as being injury-prone and not good at protecting himself from hits. It's not great to say, but given the nature of concussions, that's going to haunt him until he has an extended period completely healthy. But man, when you see him going at full speed, you can see why he really can be the answer to Vancouver's missing 2C. They can really use his puck-carrying ability.
Speaking of things I don't want to say, the other player is Braden Cootes. I am loath to put any more pressure on a rookie who JUST HAPPENS to be a right-handed centre with a high hockey-IQ and leadership tendencies, but he's not looked out of place. And he, unlike Lekkerimäki, could start his career getting ten to twelve minutes a night on the fourth line and still be contributing. Yes, I am thinking of Bo Horvat when I watch Braden Cootes. Dammit.
Don't get me wrong, here. I'm looking forward to seeing him regularly with Vancouver. But he's 18 years old. And he's exactly what the Canucks need right now - if he happened to be two or three years further along in his development. Patience is a virtue, but so is building a team Quinn Hughes wants to stay with. Dammit.
There are six (ugh) pre-season games on the menu this season, and no doubt we're going to read way too much into all of them. So let's get to it.
