News and notes from a busy Tuesday practice at UBC
The Vancouver Canucks skated in two groups on Tuesday at UBC. The main group was comprised of primarily National Hockey League mainstays with a handful of hopefuls sprinkled in. The second group was made up of mostly American Hockey Leaguers with a few notable exceptions -- Dakota Joshua and Vasily Podkolzin.
Both of those players failed to leave any kind of mark in Sunday's preseason opener -- although to be fair, they were not alone. However, after practice, Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet had Joshua in his cross-hairs.
"He has to pick it up," Tocchet said bluntly. " He has to try to win a job. The job is not there. There are guys breathing down (his neck) for that one job. Whether it's a message or not, there are a lot of other factors, and I'm not going to get into it, but yeah he's got to pick it up."
According to the NHL game sheet from Sunday's debacle, Joshua had one shot on goal and one hit in 13:13 of ice time. The rugged winger, one of the few NHL regulars in the Canucks line-up at the Saddledome, was also on the ice for five of the Calgary goals.
NOTES:
*Injured forward Ilya Mikheyev skated with the main group for the first time in the preseason on Tuesday. He was a limited participant in drills and left on his own after about 30 minutes. Tocchet said after practice that Mikheyev, who is recovering from knee surgery in February, successfully completed his training camp skating test, but still requires medical clearance to begin practicing fully. His status for preseason games and the October 11th regular season opener remain up in the air.
*Cole McWard had the opportunity to practice alongside captain Quinn Hughes on Tuesday. McWard was one of five players (and the only defenseman) in the main group today that suited up on Sunday -- Nils Höglander, Jack Studnicka, Nils Aman and Pius Suter were the others. The other defense pairings at UBC today were Ian Cole and Filip Hronek, Carson Soucy with Tyler Myers and depth blueline hopefuls Guillaume Brisebois and Christian Wolanin skated together.
*Up front, Phil Di Giuseppe played left wing on a line with JT Miller and Brock Boeser. That's the spot Vasily Podkolzin occupied through all three days at camp in Victoria over the weekend. Di Giuseppe offers size and an ability to win board battles. We'll have to wait to see if he gets a chance to play on that line in pre-season action.
*Nils Höglander remained on the wing with Elias Pettersson and Andrei Kuzmenko. Anthony Beauvillier moved to the left side with Pius Suter and Conor Garland while Teddy Blueger centred a line between Nils Aman and Jack Studnicka.
*NHL netminders Thatcher Demko and Casey DeSmith were the only goalies on the ice with the main group. Spencer Martin, Arturs Silovs and Nikita Tolopilo skated with the second group of the day.
*For the second straight day, the Canucks reduced their training camp roster.