Quinn Hughes was absent, Cole McWard reported for his first NHL practice
There was a notable absence at Vancouver Canucks practice on Wednesday at Rogers Arena. Quinn Hughes was not among the six defensemen taking part in the 30-minute session. After logging 27:27 in Tuesday's 5-2 loss to Seattle, Hughes was given Wednesday off due to illness.
"He's dealing with a little bit of a viral thing, so it was better that he just stay off the ice," head coach Rick Tocchet said following practice. "I give him a lot of credit. He was pretty sick last night so for him to tough it out just goes to show you what kind of tough kid he is."
Tocchet said wasn't certain, but he expected Hughes to play on Thursday against Chicago.
Newcomer Cole McWard could make his NHL debut on Thursday against the Blackhawks. A day after signing an entry level deal with the Canucks, the former Ohio State Buckeye defender was on the ice for his first practice as a professional. He spent most of the day paired with Kyle Burroughs while Tyler Myers skated alongside Akito Hirose and Jack Rathbone took shifts with Ethan Bear. Obviously, if Hughes plays one of the others will not. Tocchet said after practice that both Guillaume Brisebois and Christian Wolanin are likely done for the season with injuries.
Not only where there new looks on defence at practice, there were changes up front, too. Anthony Beauvillier was reunited with Elias Pettersson and Andrei Kuzmenko while Dakota Joshua returned to a line with Nils Aman and Conor Garland. Joshua had been promoted to Pettersson's line for the past four games and picked up an assist on Pettersson's goal against the Kraken on Tuesday. However, it wasn't enough to keep Joshua on the team's top line.
"I didn't see any chemistry there, maybe he was trying to be something he's not," Tocchet said of Joshua higher in the line-up. "Seems like he's better with Aman. They know their role. Petey's line got to get better forechecking. They can't just rely off the rush or fancy plays. You're going to play LA or teams like Vegas and Edmonton, where you're going to have to play a grind out style. You might have to win the game 2-1. And you might have to score different ways. So we have to get that line on a better forechecking situation."
Tocchet hinted that Vasily Podkolzin could return to the line-up at some point over the final five games. He said the Russian forward was seeing a team doctor for his hand injury and needed medical clearance before getting back into game action.
Canucks lines at Wednesday practice
Kuzmenko-Pettersson-Beauvillier
Di Giuseppe-Miller-Boeser
Joshua-Aman-Garland
McDonough-Dries-Studnicka (Kravtsov)
Hirose-Myers
Rathbone-Bear
Burroughs-McWard