The most noteworthy 20 minutes of the Vancouver Canucks practice on Saturday involved one player, one coach and zero pucks.
Not usually the last player off the ice, Elias Pettersson stood near the benches and spoke one-on-one with assistant coach Yogi Svejkovsky for the equivalent of a full period of running time after teammates and other coaches had vacated the main sheet at the University of British Columbia.
The 25-year-old centre, two lacklustre games into his $92.8-million-US eight-year contract extension with the Canucks, was also among the first players on the ice before practice. Obviously, Pettersson understands he needs to work on his game.
A sputtering start to the season for the team, one home loss in overtime and another in a shootout, has got the attention of all players. You could feel the urgency in Saturday’s practice, ahead of Sunday’s flight to Tampa to start a four-game road trip Tuesday against the Lightning.
Pettersson is the fifth highest-paid player in the National Hockey League, but for him to ascend another step on the ice and become one of the half-dozen best players in the game, a true superstar, requires a lot more practice days like Saturday.
General manager Patrik Allvin has spoken since he took over the Canucks about the need for better practice habits and the team’s best players driving that improvement. And head coach Rick Tocchet told Sportsnet last month that top Canucks like Pettersson, Quinn Hughes, and J.T. Miller must be the hardest-working players in practice, too. Both Allvin and Tocchet have cited Pittsburgh Penguin captain Sidney Crosby as a template.
“It’s one of his better practices today, and I think there’s some reasons for it,” Tocchet said Saturday when asked about Pettersson. “I think today, going out early, working on his game, I think he’s going to have to have that approach now for a while. And that’ll get his confidence (higher). So, yeah, we have a plan with him and (he will) just chip away at his game.”
Petterson declined an interview request after finally leaving the ice.
Amid increased focus due to his franchise-record contract and last spring’s poor playoff performance (one goal in 13 games), Pettersson has one power-play assist and just two shots on target through two games. His even-strength Corsi of 46.6 per cent is second-lowest among Vancouver forwards.
Pettersson and winger Jake DeBrusk practised Saturday with a new linemate, Danton Heinen, as Tocchet changed all four forward lines. Nils Hoglander moved up to play alongside Miller and Brock Boeser, while Daniel Sprong was dropped to the fourth line.
With Conor Garland given the day off to rest the nagging, undisclosed injury that forced him to miss Vancouver’s final pre-season game, the third line featured Teddy Blueger between Pius Suter and Kiefer Sherwood.
KEVLAR COATED
Tocchet said he believes the Canucks “dodged a bullet” with matchup defenceman Tyler Myers, who was hurt three minutes into Friday’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers with what appeared to be a significant knee injury. But Tocchet said medical scans showed no serious damage and Myers would be with the team on its road trip to Tampa, South Florida, Philadelphia and Chicago.
Myers did not practise Saturday.
The 34-year-old defenceman has logged 997 NHL regular-season games, and he had planned to celebrate his looming milestone by inviting family and friends to Saturday’s game in Philadelphia.
TRANSITION TROUBLE
One year ago, with four players new to the Canucks since the previous year, Vancouver played arguably its worst game of the season in Game 3, a 2-0 loss in Philadelphia that could have been 6-0. Even after a much better effort two nights later in Tampa, a 4-3 defeat, Vancouver was 2-2 through four games. A 5-3 road win against the Panthers in Game 5 launched an 8-0-1 run that set the trajectory for the Canucks’ season.
The Canucks’ travelling roster on Sunday included nine players new to the team since the end of last season: seven free agents and minor-league graduates Aatu Raty and Arshdeep Bains. There is a lot of transitioning going on.
“I was on one team for seven years,” Jake DeBrusk, who left the Boston Bruins for a seven-year, $38.5-million contract with the Canucks, said after Saturday’s practice. “I haven’t had to do this before. I’ve been talking to guys who have changed teams, talking to Forbs and Heino (ex-Bruins Derek Forbort and Danton Heinen). It’s different. Just transitioning takes a little bit of time. But that’s the product of hockey. I think I’m thinking a little too much — not necessarily about the outside stuff, but the systems, which is normal.
“I think every guy kind of has a different road. Some guys hit the ground running. Some guys are playing great. I think if you look at every team that has this kind of a changeover. . . the more reps you get, the more comfortable you feel. It kind of sounds cheesy, but it’s true. That’s what the game of hockey is about: Learning and reacting. And then you add a little bit of transition. . . probably even for the guys that were here (last season), it’s a little bit different as well. So, yeah, it takes some time but it’s coming along each day.”
BETTER PREP NEXT YEAR
With one-third of their roster new, the Canucks probably should have pared down to something close to their opening-night roster prior to the last of six pre-season games. In a sense, Friday’s loss to the Flyers was just the third game together for their NHL group.
“I believe in that, but you’ve got to remember we were five (games) and seven days,” Tocchet said of the pre-season timetable. “So we were at the mercy of the schedule. You have to keep bodies, you have to have mixed lineups. We’re going to try to change that next year. It’s not anybody’s fault. I think it was just building (availability) and some logistics stuff. But that’s not the perfect way to do it, five in seven.”
GOALTENDING CHOICES
Among Canuck goalies, Kevin Lankinen (29 saves on 31 shots) had a much better game against the Flyers than Arturs Silovs (20 saves on 26 shots) did in Wednesday’s loss to the Calgary Flames.
With starter Thatcher Demko out indefinitely, it would be easy for Tocchet just to stay with whoever he thinks is the hotter goaltender. But the coach said he wants to keep both Lankinen and Silovs involved early on. If Lankinen gets starts against both the Lightning on Tuesday and Panthers on Thursday, it will be 10 days since Silovs played when the Canucks visit the Flyers on Saturday.