Rick Tocchet shook up his lines today as the Vancouver Canucks prepare for their biggest game of the season.
Saturday’s game in Edmonton could go a long way in deciding first place in the Pacific Division this season. The Oilers are in hot pursuit of Vancouver in the standings, just four points back with two games in hand.
#Canucks now have a 4-point lead on the Oilers, but Edmonton has two games in hand. Vancouver still owns the tiebreaker though.
Edmonton plays Friday vs Arizona before the Saturday night showdown between the Canucks and Oilers. pic.twitter.com/ge6cKbaZLA
— Rob Williams (@RobTheHockeyGuy) April 11, 2024
If Edmonton wins Friday against Arizona, they could tie the Canucks with a regulation win on Saturday. Given that the Oilers will have played one less game, there is a chance the Canucks could wake up Sunday morning in second place.
The Canucks showed off new-look lines at practice this afternoon, with changes being made to all four trios.
Boeser not at practice this morning but this is how #Canucks are skating.
Joshua – Lindholm – Garland
Hoglander – Pettersson – Mikheyev
PDG – Blueger – Laff
Suter – Miller – Aman— Noah Strang (@noahstrang_) April 11, 2024
Brock Boeser missed practice with a maintenance day, but Tocchet expects he’ll play Saturday. Nils Åman appeared to be a placeholder for the Canucks’ 40-goal man. It appears Boeser will be reunited with J.T. Miller, with Pius Suter skating on the other wing.
Elias Pettersson and Nils Höglander are getting a new linemate in Ilya Mikheyev. Dakota Joshua and Conor Garland, meanwhile, will skate with Elias Lindholm in the middle.
The fourth line looks to be Teddy Blueger between Phil Di Giuseppe and Sam Lafferty.
The defence pairs appear to be unchanged from Wednesday. Quinn Hughes was with Filip Hronek, with other pairs consisting of Carson Soucy with Tyler Myers and Nikita Zadorov with Ian Cole.
Åman, Vasily Podkolzin, Noah Juulsen, and Mark Friedman appear to be the healthy scratches.
“I’m a big believer in that depth wins hockey games,” Tocchet told reporters at Rogers Arena after practice. “We’re gonna go this way and see how it goes.”
Just who will be in goal remains to be seen. The Canucks appear to be targeting next week for Thatcher Demko’s return to the lineup, but that can change. He skated at practice with his Canucks teammates for a second straight day today.
Arturs Silovs has started three of the last four games, though it could be time for Casey DeSmith to reclaim the net.
“I’ll talk to Clarkie [Canucks goalie coach Ian Clark] about that,” Tocchet said of the Silovs-DeSmith decision. “We’ll probably discuss that tomorrow.”