Changes to the Vancouver Canucks’ lineup were inevitable after Saturday night’s embarrassing 5-1 loss to the Boston Bruins, and head coach Rick Tocchet delivered.
The team hit the ice for practice this morning, where they were sporting a new-look forward group. The biggest change features Conor Garland being promoted up to the top line alongside JT Miller and Brock Boeser.
Max Sasson, who scored his first NHL goal on Saturday, also had a big promotion as he moved from the fourth line up to the second line beside Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk.
Sportsnet’s Randip Janda had the complete lineup from this morning.
#Canucks lines at Sunday practice:
Garland-Miller-Boeser
DeBrusk-Pettersson-Sasson
Heinen-Suter-Sherwood
Joshua-Blueger-HoglanderHughes-Juulsen
Soucy-Myers
Forbort-Friedman
Brannstrom-Desharnais@Sportsnet650— Randip Janda (@RandipJanda) December 15, 2024
Nils Höglander has fallen all the way back down to the fourth line where he was playing alongside Teddy Blueger and Dakota Joshua. There didn’t appear to be any major changes to the defensive group with Erik Brännstrom and Vincent Desharnais looking like the odd men out.
The loss prompted some heavy criticism from Tocchet after the game, who said that multiple players were struggling to get “emotionally invested” on the ice. Pettersson in particular was also outspoken about how dissatisfied he was with his game.
“I gotta be a lot better,” Pettersson told reporters. “I’m not happy with my performance today.”
Tocchet will be making these changes until he can find a way to start helping this team perform better on home ice. Vancouver currently boasts one of the worst records at home in the entire league while their away record is among the very best.
It’s an odd phenomenon and one that Canucks president Jim Rutherford spoke candidly on during last night’s edition of After Hours with Scott Oake and Ray Ferraro.
We’ll see if these changes hit the right buttons as the Colorado Avalanche visits town tomorrow night.