LATEST | Tocchet praises Andrei Kuzmenko following Saturday's win over Florida

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Cooper Godin
October 22, 2023 (10:06)

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The Vancouver Canucks were looking to bounce back on Saturday night after dropping their previous two games to the Philadelphia Flyers and Tampa Bay Lightning.

Losing the first two games of a road trip is certainly not ideal, but Saturday's game against a former teammate, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and the Florida Panthers, was a good test for Rick Tocchet's squad.

Thanks to multi-point efforts from Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller and Andrei Kuzmenko, the Canucks were able to walk away with a 5-3 win. Casey DeSmith, who got the start between the pipes last night, also had a strong game, stopping 33 of 36 shots he faced.

After the game, Rick Tocchet had plenty of praise for his team, especially for Andrei Kuzmenko.

"He went to the net with vengeance tonight. He was front battling...when he has effort like that, he's a dominant player." Tocchet said.

Kuzmenko had a goal and an assist in Saturday's win over Florida to improve to four points (two goals, two assists) in the first five games of the 2023-24 season.

The Canucks will wrap up their road trip on Tuesday night at 6:15 p.m. PT/9:15 p.m. ET against the Nashville Predators, where they'll look to finish with a win before heading home to face St. Louis on Friday.