New lines at practice give a clear indication of the opening night roster: Many names about to hit waivers
The Canucks had their first pre-season game on Sunday; the team took a lineup mainly composed of AHLers to Calgary, who were intensely awaiting their Western Canadian rivals with a strong lineup made out of veterans like Nazem Kadri, Jonathan Huberdeau and the former Canucks Chris Tanev and Jacob Markstrom.
A GAME TO FORGET?
The young Canucks did a lot of learning during this outing, and since then, Patrik Allvin has released 13 players from training camp. Tocchet has now shown his hand and displayed a significantly different lineup today. It resembles what we may look at heading into the team's opening night. Group A showed what is prospected to be this year's lineup:
1. Höglander/Mikheyev-Pettersson-Kuzmenko
2. Di Giuseppe-Miller-Boeser
3. Beauvillier-Suter-Garland
4. �man-Blueger-Studnicka
1. Hughes-McWard
2. Cole-Hronek
3. Soucy-Myers
4. Brisebois-Wolanin
Some things stood out about this line-up: Phil Di Giuseppe was back with J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser on the team's second line. Tocchet also put in place what has the potential to be one of the most lethal 3rd lines in the game with Anthony Beauvilier, Pius Suter and Conor Garland.
To see that Nils Aman and Jack Studnicka are on a line with Teddy Blueger could mean that they're the early contenders to enter the line-up over the likes of Dakota Joshua, Sheldon Dries and Vasily Podkolzin.
On the defensive pairings, it was a surprise to see Cole McWard alongside the team captain, Quinn Hughes. After Noah Juulsen's lacklustre performance on Sunday, seeing him drop down in the depth chart wasn't a surprise. The second group seems to feature what could possibly be the opening night roster for Abbotsford:
1. Joshua-Räty-Bains
2. Podkolzin-Dries-Karlsson
3. McDonough-Sasson-Bloom
4. Nielsen-Wouters-Klimovich
1. Irwin-Juulsen
2. Hirose-Woo
3. Rathbone-Johansson
4. Schmiemann
4 PLAYERS THROUGH WAIVERS?
An important fact that may come into play once Allvin and his troops face the untimely decisions is that five players among their second group will have to waiver before being eligible to play in Abbotsford. Dakota Joshua, Sheldon Dries, Matt Irwin, Noah Juulsen and Jett Woo.
Once again, the fact that some players are creating pleasant surprises highlights the high level of intensity and the internal competition that arises from this camp and at the end of the day. This is only great news for this team.
| POLL | ||
Do you like the line-up Tocchet featured in today's practice? | ||
| Yes | 215 | 59.9 % |
| No | 144 | 40.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
