Rick Tocchet makes questionable changes among forward group ahead of road trip

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Cooper Godin
October 13, 2024 (9:36)

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Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet has made some changes among forward group ahead of their three-game road trip starting Tuesday.

The Vancouver Canucks practiced on Saturday less than 24 hours after a tough shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. Through their first two games of the 2024-25 season, the Canucks remain win-less, but it's still very early and there's no need to panic at all. This is a strong team and they're still trying to find their groove, something that could happen on their upcoming road trip.

At practice on Saturday, Rick Tocchet decided to change up the team's forward group a bit, while Conor Garland was not on the ice as he was given a maintenance day.

Danton Heinen swapped lines on Saturday after being with J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser for Friday's game against the Flyers. Tocchet decided to shift him onto Elias Pettersson's line with Jake DeBrusk. As for that J.T. Miller line with Brock Boeser, Tocchet had Nils Hoglander skating with them, which forced Daniel Sprong out of the top-six.

Sprong wasn't only shifted out of the top-six, he was moved down to the Canucks' fourth line with Aatu Raty and Nils Aman. Meanwhile, the third line at practice yesterday consisted of Pius Suter, Teddy Blueger and Kiefer Sherwood. Arshdeep Bains was the odd man at practice, which likely means he'll be on the outside looking in for the start of the road trip on Tuesday.

"DeBrusk-EP40-Heinen
Hoglander-Miller-Boeser
Suter-Blueger-Sherwood
Aman-Raty-Sprong
extra: Bains" - Jeff Paterson of The Province shared on X.

While the Canucks do need to find a way into the win column on this road trip, they also need to find a way to get some of their big names going and with star goaltender Thatcher Demko out for an indefinite period, the last thing Vancouver needs to have a slow start out of the gate over the first month or two.

The Canucks will kick off their three-game road trip in Tampa Bay on Tuesday night before heading further south to Sunrise on Thursday to battle the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. Rick Tocchet's group will then wrap up the road trip on Saturday, October 19th against the Flyers in Philadelphia.