Foote impressed with play from Chytil, Cootes, Bains and more after first win as Canucks head coach

Chytil walked away with the first start of the game after scoring two goals, with the first being the eventual game-winner. Foote had good things to say about his second line centre.

“He was good; he looked fast,” Foote expressed. “He didn’t look nervous. He looked like he wanted the puck on his stick. He wanted to play hockey.”

Foote also made it apparent in the preseason that he wanted to put the 26-year-old centreman with specific linemates in order to bring the most out of him. Chytil skated alongside Arshdeep Bains and Conor Garland. Foote touched on how he thought his Chytil’s linemates complimented him, his coaching staff’s thought process in elevating Chytil’s game, and if he’s already seeing improvements:

“I thought they were good, but also a lot of the practices we’ve had with the rush, we’re trying to figure out what he did in the past, right? How he played and what we could tweak to give him a little bit more space or not put him in dangerous situations, right? He’s done a good job with our forward coaches, you know, Scott [Young] and Brett [McLean] and also [Jason] Kroger and the Sedins. A lot of our rushes, sometimes we try to do too much. When you’re a talented player and you got to recognize when there’s a wall there, kick it out to your guys and then go through and you’ll get it back. And I think he’s starting to recognize that.”

One of Chytil’s linemates, Bains, was another standout performer for Foote. But not for what he did offensively, mostly what he did on the penalty kill, in sacrificing himself for two big blocks:

“I thought he was really good tonight. One shot he blocked was his own fault,” Foote joked. “No, I loved his game. And the other one was a great block. But the beauty is there’s good hockey players out there, and they’re going to do that to you, and they turned him around. What I like is that he sacrificed himself for the team.

“I thought he had a great hockey game. I mean, he held in there. We had to change ups here and there, and some matchups with power plays, PKs and guys’ energy. I just kept telling him, ‘Hey, you’re playing good. Don’t worry about who you’re playing with.’ And I thought he kept going with a motor. He’s going to learn. He played so well as far as his energy and his speed, but there’s a couple things that are in my head – our coaches will fix those little things.”

Not only was it an NHL debut behind the bench for Foote, but it was also the Canucks’ most recent first-round pick, Braeden Cootes’s first NHL game tonight. Foote mentioned that he was disappointed with the flow of the game and how it restricted Cootes’ playing time – playing just 11:14 minutes of ice time. However, even in his limited ice time, Foote was impressed with the youngster:

“I liked him. I mean, I felt bad early because of all the PKs and power plays and didn’t feel like we gave him enough early. But he hung in there, and what I really like is there’s certain young guys and they can play the same way with a couple of shifts or loaded shifts, and that’s impressive. We wanted to give him more, and you know, he’ll get more. But he hung in there. I didn’t feel uncomfortable putting him out there at all. You know, who knew what was going to happen. I think when it went 5-1, I think Calgary was probably done with the physical part, but at 3/4-1, it was still really physical. So I was trying to watch where he was, and he was playing against.”

Following Friday morning’s practice, Foote confirmed that Cootes will suit up in Saturday’s game against the Edmonton Oilers.