Scenes from Canucks practice: Demko takes personal day as roster battles ramp up

Thatcher Demko was given Tuesday off to tend to a personal matter. The hockey club insists that the team’s top netminder is not dealing with any sort of injury. There was no word around the rink about how long he’d be away from the team. 

Max Sasson, Vitali Kravtsov, and Nils Aman all remain on the NHL roster, but the three skated together prior to the main group and were not included in practice. Interestingly, rugged winger Joseph Labate, who was placed on waivers on Monday and cleared on Tuesday morning, was part of the main practice group. It’s unclear if he will suit up at the Saddledome on Wednesday night. 

Rookie sensation Braeden Cootes was relegated to an on-looker for much of the early part of practice Tuesday. The 18-year-old has had a strong showing through training camp and three preseason outings. He skated on a line with Evander Kane and Jonathan Lekkerimäki during drills, but was not involved in any power play work which may be an indication he will sit out in Calgary.

With the unfortunate news of Nils Höglander’s surgery keeping him out until December, it was interesting to see Arshdeep Bains getting a turn on left wing with Filip Chytil and Conor Garland. It was also noteworthy to see Aatu Räty centring a fifth line while Teddy Blueger was in the middle between Drew O’Connor and Kiefer Sherwood. Blueger and O’Connor also skated together as the top penalty-killing forwards when the club worked on special teams. Other PK duos included Sherwood and Labate along with Räty and Bains.

The Canucks had nine defencemen on the ice at practice on Tuesday. That included veteran Tyler Myers who had missed three straight days of workouts following his lone preseason appearance in Abbotsford last Wednesday. Assistant coach Brett McLean alluded to a handful of players battling through nagging preseason ailments and said that could impact line-up decisions for both Wednesday in Calgary and the preseason finale at home to Edmonton on Friday. McLean said the team will not push anyone into action this week. He wants all of the team’s top players to be fully healthy for the season opener on October 9th against the Flames.

While no goaltending plans were revealed on Tuesday, don’t be surprised to see Kevin Lankinen go the distance in Calgary on Wednesday night. The hope is likely that Thatcher Demko will be ready to handle the netminding duties in Friday’s dress rehearsal versus the Oilers.

What we heard

Assistant coach Brett McLean on dealing with so many bodies on the ice: “Obviously with this time of year it’s little bit awkward in that. We had five lines. Some guys took maintenance days the other day and they’re working through little training camp type injuries, so you don’t know the exact numbers until practice starts. So we had the five lines going and we thought we’d have eight D and we had nine. We were just kind of working through those numbers and trying to make sure everybody gets as many reps as they can. We said to a few of the guys ‘there’s lot of competition here. Don’t look at the line-up and think anything toward that.’ We’re just looking at different combinations and thing. Lots is in flux right now.”

Arshdeep Bains on battling for his spot on the opening night roster: “It’s been good just building off each day. The group has been doing a good job of that as well. We’re getting better through the days of practices and games. It’s been pretty exciting to see how guys are getting better seeing what they can do. This has been the most competitive camp (he’s been to) yet. There’s a lot of good players. Maybe guys you don’t expect. You’ve got Cootes coming in. He’s a super young kid. He just got drafted and he’s pushing for a spot. Then there’s guy like me and Karly who have been here for a while pushing for spots. So it’s a good competitive nature and we kind of knew that coming in here that it was going to be competitive and that’s what makes everybody better at the end of the day.”