Scenes from morning skate: Bains gets top six shot as Canucks and Oilers close out preseason

As expected, the Canucks are icing a veteran-laden line-up in the final dress rehearsal on their exhibition schedule. All of the team’s big guns will be in uniform tonight with Thatcher Demko getting his third start of the preseason. Quinn Hughes, Filip Hronek, Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, Jake DeBrusk and Evander Kane will all suit up as well.

In terms of roster battles, Braeden Cootes and Jonathan Lekkerimäki are both poised to play once again. In fact, they’ll skate on a line with Evander Kane. 

Arshdeep Bains gets a golden opportunity to play in an offensive role on left wing with veterans Filip Chytil and Conor Garland. 

The fourth line tonight could very well be an indication of the way the Canucks plan to go in their season opener October 9th against Calgary. Teddy Blueger will centre Drew O’Connor and Kiefer Sherwood.

So what does this all mean for Max Sasson, Aatu Räty and Linus Karlsson who will be healthy scratches tonight? Sasson scored a pair and Räty had a goal in Wednesday’s 8-1 win in Calgary. It’s been a relatively quiet camp for Karlsson who was such a scoring star in Abbotsford’s run to the Calder Cup in June. It will surely be tough for all three of those players to sit and watch while others have an opportunity to stake a claim to a roster spot.

On defence, Victor Mancini, who has been one of the team’s preseason stars, will be the extra blueliner giving Elias Pettersson and Tom Willander one more chance to put their best foot forward. The two youngsters and friends will play together tonight on the Canucks third defensive pairing.

Everybody but Nils Aman was on the ice for morning skate. Aman has been placed on waivers for the purpose of assignment to Abbotsford. He’ll find out his fate at 11am on Saturday morning.

Tonight is the second of two preseason games played at Rogers Arena this season. The Canucks beat Seattle 4-2 last Friday night. Overall, the Canucks are 3-2 in exhibition action.

Per Tony Brar of OilersTV, Edmonton is sending something resembling its opening night line-up for tonight’s game. That includes former Canuck Vasili Podkolzin who is back in the Oilers fold after leaving the team to return home to Russia late last week following the sudden passing of his father.

The Oilers open the season at home against Calgary on Wednesday night. The Flames are in Vancouver on Thursday.

What we heard

Evander Kane on whether two preseason games is enough to get him ready for the new season: “Oh yeah, I could go with zero. Two is a great number. No matter how many you play, you still have another week before the regular season starts so there’s lots of preparation and tonight it will be good to get in the line-up.”

Assistant coach Kevin Dean on the pressure Braeden Cootes and Jonathan Lekkerimäki are likely feeling: “I don’t know if pressure is the right word. You get a guy (Kane) out there that has been around, that can talk to them between shifts and protect them if things get rough and get in their ear and give them a little bit of confidence. So I don’t know if pressure is the right word, but they have to perform. Like everyone else does. And to this point they’ve done a nice job.”