Everything’s coming up roses for Canucks
Road warriors are playing well, getting results and might even get their star rookie back
WINNIPEG — Some news and notes on the Vancouver Canucks as their 15-day road trip comes to a close ...
ELIAS PETTERSSON HEALING
Following Thursday’s morning skate at Bell MTS Place, Travis Green said the rookie centre is “doing good.”
“Progressing every day,” he said.
Pettersson was spotted in workout clothes after practice.
He still needs to skate on his own and then get a couple of practices under his belt before he can be considered ready to play.
There’s still lots of work ahead, but the signs are good.
Under the six-step SCAT5 return-to-play protocol developed by the Concussion in Sport Group — a collection of 11 major global sports organizations, including the International Ice Hockey Federation — Pettersson is still several days away from returning.
First of all, he has to be symptom free for at least 24 hours while doing his usual daily routines, the ones that don’t involve sports.
Obviously he’s past that, since he’s been doing physical activity the last few days.
To work his way back into activity, he’ll have started with Step 2, which allows for light aerobic exercise.
Step 3 is sport-specific exercise, where Pettersson may be already.
Step 4 involves non-contact training.
Step 5 is a full practice. A player spends at least 24 hours in each step.
If any symptoms return, then the athlete goes back to the previous step.
As a result, it’s now normal for an athlete to take at least a week to return to action.
Given that the Canucks plan to give him plenty of ice time with his teammates before he returns to action, it seems unlikely Pettersson will play in either of the upcoming home games against Boston on Saturday or Washington on Monday.
Then the Canucks head back out on the road for games in Las Vegas on Wednesday and Arizona on Thursday.
They return home for a game against the Penguins on Oct. 27.
SHOWING GOOD FORM
It’s been a good road trip for the Canucks, who are coming off three straight wins and have been deserving of their results.
“You want your team to see results from playing well,” Green said.
He pointed out that his team played well in Carolina but lost. That they carried on with their good form and won in Tampa against a very good team has the coach feeling very satisfied.
There are many good things to point to in the team’s play, especially their work in disrupting opposition forecheckers.
The pairing of Ben Hutton and Erik Gudbranson were very strong on Tuesday in Pittsburgh.
“That comes down to the whole group effort having five guys on the same page. That back pressure that we’ve been getting from our forwards has been huge for us to keep our gaps in good spots and to be aggressive at the blue-line,” Gudbranson said.
“We need to continue to do that. Defending in the NHL now, every single inch of the ice in the NHL now, is the responsibility of five guys.”
“A lot of communication,” Gudbranson said of why he and Hutton have been doing well as a partnership.
“We’re starting to feel a little bit of confidence, but a lot of it comes down to talk. Definitely our centremen have been in the right spots for us, and they’ve been communicating to us, as well, and that makes a huge difference in terms of breaking the puck out clean.
“(Also) I think it’s just two guys feeling good with each other. Sometimes it’s tough to explain. You just know that he’s going to be there and you can trust your reads.”
Gudbranson also took note of how well Anders Nilsson has been playing in goal.
Nilsson’s calm demeanour has perhaps hidden how many tough saves he’s had to make, but the defenceman has noticed.
“He’s made some huge saves, huge, timely saves.”
NEUTRAL ZONE DEFENCE
Like Hutton and Gudbranson, Derrick Pouliot and Troy Stecher have been similarly aggressive at their own blueline against opposing rushes, while also managing to push play up the ice.
Both pairs have managed their minutes well.
On the other hand, Chris Tanev and Alex Edler have been tasked with heavy defensive minutes against the opposing teams’ top forwards.
They’ve struggled getting the puck up ice, but Green clearly isn’t worried.
“It’s obvious how I feel about them. I play them a lot,” he said.
“I know the stats aren’t great. But they’re also starting against the Crosbys and the Malkins. Starting every faceoff in their zone. They’re under the gun.
“When you really watch the game, they make some really good plays that deny chances and deny goals.”
GOLDOBIN MAKING PLAYS
Nikolay Goldobin lost his centre on the weekend when Pettersson went out hurt.
Adam Gaudette has been tasked to fill in, and while the line didn’t play a whole lot on Tuesday, it still had a few good moments offensively.
Hutton nearly scored a second goal when Goldobin set him up on a rush, for instance.
“I’m trying to just play the way I play with EP. Gaud’s a good player, too,” the Russian winger said. “We have three wins in a row. I didn’t get any points, which can be frustrating, but I’m continuing to play the way I play, and we’ve been getting wins.”
Playing with Gaudette has been an easy adjustment.
“He’s a pretty fast player and he played with us last year. He can play at this level.”
The six-game trip was unusual in that there weren’t any back-to-back contests, and there were a few extra rest days in the mix, too.
“It was tough,” Goldobin said. “A lot of cities. Warm and cold. We’ve done a good job (handling it).”