Canucks use time off to practice
After six weeks crammed with travel and games, team can finally work on skills
The Canucks are enjoying a three- day break from action. Players are using the time off to rest both body and mind, while coach Vigneault is looking forward to the practice time.
Practice. Vancouver Canuck head coach Alain Vigneault was talking about practice. Not a game, although he got to that later, but practice.
“We need to some have good practice time here,” Vigneault said, pointing to Thursday and Friday. “We haven’t had a lot in almost the last six weeks.”
The lack of quality practices is a direct by- product of the Canucks’ frenzied schedule. Since mid- November, they haven’t gone more than two days without a game. They’ve played 28 times in 59 nights, 15 of those on the road. They’ve twice been to the east coast. So there haven’t been many practices and, often, the ones they’ve had have been truncated to conserve energy.
It’s one theory for their recent run of wretched play in which they’ve been dominated for large parts of games and have won only twice in regulation in their last nine outings. Officially, they’re 4- 3- 2 with one of the victories in a shootout and another in overtime.
Daniel Sedin said he welcomed the three- day break between games, especially Wednesday’s total day off.
“I think it’s going to be good for everyone, mentally more than anything,” Daniel explained. “The travel takes its toll so any time you can get a day off, I think it’s well deserved. Then we’ve got two practice days, which should sharpen us up for sure. When you don’t practise a lot, your game goes a little bit downhill. This should be good for us.”
It’s not hard to predict what Coach Vee will have in store for the boys. In dissecting Tuesday’s 3- 2 shootout loss to the L. A. Kings, Vigneault noted the Canucks’ atrocious performance in the first period when they surrendered one breakaway, four 2- on- 1’ s and two 3- on- 2s. Add ’ em up and that’s seven odd- man rushes.
“I know that, I was behind the bench,” he muttered. “Obviously a lot of those were off bad reads from our third man, bad reads from our defence. The number of unforced errors from our back end, not just the defence but our low forward trying to break out, is not characteristic of the quality of players we have here. So obviously we’re going to work on that.”
Whether the players are mentally whipped, leading to these egregious mistakes, seemed to be a matter of opinion. Both Jannik Hansen and Alex Burrows said they needed only a day between games to get refreshed while Manny Malhotra, like Daniel Sedin, figured the three- day break would be beneficial.
The Canucks don’t play again until Saturday’s 1 p. m. matinee against the San Jose Sharks.
“Rest is always a welcome option in the schedule,” Malhotra said. “The schedule packs a lot of games into a short amount of time so any opportunity you get to rest the body and the mind a little bit is very welcome. And getting that mental rest is quite an overlooked part of it. We also want to take advantage of this opportunity to iron out some things.”
“Two days off or three days, it doesn’t change that much,” Hansen remarked. “One day off is more than enough for myself to regroup. With a three- day break, maybe you get to practise a little harder and work out a little harder. Maybe you get to work on those things off the ice that you can’t do when you’re travelling or playing a lot of games.”
Maybe you even get to skate with the same linemates, too. The Canucks have had a healthy group of forwards for just three games this year, including the last two since David Booth returned from his knee injury.
It will give the coaches an opportunity to settle out their second and third lines, and whether Booth will stay with Hansen and rookie Cody Hodgson after they produced the game- tying goal against the Kings.
“It’s the first time in a long stretch with everyone healthy,” Hansen added. “It will be nice to get into a groove and play with some regular linemates.”
Hodgson, by the way, didn’t know how to address the rest issue. It’s his first season with the league and he remains a little wide- eyed about everything, from the rookie scoring race to the all- star game to having an extra day off.
“I’m still learning,” said Hodgson. “I don’t know if it’s common to have three days off between games. I don’t know how much it happens. I’m still excited to play.”
He may be even more excited to play after these next two days of practice.
ICE CHIPS: The Canucks recalled defenceman Chris Tanev from the Chicago Wolves Wednesday. Tanev is a natural right- side blueliner, which would help solve the problem with Sami Salo sidelined by concussion. The team has been using left- siders Aaron Rome and Keith Ballard on the right side in Salo’s absence. Tanev, 22, has 12 points and is plus- 5 in 25 games with the AHL Wolves.