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Vancouver Canucks hold first scrimmage as fitness is emphasized at camp

September 15, 2018, 2:47 PM ET [645 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Olli Juolevi, Tyler Motte, Jonathan Dahlen, Troy Stecher and Zack MacEwen scored the goals in the first scrimmage of the Vancouver Canucks' 2018 training camp on Saturday morning in Whistler.

The final score in the two-period affair: 3-2 for Team Blue. Here's how the lineups broke down:




The bruising line of MacEwen, Jay Beagle and Tim Schaller got plenty of mentions from play-by-play man Brendan Batchelor on the Sportsnet 650 call of the game, but it was Brendan Leipsic who set up MacEwen for the game winner.

Tyler Motte also stood out, but given that he loses his waiver exemption if he plays one more NHL game, I think he'd have to turn into the second coming of Connor McDavid before he'd earn consideration for the opening-night roster.

Other plays of note (and yes, it's just a scrimmage!): Travis Green did briefly have Jonathan Dahlen and Elias Pettersson play on a line together in the first period. Jake Virtanen was one of just a few players who brought a physical edge to his game, and Ben Hutton out-hustled Brendan Gaunce to stop an empty-net goal in the dying seconds.

The plan is to have more scrimmages on Sunday and Monday before the Canucks return to Rogers Arena to open their preseason schedule against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday.

I had kind of forgotten that Travis Green's inaugural training camp last year was disrupted by the team's trip to China. The timing was a bit different from what we're seeing this year.

The Calgary Flames and Boston Bruins played their first game in Shenzhen last night, with the Bruins prevailing in the shootout by a score of 4-3. They'll wrap up on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning in Beijing before regrouping back in North America.

By contrast, the Canucks spent three days together at the beginning of camp last year before the groups were split. The Baby Canucks who stayed here in North America kicked off their schedule first, on September 16, while the veterans played in China on September 21 and 23.

Like last year, Travis Green opened camp with a tough conditioning day on Friday. The highlight of the bag skate was Jake Virtanen taking a tumble after sliding through Troy Stecher's...breakfast. But Jake told Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet that this wasn't an especially rare occurrence.

"In a lot of our testing, Stech is the guy who does puke," Virtanen said. "He just goes that extra mile, full tilt. That was a hard practice, especially for guys who have never had a practice with Travis before. There are no shortcuts."




For a first-timer, Jay Beagle was unfazed by the required effort level. He is also quickly showing why the Canucks pursued him so aggressively. After reportedly beating some longstanding records set by the Sedins in fitness testing on Thursday, the second-oldest player on the team went on to lap his teammates on the ice on Friday.




Overall, though, Green was pleased with the effort and fitness levels that he saw from his charges on Day 1.




He also mentioned that the team had been expecting that Antoine Roussel would be cleared for contact on Thursday after suffering that concussion during a preseason scrimmage a couple of weeks ago. Roussel didn't skate on Saturday, either, but Green says he hopes that Roussel will be well enough to get some ice time in Whistler.

If you missed the news, there has been a bit of a shift in Canucks' print coverage for the upcoming season. Patrick Johnston is now a full-time beat writer for the team for The Province after Jason Botchford moved over to The Athletic.

One of Botchford's most interesting pieces so far in his new home is an investigation into the Canucks' injury woes, which he says have been the worst in the league, collectively, over the past three seasons. If you're a subscriber:




Apparently the Canucks put some serious time and effort into trying to figure out why they've had so much misfortune but ultimately concluded that just six percent of their injuries were what they called "preventable."

We shall see if the tweaks that they've made behind the scenes bring better fortune on the ice this year. Other than Roussel's concussion, knock on wood, the Canucks are pretty healthy for the moment.

There are plenty of teams around the league that have some big question marks as they see how players come back from health issues that hampered them last year or recover from offseason surgeries. To name just a couple: Patrice Bergeron didn't travel to China with the Bruins after back spasms kept him off the ice for the beginning of Boston's training camp, while Calgary's Sean Monahan isn't supposed to be taking faceoffs as he continues his recovery from wrist surgery.

I've been an Athletic subscriber since last summer, because I'm interested in stories from all around the league. The price hasn't changed as their staff has expanded. They now have a presence in 29 of the NHL's 31 markets—only Carolina and Vegas are missing—and Botchford's addition should definitely ratchet up the must-read Canucks content this year.

If you're thinking that this is the time to subscribe, click here for 25 percent off. I'll get a $10 Amazon gift card if you use this referral link.

Also, The Athletic is having its first subscriber event in Vancouver on Wednesday, September 26, at The Pint. It's free for subscribers; I'm going to go see what it's all about.

Click here to grab your tickets—I'm not sure if there's any chance that it'll sell out, so I'd recommend doing it sooner rather than later.

And if you're going to attend, please let me know. I'm hoping we can do a stealth HockeyBuzz meetup while we're there.
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