After a team day off on Friday, the Vancouver Canucks are back on the ice at Rogers Arena on Saturday for Day 6 of training camp.
We're almost at the halfway point already β they're scheduled to leave for Edmonton on July 26 and will play their exhibition game against Winnipeg on June 29th at 7:30 p.m. PT. The play-in series against the Minnesota Wild starts August 2, also scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Game times may end up changing. The round-robin games played by the league's top teams will be played under regular-season rules, with five-minute overtimes and a shootout in case of a tie. But the qualifying-round games will be played under regular playoff rules. So, multiple overtimes in early games could wreak havoc on the schedule.
I assume the exhibition games will also be played under regular-season rules, although I haven't seen that spelled out anywhere yet.
For now, we only have game times for the first few days of the tournament. Canucks fans should pay attention to the overall schedule in Edmonton:
Sunday, August 2
Arizona at Nashville - 11 a.m. (qualifying round)
St. Louis at Colorado - 3:30 p.m. (round robin)
Minnesota at Vancouver - 7:30 p.m. (qualifying round)
Tuesday, August 4
Arizona at Nashville - 11:30 a.m. (qualifying round)
Calgary at Winnipeg - 3:45 p.m. (qualifying round)
Minnesota at Vancouver - 7:45 p.m. (qualifying round)
Travis Green gave some insight into how he and his team are handling these sorts of uncertainties when he was asked on Thursday what he knew about how the league would be handling challenges like game-day skates once 12 teams convene in each of the hub cities.
"Adaptable and focused,"he said "That's two words that we're using with our group, and being fluid is part of it. I'm not worried about it all. If we have morning skates that'll be great. If we don't, it'll be great. We'll be ready to play the games."
Asked if that means he's not sure, Green chuckled. "Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm not worried about it. When I get the information, I'll worry about it."
My guess is that this will end up working a lot like World Championships, where they have eight teams in each host city and as many as three games a day. That's where the extra ice comes in. With just one practice rink in addition to the main rink, teams that play early usually don't take morning skates. Teams that are playing later in the day get the earliest ice time for their morning skates. Then teams that are practicing get later slots at the practice rink.
Schedules are typically announced day by day. Teams tend to cancel a lot of their practices as the tournament goes along, to get more rest.
In Edmonton, teams will have access to the Downtown Community Arena, which is adjacent to Rogers Place. This is a similar setup to what I've seen at several World Championship venues over the past few years. If necessary, I imagine teams could be bussed to other arenas outside the Phase 4 Secure Zone.
The preliminary-round schedule is pretty tight βΒ and the teams in those games are arriving in Edmonton with two weeks of training camp under their belt. So they won't have the same getting-to-know-you challenges that the various national teams face when they get together at Worlds.
On the one hand, I could see practices and morning skates being pretty rare. On the other hand, they're a good reason to get the group together and get them out of their hotel rooms. Guys may want to gather, even if they're not putting in serious reps.
Whatever happens, I think Travis has the right idea. Pro athletes and coaches speak so often about only worrying about what you can control. I think that's a solid life strategy, too. It has been helpful for me as we've navigated all the strangeness of these past few months.
One thing Green can control is his team's training camp schedule, so he opted to do a sort of game simulation on Thursday, with a scrimmage at 7 p.m.
I was fortunate to be one of a handful of media members who were spaced apart at appropriate distances in Section 308 of Rogers Arena on Thursday night. If you missed it, here's the thread with my live-tweets of the game.
Overall, it was a solid 5-2 win for Team White, which got up 4-0 before a couple of late goals from Team Blues's Tyler Graovac and Elias Pettersson. The scorers for White were Zack MacEwen, Chris Tanev, Jay Beagle, Jalen Chatfield and Bo Horvat.
Here are the team rosters, courtesy of
Harman Dayal from The Athletic:
Team Blue
Miller β Pettersson β Toffoli
Roussel β Gaudette β Virtanen
Lind, Graovac
Edler - TMyers
Benn - Sautner
Brisebois - Rafferty
Jacob Markstrom
Team White
Pearson β Horvat β Boeser
Motte β Beagle β Eriksson
MacEwen - Bailey
Hughes - Tanev
Fantenberg - Stecher
Juolevi - Chatfield
Thatcher Demko
Overall, I felt like the ice was really tilted in favour of Team White, so Jacob Markstrom didn't get a whole lot of help. Jake Virtanen seemed particularly lax in his defensive coverage β like on this Chris Tanev goal.
Not very often you'll see Tanev go around a forward and cut to the net like this β but that can also be the difference between a friendly scrimmage and a game situation.
As far as standouts, I thought Zack MacEwen looked strong. He had a number of chances in addition to his goal, especially in the first half. I was a little disappointed not to see more razzle-dazzle from the Canucks' skill players, but the play that led to Pettersson's goal in the second half came after a nice stretch of sustained pressure that had Demko looking the other way as the puck went into the net.
As the score got more lopsided, the cheering from the players was toned down. And since they were the only ones cheering, that made it difficult to be sure when pucks actually went into the net in the late stages. No video feed on the jumbotron or replays, either.
So it certainly wasn't a *normal* hockey viewing experience, but it still felt familiar and fun, and it was entertaining to try to pick up which players were wisecracking or egging on their teammates.
I expect by the time we get to Edmonton and Toronto, the league will have some sort of sonic wallpaper in place which will help muffle those player comments β which do get a little profane at times.
As for roster updates β Brandon Sutter was spotted in the tunnel on Thursday night, watching the game, which basically confirmed that he was not isolated from the team.
He was back on the ice for practice on Saturday, while Jordie Benn was absent. Presumably, that means Benn is on his way back to Dallas to be with his fiancee when she gives birth.
Micheal Ferland looks set to take another twirl with the Black Aces, but there's word that he could re-join the main team on Sunday.
Also among the Black Aces, one other player has been missing. Goaltender Michael DiPietro did not serve as a backup at Thursday's scrimmage. Hmmm...was this the last sighting?
There was no update on DiPietro from the team on Thursday night but β update β DiPietro is back on the ice on Saturday.
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