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Vancouver Canucks unusual training camp continues in China and Calgary
September 20, 2017, 2:14 PM ET [302 Comments]
Carol Schram
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When we convene with coffee in hand on Thursday morning, we'll have two Vancouver Canucks games to talk about.

The first is tonight at 6 p.m. PT against the Flames in Calgary—televised on both Sportsnet and Sportsnet 360.

Here's the lineup that the Flames will be icing:







Jon Gillies and Tyler Parsons look set to share the duties in net.

The Canucks roster will be slightly different from what we saw on Sunday against Vegas.

The team cut their camp roster by six on Tuesday, returning Matt Brassard, Cole Candella, Mike DiPietro, Jonah Gadjovich, Kole Lind and Dylan Plouffe to their junior clubs.

Michael Carcone and Zack MacEwen get back in the mix after suffering injuries at Young Stars, Jalen Chatfield makes his preseason debut reunited with Olli Juolevi on the top blue-line pairing and Andrey Pedan draws back in after a one-game rest.




Over in Shanghai, head coach Travis Green told Ed Willes of The Province that "there are players still with the group in Vancouver who’ll be with the team on opening night."

That certainly bodes well for Brock Boeser, whose five points in two games ranks him at the top of the list of the NHL's preseason scorers. Right now, I'd put Jake Virtanen right behind him if Green plans to open up a second roster spot.

In addition to putting up points, Boeser is also continuing to post solid blogs. Considering how soft-spoken he is, writing seems to be an excellent medium for him.




A hard hit from massive L.A. defenseman Kurtis MacDermid on Saturday may have ended PTO candidate Ryan White's chances of earning a job with the Canucks this year.




I wonder if the league is going to be able to take more steps to keep concussed players off the ice this season. Andrew Shaw of the Montreal Canadiens opened up earlier this week about how he has gamed the system in the past in an effort to stay in the lineup.




While White is on the sidelines, a couple of other players made their first appearances of camp on the ice at Rogers Arena on Tuesday:




I saw Jonathan Dahlen in a suit in the hallway of Rogers Arena after the Vegas game on Sunday, so I knew he was out of quarantine. Nice to see him skating—and on this side of the ocean. Word is that he will start the season in Utica; I wonder if he'll get into a preseason game here before that?

The slashing crackdown was in full effect for the Canucks' games last weekend, but we didn't see any faceoff violation calls. Those have been all the rage in games played elsewhere on Monday and Tuesday.

Here's a Sportsnet breakdown of how the calls are being made.



Be prepared to see some of these penalties in tonight's games.

About eight hours after the kids wrap things up in Calgary tonight, the vets will see their first game action of preseason at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai. Puck drop is at 4:30 a.m. PT. The game will be broadcast on Sportsnet.

My new piece at the Westender runs down the crazy game schedule for the rest of this week as well as taking a closer look at what to expect from this week's China Games.




Hopefully tonight's game won't be a Fog Bowl, like we saw at the first practice.




Michael Del Zotto is taking care of the blogging duties on the China side. Click here to read his first impressions of Shanghai.

I'm especially interested to get a first look at new guys like Sam Gagner and Thomas Vanek, so I will be setting my alarm to catch the China game. I'll also set the PVR...just in case...
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