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Canucks opening night lines appear set, with Boeser ready to go

Rob Williams
Rob Williams
|
Oct 11 2022, 10:18 pm
Canucks opening night lines appear set, with Boeser ready to go
Vancouver Canucks/Twitter

Brock Boeser’s ready to go.

So is Quinn Hughes.

With one day to go before the puck drops on the regular season for the Vancouver Canucks, that’s quite a relief.

Boeser joined his Canucks teammates at practice today in a non-contact jersey for the first time since training camp in Whistler. He’s ready ahead of schedule, after undergoing hand surgery in September. The 25-year-old winger was supposed to miss 3-4 weeks, but instead he’s back just 15 days later.

“I feel ready and am excited for tomorrow,” Boeser told reporters after practice.

Also back on the ice was Hughes, who hadn’t been seen at practice since Friday. His absence was initially explained as “maintenance,” before Bruce Boudreau said Monday that he was sick with a non-COVID illness.

“I’ll be playing,” Hughes confirmed during his media availability.

While changes can be made between now and puck drop in Edmonton on Wednesday night, the Canucks’ opening night lineup appears to be set, judging by the lines observed by Rink Wide’s Jeff Paterson at practice.

The Canucks’ lines are nearly identical to what they rolled out on the first day of training camp in Whistler. J.T. Miller is centring Tanner Pearson and Brock Boeser, while Bo Horvat is in between Conor Garland and Vasily Podkolzin.

Elias Pettersson, meanwhile, is centring a line with Andrei Kuzmenko and Nils Höglander. The fourth line features rookie Nils Aman between Dakota Joshua and Curtis Lazar.

The only differences between today’s lines and the trios we saw at the start of training camp are Höglander skating in place of the injured Ilya Mikheyev, and Aman centring the fourth line instead of Jason Dickinson, who was traded on Friday.

On defence, the Canucks are beginning the season without Tyler Myers and Travis Dermott, who are both on injured reserve.

Quinn Hughes is partnered with Luke Schenn, as he was last season, while Oliver Ekman-Larsson forms a duo with Tucker Poolman, according to Canucks radio play-by-play voice Brendan Batchelor of Sportsnet 650. Newcomer Riley Stillman is featured on a rugged third pairing with Kyle Burroughs.

Jack Rathbone appears to be the odd man out, as a healthy scratch.

While Boeser’s back with his usual linemates, it doesn’t appear he’ll keep his spot on the Canucks’ first power play unit.

Kuzmenko now features on PP1, as shown by Batchelor’s report above, which is a spot he looked comfortable in during preseason. Boeser, meanwhile, has been bumped to PP2, where he’ll get a chance to show off his shot on the left flank.

The Canucks begin the 2022-23 regular season with five straight road games, in Edmonton, Philadelphia, Washington, Columbus, and Minnesota. Vancouver’s home opener isn’t until October 22, against the Buffalo Sabres.

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