Last night, the Vancouver Canucks took on the Edmonton Oilers in their third game of the preseason. They won by a score of 4-2.
After a whirlwind night where half the team went to Calgary while the others played in Victoria, the Vancouver Canucks were at home in front of fans at Rogers Arena for the first time this preseason. Here’s what went down in last night’s tilt.
18 Cuts Already, but when will Juolevi play?
As expected, earlier yesterday afternoon, the Canucks announced their first batch of cuts from the big club. As expected, a few of the Canucks underage players such as Jett Woo, Arturs Silovs, and Ethan Keppen were sent back to their junior clubs.
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Among those sent to the Utica Comets was goaltender Jake Kielly, who I thought the team would have liked to at least get a look at in some preseason action. You can view a full list of the roster cuts made yesterday here.
More cuts are imminent, and it will be interesting to see how a long a player like Olli Juolevi stays with the big club. Juolevi has yet to play a preseason game, and was last given group C assignments on the final day of training camp in what head coach Travis Green called “load management”.
Green said after last night’s game that he’s not sure if Juolevi will get into a game, but also said there was no injury update to give, saying “he’s good”.
Ferland, Pettersson, and Boeser basically set in stone as top line
Barring total disaster, it is looking more and more likely that Micheal Ferland, Elias Pettersson, and Brock Boeser will be on the Canucks’ first line come opening night. Pettersson talked pregame yesterday about how he’s looking forward to having Boeser join him and Ferland.
It’s a no brainer that Pettersson and Boeser will be on the Canucks’ top line, but when discussing building chemistry, Pettersson said that the two will have to work with the new guy on their line in Ferland. This tells us that Pettersson has been briefed that the plan is for Ferland to play on that top line with him and Boeser, and I think he’s thrilled about it.
Ferland and Pettersson, like Bo Horvat and JT Miller, are looking to build chemistry with one another before the regular season gets underway. Ferland assisted Pettersson’s goal last night, after Ferland let go of a long blast from the blueline that led to a juicy rebound for Pettersson to tuck home.