The Vancouver Canucks appear to be shaking up their top six

Vancouver Canucks head coach Travis Green isn’t messing around to start the season. After two losses to open the season, the top six appears to be getting a new look.

After the first game of the season, Travis Green wasn’t afraid to shake up the Vancouver Canucks bottom six and give them a new look. He scratched Loui Eriksson for the second time in Eriksson’s Canucks tenure, and slotted Adam Gaudette into the third line center spot, moving Brandon Sutter to the wing on the Canucks’ shutdown line, alongside Jay Beagle and Tim Schaller.

After a second loss, this time a shutout loss at the hands of the Calgary Flames, it appears as though Green isn’t wasting time in trying to get his top six going, as this team oh so desperately needs them to. Elias Pettersson still hasn’t recorded a point, and Tanner Pearson is the only top six forward who has recorded a goal.

If the Canucks want to win, they’ll need to get their top six producing some offence. In my post-game report of last night’s loss, I wrote that perhaps the Canucks could take a look at moving J.T. Miller to the first line and subsequently slide Micheal Ferland down to the second line alongside Bo Horvat and Pearson.

The second line of Miller, Pearson, and Horvat have been one of the Canucks’ better lines through two games, and have cycled the puck in the offensive zone better than any of the Canucks’ other three lines, they just haven’t been able to get the results they’re looking for.

Well, it appears Green isn’t afraid to break up that line in an attempt to get his top line of Pettersson and Brock Boeser going. If the Canucks go with the lines they used in today’s practice (which they usually do) on Wednesday night at their home opener, then Miller will be on the first line with Pettersson and Boeser.

Miller talked about what changes he’d need to make if he is indeed on the Canucks’ top line for Wednesday night’s tilt:

Miller has been impressive in his first two games as a Canuck and will look to give Boeser and Pettersson a boost in their production. Ferland, on the other hand, is coming off a sickness that saw him miss the latter half of preseason, and hasn’t played the way he’d like to through his first two games.

The Canucks are hoping that this gets the offence going for the top six, because they would surely like to see their scorers find the back of the net sooner, rather than later. The Canucks play their home opener Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Kings, where it’s expected Bo Horvat will be named the 14th captain in franchise history. Puck drop is at 7 PM.