The Canucks are rolling along in their preseason with some of the young players making noise and the vets trying to get themselves warmed up. They handled a pretty green Kraken squad the other night, but from all observations the boys looked good in the second half of the game and the PP seemed to be humming. And, somehow, they put up 37 shots on net... eat that Tocc.
So far the standout of the preseason has been first rounder Braeden Cootes. He's getting rave reviews about his skill and work rate, and put up his first unofficial NHL goal the other night when a shot hit him and went in. It's an uphill battle for him to make the roster, but an ankle injury to Hoglander in the last game gave him a little wider of an opening to get his cup of coffee to start the year. And so far, he's making his case to do that.
“He’s just so smart,” head coach Adam Foote said.
“He’s here to make the team,” Evander Kane said. “That’s the right attitude to have. At the end of the day, this is a business and you’re trying to steal a grown man’s job. That’s what my dad told me going in at 18. You’re going to steal somebody’s job. It’s a different mentality. It’s a different mindset. When you get to camp, you can’t curl up into a ball. You gotta go out and show your game.”
“I mean, 18... the kid’s going to be a stud,” Canucks winger Kiefer Sherwood, who partnered Cootes at training camp in Penticton, told reporters. “He’s already composed and playing the right way, and he's got some grit to his game, so it's going to be exciting to see him continue putting in the work.”
Working against Cootes is his stature. Listed at 5'11" and 183.. it's a hard place to be in at 18 playing against grown men. But he's putting himself in that conversation to stick around, so we'll see how the next few games go and how he handles everything as teams start cutting down players and he has to match up against real NHLers.
Outside of Cootes, people have name-checked most of the top end guys of looking pretty good given the circumstances. Newer faces like DPetey, Mancini, and Alriksson have been getting some reviews, while it's been more of a mixed bag for Willander and Kravtsov. The team trotted out a powerplay of Kane, Pettersson, Boeser, DeBrusk and Hughes the other night, which looked dynamic and dangerous. They scored pretty quick into it on a greasy goal, which is a good start for a PP that ranked 15th last year.
“I was begging the refs all game, like, ‘give us a chance here,’” Kane said of waiting for the five-on-four. “But I think we were all pretty happy once we got out there to see what it looks like in a game situation. And, you know, I thought after tonight, we definitely built some confidence. It was a good start for us.”
The boys have three more preseason games to get through before the season starts for them on October 9.
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