The Vancouver Canucks had a scare during their morning skate on Friday ahead of their sixth and final preseason game against the Edmonton Oilers, as forward Conor Garland was a late scratch.
Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet met with the media after the game to discuss the reason for Garland’s absence.
“He tweaked something this morning,” Tocchet said. “He could have played if he had to, but, why? I didn’t want to chance it.”
After practice on Tuesday, ahead of their season opener against the Calgary Flames, Garland met with the media, further attesting to the minimal injury.
“I just had something happen during the morning skate. I mean, it was nothing. I wanted to play. Regular season game, any game of the year, I’m playing. It [was] just a preseason game, [the] last one, there’s no need. It was probably the right decision, I’m just glad I’m playing tomorrow.”
Garland, 28, tallied his second-best season as a member of the Canucks, registering 20 goals and 27 assists for 47 points with a plus-19 rating. He skated the majority of the season alongside Dakota Joshua and Teddy Blueger. However, due to Joshua and Blueger missing time during training camp and preseason, Garland was paired with Nils Höglander.
“He’s a fantastic player,” Garland said about his training camp linemate. “He’s fast, he’s hard to knock off the puck, he plays under people, he can score. [I’m] very excited about playing with him. I don’t even know who our centre is. We just want to get in on the forecheck, play to our style of hockey and grind teams out. I think we can be a good line for us.”
Centring the new pair for most of training camp was the preseason star, Aatu Räty. However, Tocchet has still not made a decision as to who’s going to centre that third line on opening night.
“He’s a different type of player,” Garland said about Räty. “[He’s a] Cerebral player, makes plays off the rush, really good in the faceoff [dot], not overly tall but pretty heavy; kind of your prototypical centre. He’s got two smaller guys with some speed. If it’s him tomorrow [centring him and Höglander], I’m sure we’ll have our gameplan on how to attack.”
The former fifth-round pick is primed, healthy and ready to go for his fourth year in a Canucks uniform.
“We’re excited, can’t wait. Kind of been in this mode for a while now. The fun’s just starting.”
