Quinn Hughes' return, lineup tweaks and Rick Tocchet breaks down Canada's 4 Nations OT goal

LOS ANGELES — Quinn Hughes is expected to return to the lineup on Wednesday when the Vancouver Canucks open up a Southern California back-to-back against the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com arena.

The return of the Canucks’ captain, leading scorer and best player can’t come soon enough.

On Tuesday at the Kings’ practice facility in El Segundo, Calif., Hughes took to the ice for practice somewhat later than his teammates. While his teammates were running an opening retrieval and forechecking drill at one end of the rink, Hughes was warming up at the other side where Vancouver’s goaltenders worked.

By the second drill, however, Hughes was fully integrated into practice. He wasn’t limited and looked very close to returning.

On the heels of a disappointing set of losses over the weekend, the Canucks’ playoff positioning has suddenly become pretty precarious. Vancouver is struggling enormously to manufacture offence, and after both the Calgary Flames and Utah Hockey Club picked up regulation victories on Tuesday, the pressure is on Vancouver to get back to picking up points.

Hughes’ return should help the Canucks significantly. When he’s been in the lineup, Hughes has almost singlehandedly given Vancouver a high-end gear in his minutes.

But perhaps our expectations should be tempered somewhat. The reigning Norris Trophy winner hasn’t played in three weeks. He has previously intimated he’ll be playing at somewhat less than 100 percent over the balance of this campaign.

We’re used to Hughes working magic, and he may well do so again on his return, but can he immediately return to having the sort of individual impact only Connor McDavid, Nikita Kucherov and Nathan MacKinnon-tier skaters have managed right off the hop?

That may be asking too much, but this team has no other option. The path to the Canucks steadying the ship and qualifying for the playoffs this season probably requires Hughes to dominate. At the moment, they just don’t have enough offensive juice otherwise.

Let’s empty the notebook from Canucks practice.

Making sense of Canucks lineup tweaks

As you’d expect, on the heels of two consecutive losses, Rick Tocchet shuffled the deck and modified his lineup at Tuesday’s practice.

They didn’t actually do any line rushes, but based on drills observed throughout practice, their lineup had the following look — although it’s worth noting without rushes, it’s impossible to have a precise sense of the hierarchy of these lines or pairs.

To illustrate the caution we should exercise here in interpreting what these lines mean, I wouldn’t necessarily consider Brock Boeser to have been moved to the bottom six.

The Kings and Anaheim Ducks are structured teams with size, and the Kings might currently be the most suffocating defensive side in the sport. The line of Drew O’Connor, Pius Suter and Boeser stands in contrast with the other Canucks forward lines in that it pairs two above-average-sized wingers with the team’s most reliable defensive centre in Suter. Since the J.T. Miller trade, for lack of other options, Suter has regularly been used in something of a matchup role, and Tocchet will look to task that line with some difficult matchups this week in Southern California.

Their performance might be crucial, especially against a Kings team that put their lines in a blender Monday against the Vegas Golden Knights and stumbled onto a Quinton Byfield, Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe line that ran roughshod over the division leaders, pacing L.A. to a decisive 5-2 win.

The main takeaway, though, is that this isn’t a demotion for Boeser. If anything, it’s a reflection of the level of defensive trust he’s built up over the years. It’s really a testament to his evolution and adaptation as a forward.

Elsewhere, Tocchet has done what was probably necessary given his options and elevated Nils Höglander into a top-six role. We’ll get into Höglander’s promotion a bit further down, but the truth is this team is so goal-starved that Tocchet really had no other option but to give Höglander a serious look with more skilled linemates.

Finally, we’ve seen the Conor Garland and Dakota Joshua pair flank a variety of linemates as a duo over the past 18 months, from Suter to Teddy Blueger to Miller to Elias Lindholm. We’ve rarely seen them play, however, with a transitional force that has the sort of juice Filip Chytil has brought to the Vancouver lineup.

Since the Miller trade, and as a result of Elias Pettersson’s deterioration, Vancouver’s been left with far too little speed in the middle of its forward group. The seams have shown significantly in transition, and it’s a key reason why the Canucks have struggled to generate shots and scoring chances so severely since the New Year.

Chytil is something of an antidote to that, and it’ll be fascinating to see how Garland and Joshua mix in with a pivot capable of flipping the ice in transition as a puck carrier. Against a Kings team that can defend as oppressively as anyone, how the Chytil line meshes on Wednesday could be decisive.

D-Petey and a new era of options on the back end

In another example of why you shouldn’t overreact to a practice lineup tweeted out without the benefit of line rushes, defenceman Elias Pettersson isn’t coming out of the Canucks lineup any time soon.

The organization loves Pettersson and he has almost immediately earned the favour and trust of Tocchet and assistant coach Adam Foote, who runs the defence. He’s not in the same tier as depth defenders like Carson Soucy, Derek Forbort and Victor Mancini, who are rotating in and out of the lineup nightly. Provided he maintains the heaviness and intelligence he’s demonstrated in the first eight games of his NHL career, he’s going to be a fixture — this season and for many years to come.

If Hughes returns as expected on Wednesday he’ll play with his usual running mate Filip Hronek. Hronek has performed exceptionally well and been, arguably, even more impactful and assertive in Hughes’ absence, but the chemistry they have is something the Canucks sorely need. Keeping that pair together gives Vancouver their best shot at having a dominant top gear at the apex of the lineup, and given the critical need to generate offence, it’s something the Canucks have to lean on.

Don’t ignore, by the way, the fact Hronek was matched up with young Pettersson, the defender, on a pair throughout Canucks training camp. In time, the organization believes there could be a long-term fit there — even if they don’t have the luxury of taking an extended look at it right now.

That Marcus Pettersson and Tyler Myers are playing together on the second pair seems notable, in part because, in the not-too-distant future, it’s likely they’ll be split and counted on to be steadying influences for some of the younger defenders working their way through the system. Elias Pettersson, the defender, is part of that equation of course; Mancini could be as well; and Boston University blueliner Tom Willander — who the Canucks will push hard to sign after the conclusion of his sophomore NCAA campaign — will soon be in the mix.

As the options for Tocchet and Foote on the back end increase in the months and, hopefully, years to come, we’ll likely see the Canucks go with more balanced pairs. Veteran defenders will likely be split up and counted on to help younger teammates as they grow up in the NHL.

That Marcus Pettersson and Myers are set to play as a second pair on Wednesday hints at the high stakes of these games for the Canucks. It’s also a pair we may start to see somewhat less frequently as Vancouver’s options on the back end proliferate.

Höglander’s opportunity

Höglander broke camp on Vancouver’s second line back in October, but after a tough backcheck in a loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in November — among some other issues with his overall awareness and hockey IQ — he was bumped down the lineup. It’s taken him months to play his way back into the opportunity, but he’s been one of Vancouver’s best forwards since the calendar flipped to 2025 and will finally get his shot to play with skilled players again.

“I’m always excited to get back,” Höglander said on Tuesday. “It feels like the last few games, the last month, I’ve been working pretty hard. My game has been there, I’m not really producing, but it’s going to come if I keep going.

“So it means a lot to get the chance there and hopefully we can get going, and me and Pettersson can find each other. Maybe I can help get him going too.”

One of the key things the Canucks will look for from Höglander is for him to just be himself. In a bottom-six role, he tends to be an assertive battle winner, comfortable carrying the puck through the neutral zone and attacking off the rush. When he’s effective, he plays dogged hockey or is a “buzzsaw,” to use Tocchet’s preferred term.

In the past, however, when he’s been tasked with complementing skilled players up the lineup, there’s a sense he’s occasionally been a bit too deferential, a bit too east-west, when the Canucks need him to be himself and play his assertive game.

“Yeah, maybe sometimes I can get too cute when I play with top-six guys,” Höglander said. “So I’ve got to keep doing my work, playing my game, and not get too comfortable.”

Tocchet’s view of the 4 Nations OT winner

At the 4 Nations Face-Off, Tocchet had a front-row seat to history.

Ironically, while the Canucks bench boss has come under fire for his offensive coaching in Vancouver this season, he spent the break being tasked with working mostly on the offensive side — with a specialization in offensive zone draw plays — as an assistant on Jon Cooper’s staff with Team Canada. McDavid’s historic overtime goal came off an offensive zone draw, so I wanted to get a sense of how Tocchet viewed the play as it developed and what he learned working with the team.

“We didn’t want a lot of faceoff plays,” Tocchet said of Canada’s approach. “But there’s a couple faceoff plays we took from Tampa Bay. There was a flare-out that I used, too. We would do a presentation every game on faceoffs, a minute or two each game.”

On the play in question, Canada ran a high-low, with winger Mitch Marner cutting to the weak side high off the draw behind McDavid while Brayden Point cut low. It’s subtle, but this actually creates the confusion that resulted in Marner getting lost on the wall and, when Team USA overreacted in their confusion, to McDavid getting completely open in the slot for the overtime winner.

(Courtesy: ESPN)

“Against a centre-release team, you go with that high-low,” Tocchet explained.

“Centre-release” in this instance refers to the coverage responsibilities following the draw. It’s like the hockey version of zone defence and is roughly the opposite of a man-on-man approach.

Tocchet’s Canucks, by the way, are also a centre-release team, which effectively means that after a draw is lost, the centre’s defensive responsibility isn’t necessarily to cover the opposition centreman, but instead to scan the ice and cover what needs to be covered.

On this play, Team USA defender Adam Fox and centre Auston Matthews don’t quite pull off the exchange the way the responsibilities call for. Matthews stays with McDavid, which is a fine enough choice in this instance, but Fox also takes the slot as McDavid misses a shot wide and the puck squirts out to the weak-side half-wall. No one shades or pays any attention to Marner.

“So it’s a high-low, but one of the keys there is Cale Makar as the weak-side defender. He has to get in there, which he did, he kept that play alive. If you do a high-low play, the way teams defend, anything on the weak side, it really has to be the weak-side defenceman. They have to take that ice. Once he recognizes it and takes it, now it’s a spread play.

“Now here’s the real key to it, if you watch closely, because Marner just stays there.”

These are really the critical three seconds. It’s a cold-blooded sequence from a player, in Marner, who has come under criticism more frequently than just about any player in hockey for his performance in big games. In this pressure-packed moment, however, Marner’s decision-making was ruthless and clinical.

As Makar plays the puck and sends it back to the weak side, Marner never strides. He’s completely uncovered. He was just content to get lost, and Team USA’s problems compounded when Fox went behind the net to try to intercept Makar’s rim around.

(Courtesy: ESPN)

“So on an east-west play. When we know we’re going to have possession, you tell guys ‘Stay on the weak side,’” Tocchet said. “If it’s a battle, then he’s got to help. Because there was no battle though, the right play is to stay, and because he’s Marner, he knew.”

“It’s both a read, which is preparation, and it’s elite skill,” Tocchet continued. “The thing about a guy like Marner is you don’t have to remind him what the right play is every day. Some guys, you have to remind them every day, but these guys, you tell him once, and they retain it.

“When it went to Marner, if Adam Fox stays in front of the net, I think it would’ve been an easier switch, but three guys went to Marner. In (Bruce) Cassidy’s system, the defenceman, you’ve got to stay and wait. Once the interior is protected, then you go. And Mike Sullivan’s system is actually the same as ours, but they just went.

“So Marner stays wide, and when you’re extended, something is usually open especially if the team isn’t right. That’s what happened.”

And that’s how the best player in hockey got loose in the slot and scored a historic goal to win an exhibition tournament that came to mean a lot more than anyone had anticipated.

(Courtesy: ESPN)

“It’s just split-second decisions,” Tocchet said. “Honestly my biggest takeaway from the experience is that with players at that level, you don’t have to tell them what the right thing to do is four or five times. You just tell them once.

“Like one time on the bench, early in the tournament, there was a scoop play, and I just went and said to McDavid, ‘Hey you’re open on the weak side against a team that overloads,’ and he says, ‘Yeah, yeah,’ and we never brought it up again. In-game adjustment, and it’s just done. Next game, he was looking for it, you could tell.

“And it was the same thing with whatever Jon Cooper suggested or Pete DeBoer or Cassidy. I felt that the retention of information, at that level, it’s a lot quicker. So as a coach, you don’t have to reinforce or remind as much.”

It’s a good lesson for us that while speed, size, skill and juice are important traits for the best players in hockey, what often separates the best from the greats is still the process that goes on between the ears.

(Photo: Derek Cain / Getty Images)



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