Rick Tocchet makes line-up changes ahead of meeting with the Oilers

Following Wednesday's loss to the Arizona Coyotes, the Vancouver Canucks decided to make some changes at practice as they prepare for Saturday's tilt with the Edmonton Oilers.

At practice, the one notable absence was Brock Boeser, who was having a maintenance day. Because of Boeser's maintenance day, it forced Rick Tocchet to shuffle the lines a bit from Wednesday's loss.

Ilya Mikheyev joined Elias Pettersson and Nils Hoglander's line, with Boeser not in attendance. J.T. Miller, who centered Dakota Joshua and Conor Garland on Wednesday night, was put with Nils Aman and Pius Suter.

Elias Lindholm, who returned from injury against the Coyotes, was placed with Dakota Joshua and Conor Garland at practice. Meanwhile, the fourth line featured Teddy Blueger and Sam Lafferty, as was the case on Wednesday vs Arizona, but also had Phil Di Giuseppe.


As for the defensive pairings, those stayed the same at practice on Thursday, with Quinn Hughes/Filip Hronek, Carson Soucy/Tyler Myers and Nikita Zadorov/Ian Cole.


The Canucks will return to action on Saturday on Hockey Night in Canada taking on the Edmonton Oilers, who could be without Connor McDavid due to a lower-body injury. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET and can be viewed on Sportsnet.