Quinn Hughes was back on the ice with his Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Canucks teammates at Tuesday's morning skate but he won't play on Tuesday night against the Montreal Canadiens.
The injured Canucks captain wore a red non-contact jersey and didn't take part in the team's power play practice early in the skate but was a full participant in drills in the back half of the skate. That's a good sign for him getting back into game action soon but it won't be against the Canadiens.
"It was a good day for him," said Tocchet. "He did a little bit more than he has done and he looked pretty good. But we didn't have contact drills and stuff like that, so it's hard to evaluate that. He felt really good yesterday, so we'll go from there."
The Canucks' schedule, with two sets of back-to-backs this week, will make it tough to get Hughes on the ice for a full practice, so the team will have to play it by ear as to when Hughes makes his return.
"If it's November or December, you'd like a guy to get a practice or two," said Tocchet. "With this many games left, you've got to change a few protocols. Obviously, the safety of Quinn is number one."
That means Hughes is still day-to-day but the odds seem good for him to return this week.
Meanwhile, there's been a bit of a kerfuffle about letters on jerseys, as fans noticed that Brock Boeser wasn't wearing an "A" as an alternate captain for Sunday's game against the Dallas Stars, with newcomer Marcus Pettersson getting an "A" instead. Coupled with the comments made by general manager Patrik Allvin at the trade deadline, it felt like an extra element of disrespect for the longest-serving Canuck on the roster.
But Boeser wasn't fazed in the slightest.
"I think I was the only one who wasn't upset," quipped Boeser to reporters after his media scrum.
"It doesn't surprise me at all that Marcus got one," said Boeser. "He's such a leader in this locker room. We rotated the 'A's early this year, so I wasn't shocked at all."
The Canucks will continue to rotate the "A"s with Hughes still out of the lineup, with Derek Forbort to wear an "A" against the Canadiens.
"I think he's done a great job as a leader," said Tocchet of Forbort. "Even if you don't have an 'A' on, you're still a leader, but he's done a really good job for us."
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Canucks projected lines
The Canucks' lines had a different look at Tuesday's morning skate after the loss to the Stars, some of them reflected in changes made in-game on Sunday.
Here are the Canucks' projected lines:
Both Drew O'Connor and Elias "Junior" Pettersson left the morning skate early but are both expected to play against the Canadiens.
"[O'Connor] and Junior had a little bit of flu last night, so I kicked them off," said Tocchet. "They were a little under the weather, so I wanted them to get some rest."
The hope is that O'Connor can provide some speed to a line with Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser, while Jake DeBrusk joins Filip Chytil and Jonathan Lekkerimäki on the second line.
The third line will be the reunited Good Job Boys — Conor Garland, Dakota Joshua, and Teddy Blueger — which pushes Pius Suter down to the fourth line with Nils Höglander and Kiefer Sherwood.
The Canucks' starting goaltender will be Kevin Lankinen, with it up in the air whether he'll play on back-to-back nights with the Canucks heading to Calgary to face the Flames on Wednesday.
"That's something we'll talk about after the game," said Tocchet. "Last game was a low shot volume game, so it wasn't taxing that much. You have to look at that: if you have big stress in front, a lot of shots, a lot of volume, then it's tough to play a guy back-to-back."
Montreal Canadiens projected lines
The Canadiens are in a similar spot to the Canucks: a playoff spot is still within reach but they need to start consistently winning games.
Coming into Tuesday's game against the Canucks, the Canadiens are four points out of the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. That puts them in desperation mode as they attempt to reel in the New York Rangers, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Ottawa Senators ahead of them in the standings.
Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield lead the Canadiens in points and goals, respectively, while Lane Hutson is the team's top-scoring defenceman, with 49 points in 63 games.
Here are the Canadiens' projected lines, :
Cole Caufield - Nick Suzuki - Juraj Slafkovský
Joshua Roy - Alex Newhook - Brendan Gallagher
Michael Pezzetta - Christian Dvorak - Josh Anderson
Emil Heineman - Jake Evans - Joel Armia
Mike Matheson - Alexandre Carrier
Jayden Struble - Lane Hutson
Arber Xhekaj - David Savard
Sam Montembeault
Jakub Dobeš
Patrik Laine won't be playing for the Canadiens as he is dealing with "flu-like symptoms." He missed the Canadiens' last game against the Calgary Flames as well.
The Canadiens' starting goaltender is expected to be Sam Montembeault, who is undefeated in regulation in his last five starts with four wins and one overtime loss.
