Head Coach Boudreau on Canucks Player Moves and Line Changes

Working through renovations in a makeshift office at Rogers Arena, Vancouver Canucks Head Coach Bruce Boudreau and his assistants have been working hard since the first of September planning for training camp and putting together a handbook for the players.

“It’s way more extensive than you’d think of as a booklet, it’s probably thirty pages, forty pages, it’s like a little book I want the players to read and show them that we’re organized,” Boudreau told VHN. “We just want to be as organized as we can, and it’s sort of like a turnkey operation, ‘all you have to do guys, is play the game’.”

The staff has also already put together all of its system tapes for review.

Boudreau re-addressed a few of the ideas being thrown around as it relates to Canucks players playing in different positions. One being top defenceman Quinn Hughes moving from the left side of the ice to the right, particularly if right-shot D-man Tucker Poolman’s health issues prevent him from playing. Thus far, Poolman has been scrimmaging with the Canucks on a regular basis in Burnaby during informal practices.

Hughes has been working the right side during practice sessions back home all summer.

“He’s been quite dedicated at everything he’s been doing,” Boudreau said, “it might be something we start at the start of camp and we’ll see the comfortability.”

Another concept that might stick, we saw it towards the end of last season and it worked effectively, is right shot forward Conor Garland playing on the left wing. He spent many of the shinny games this preseason playing alongside centre Bo Horvat.

“I really like what Conor did at the end of the year and we’ve talked about it too,” Boudreau said. “Coming off the boards, into the middle into a shooting position, rather than coming into the boards into a backhand area. He’s really good at cutting into the middle.”

As for attending the Young Stars Classic in Penticton with the rest of the coaches and staff, Boudreau is getting an early look at some of the younger players who might be at the big club’s camp starting next week. The full list of those names remains to be seen and some of it will depend on performances this weekend against the Calgary Flames prospects on Friday night, the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday afternoon, and the Edmonton Oilers on Monday afternoon.