Monday, April 27, 2009

Canucks Practice Mondayu

The Canucks had a nearly full roster on the ice at GM Place for practice this morning. Willie Mitchell was the only player who didn't take part. He is expected to skate tomorrow.

Sami Salo returned to the ice for the first time since missing Game 4 of the St. Louis series with a lower body injury. He says he's healthy enough to open up Round 2.

Alain Vigneault indicated that Mats Sundin is healthy enough now that he'll be ready to open up the Western Conference Semi Final on the weekend after missing the last two games against the Blues.

Roberto Luongo did not take any offense to not being named as a finalist for the Vezina trophy today. He said there's really only one trophy right now that he's interested in winning. Although he hasn't been on the ice with the Canucks starter, goalie coach Ian Clark is planning to be in Vancouver in the next few days to work with Luongo in preparation for the next series.

The overall compete level and intensity picked up a bit today at practice. Although tempers didn't boil over, there was a pretty noticeable physical and verbal exchange in one of the drills between Ryan Kesler and Kevin Bieksa. Nothing more than two team-mates who would prefer to be in game mode sooner rather than later.

Taylor Pyatt took part in his first full practice with his team-mates today. No word on if he'll be good to go in starting the next series for Vancouver.

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