- Manny Malhotra and his entire coaching staff jumped in on the bag skates as Canucks training camp opened in Penticton
- Luke Schenn, at his 19th NHL camp, had never seen a head coach line up for the conditioning test
- Read below for what Malhotra said about timing his entrance, plus reaction from Schenn, Zeev Buium and Jake DeBrusk
Manny Malhotra’s first day as an NHL head coach ended with the Vancouver Canucks getting smoked in a bag skate by their own coaching staff.
The Canucks opened camp in Penticton on Thursday, and after each of the two on-ice sessions, Malhotra and his staff lined up next to the players for the skate. Nobody on the roster saw it coming.
Take a look at Malhotra jumping into line rushes with the group earlier in the day:
Luke Schenn is at his 19th NHL training camp. He could not remember another time a head coach jumped on the line for a conditioning test.
“They caught us at a vulnerable time, right after a battle drill, and all of a sudden they turn the jets on, and we looked like the slow ones out there.”
Schenn rejoined Vancouver in free agency this summer and is 10 years younger than his coach. He did not sugarcoat the result.
“That’d be a first, where you’re getting toasted in a bag skate by your head coach. I heard he had done that in Abbotsford. He came as advertised.”
Malhotra was asked why he keeps putting himself through it, and he admitted he picks his spot.
“Obviously, I time it so that I know that they’re a little bit more tired, so I can be a part of it. Our mentality as a coaching staff is that we’re all in this together. It’s not you guys and us, you guys do the work, and we’ll tell you what to do. It’s we’re a part of doing the work and building something the way we want it done.”
Catch Malhotra, Schenn, Zeev Buium and Filip Chytil after day one:
Buium was less surprised than the veterans. The 20-year-old defenseman figures Malhotra, general manager Ryan Johnson and assistant coach Jason Krog are “probably in better shape than half of us.”
Practice ran just as hard before any of that. The session moved from a transition drill to forechecking to 1-on-1 and 2-on-2 battles with almost no standing around, Jamie Oleksiak came off the ice with a cut lip, and a pane of glass broke.
Here’s Lekkerimaki and Cotter in the 1-on-1 board battle drill:
Jake DeBrusk was asked how the new coach handled his first practice.
“It was a loud practice, he wanted guys to be talking out there and engaged. And I was really impressed with how he handled it.”
Vancouver hired the 46-year-old in May after firing Adam Foote and finishing last in the league at 25-49-8. Malhotra is the 23rd head coach in franchise history, and he spent last season with the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks, so a chunk of the young players in Penticton already know exactly how his practices go. That fits the tone Johnson set for this roster back in August.
Camp only runs four days. Vancouver opens the preseason Saturday on the road against Seattle.
