With top-six spot on the line, upcoming road trip a test for Canucks' Mikheyev

RALEIGH, N.C. — Ilya Mikheyev not only lost a good friend on the Vancouver Canucks when Andrei Kuzmenko was traded last week to the Calgary Flames, he lost a buffer.

The story of Kuzmenko, the gregarious $5.5-million winger who went from 39-goal scorer to healthy scratch, was so big and central to the Canucks’ immediate future that Mikheyev’s own problems the last month have received relatively little attention.

But if the acquisition of Elias Lindholm to play on a line with Elias Petterson and Mikheyev didn’t shine a spotlight on the struggling winger, then Canuck coach Rick Tocchet did after Monday’s practice in North Carolina.

“I'm playing (Mikheyev) with these two guys, and I've got to see some forechecking from him,” Tocchet said as the Canucks prepared to emerge from the National Hockey League All-Star break with Tuesday’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes. “I've got to see him winning some battles and, I think, coming up with loose pucks. I want him to drive the play, especially as a top forechecker for us. He's got guys that have the puck a lot that can hold on to pucks and make plays. So, you know, this is a test for Mik. I mean, I've got to see some good stuff out of him here on this line.”

Despite playing with Pettersson, Mikheyev has no goals and two assists in 12 games since Jan. 2.

In the second season of a four-year, $19-million contract with the Canucks, the 29-year-old Russian has 10 goals and 23 points in 45 games. That’s alright. Mikheyev wasn’t recruited two summers ago as a free agent to be a scoring star or lead the attack. General manager Patrik Allvin coveted the Russian’s all-around game; his speed and high motor, his ability to get to pucks and kill penalties and complement elite linemates like Pettersson.

Except for the Canucks’ dreadful penalty-killing record last season, Mikheyev delivered on all those things while also contributing 13 goals and 28 points in 46 games. And he did it playing on one leg after tearing the ACL ligament in his knee during Vancouver’s first pre-season game.

The Canucks finally shut down Mikheyev last season on Jan. 27, the week after Tocchet replaced Bruce Boudreau as coach. He underwent surgery a year ago this week, and missed only the first four games of this season at the end of his recovery from the ACL repair.

Now “healthy,” Mikheyev’s average ice time is down more than two minutes this season from last year (to 14:40 from 16:55) and his special-teams roles, especially on the penalty kill, have also been reduced by Tocchet.

Of course, Vancouver is a vastly better team this year, and Mikheyev is still among the best Canucks at driving play with a shots-for percentage of 52.9 and expected-goals-for of 53.9. 

But Tocchet has been determined to find the right “puzzle pieces” to fit alongside J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser on one top line and, now, Lindholm and Pettersson on the other. So this five-game road trip is an important one for Mikheyev, who chose the Canucks over other teams in free agency partly for the opportunity to play in the top six.

“I have, like, chances most games,” Mikheyev said. “Of course, everybody wants to score. But sometimes you can't score when you play. Just keep working and try to help the team. Just try to do your best for the team. I feel, like, I think I have chances, but sometimes you can't score. But I think it's coming.”

On seeing his friend and countryman Kuzmenko depart for Calgary, Mikheyev said: “It's like sports, you know? You don't know what's going on tomorrow. Things happen and you can't change nothing. You need to just keep focus on where you are and just keep going.

“I'm just focusing on the game and the practice. Like, so many changes happen everywhere in NHL. If you worry about, like, every day or every situation, you will be crazy.”

It’s kind of crazy that Tocchet, during his winger experiments in the top six, hasn’t yet given a serious opportunity to Dakota Joshua or Conor Garland, the third-line flanks who are having strong seasons playing with Teddy Blueger on what has been arguably the Canucks’ best forward line since the middle of December.

“It's not that I'm anxious, but my eyes are wide open here,” Tocchet said. “I mean, there's a job open here. So people have to be ready. You know, I talked to Garland the other day. I don't want to break that third line up, but maybe Gars might be ready for active duty on that (Pettersson line). Who knows? But when you play with top players, you've got to come up with loose pucks, you've got to go to the net, you've got to go through the middle, you've got to chase pucks downs, and you've got to be good wall guys. That's what we're looking for.”

A year after his ACL surgery, Mikheyev conceded Monday that he continues daily exercises to strengthen his knee and is still working his way back towards peak speed. He is one of the Canucks’ fastest skaters, but hasn’t displayed the world-class explosiveness he possessed with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“I still do extra work every day, do some training every day,” Mikheyev said. “Because, like, I need it. I think I have some extra space to get better.”

“I'd like to see a little bit more time for him to get acclimated,” Tocchet said. “I think there's about 10 per cent more there — speed, I think. I think I can feel it starting to come. I really do.”

COACH-PLAYER SUMMIT

A staple of the Tocchet regime has been detailed, one-on-one instruction with players before, during and after practices. The coach or one of his assistants, usually Adam Foote, huddling on the ice with a player or players is a daily occurrence. But it was an extraordinarily long conversation Tocchet had with Pettersson near centre ice Monday at PNC Arena. 

The summit lasted more than half an hour, beginning before any of the other players left the ice and ending long after Tocchet and Pettersson were, literally, the last Canucks standing.

“Honestly, it's just about him playing with Lindholm — just some scenarios, some power-play scenarios, some stuff going forward,” Tocchet explained. “I'm asking his opinion on our practices. It was a bunch of different, little things, but it was a lot (about) him and Lindholm playing together.”

QUOTEBOOK

Tocchet on the key to the 33-11-5 Canucks’ final 33 games: “I think preparation and discipline. You know discipline is a thing where not everybody likes it, but you've got to love to do. We want to love discipline. I know it's hard. But for our team, the back half of this season here, you know, we get a lot of publicity, which is great to a point. (But) we've just got to make sure that we don't buy into this hype, that we in this room know who we are, how we play, and we want to be a disciplined team. That's really the message for the second half.”