Nils Höglander & Head Coach Adam Foote Pre-Game Media | Canucks vs. Red Wings (Dec 8, 2025)

Nils Höglander & Head Coach Adam Foote Pre-Game Media | Canucks vs. Red Wings (Dec 8, 2025)

Neils was uh skating on a line tonight. Is this the return for him? Yeah, he’ll be in tonight. He’s pretty excited. Yeah. How excited are you to have him back? Well, it’s great to have a guy like that back. Um plays with a lot of energy. He’s hungry on those pucks. You guys know that about his for check is good. So, um you know, he just needs to go out and not overthink it. It’s been a while there. So, uh just nice to see he’ll bring some energy at his best. He’s contagious for other guys. He’s got his game going. He’s going right in where we’re, you know, trying to transition to a grittier team and we we’ve been doing a lot of good stuff, but you saw last night or the last game we were more gritty and uh harder to play against and he’ll he’ll bring that element for sure. Do you have an update on Pey? We’re still he’s getting it. We’re waiting for some news being evaluated on upper body still. So, we should know tonight or tomorrow morning. When guys a guy has a two goal game, sometimes if you’re a goal scorer, it’s affirmation. But for a guy like Ratu to have his second two-goal game of his NHL career, what does it what do you think it means to him? Is it affirmation that he’s doing the right stuff? That beyond the the faceoffs, beyond the forcheing that there’s more there? Yeah, I mean it’s confidence like the whole line did like Kainer hit uh Spurgeon hard on the wall and we able to get a twoon-one. Buddy mean Ratty was at the net. I think was it in LA? He got one called back. I think he had another one called well last game he had one called back. So, it was nice to see when that happens, he kept going and um he’s got some offense in him for sure. We all know that. So, he’ll play with some confidence and build on that. And well, the the nice part is he’s doing the stuff away from the puck uh really good right now. With the struggles down the middle and the injuries and everything else, you’ve got a guy in Ratu who has shown that there might be more there. Do you consider playing him higher or is that maybe too much at this stage? Well, I mean, right now, someone’s got to play higher, right? Being we’ve got Camp Ratty with Kane and um tonight like he was yesterday. You have sass with the brush. So, really, is it a one, two, three, or I don’t know what it is, but um they’re all they’re all playing higher and that’s fine. And someone’s going to pop and uh but they’re all going to get they’re getting more reps, so they’re all getting better. How did you decide on O’ Conor? He had played a little bit um in the past. He’s a he’s a bigger guy. I I think he doesn’t mind playing down low. Uh you know, and he for he took a big hit for the team, having a lot less ice time. He’s been playing pretty good for us. And I like the way he was a team guy there. And I just try to tell them like today and yesterday we’re talking about just hang in there. Like you you might get more tonight. You might move up the lineup on center. uh you might get some reps as a winger, but I just like the way you guys have said it. We have the next man up with what we’ve been hit with, but uh for him to take less minutes and not be bothered by it uh was pretty pretty nice for the team to see. So you you knew that that he had that so you went to him or did he come to you and we had discussion him and I in training camp. We were going to try him more in camp. Uh we didn’t try him as much as we probably would have liked to. Um but you know he first first time with us you know he he did pretty good. Were there other options among your wingers? You should put a D man there right they defend well on their end right you so you might see a D man there. No I haven’t even thought about putting a D man there. So don’t don’t don’t believe me. You know DX someone has only ever face off in the NHL. Did he? Yeah. That’s pretty good. It was five on three kill. Five on three kill was one here. I imagine I believe that. Adam, as we’ve gone through all these injury updates with you, Teddy’s kind of again become the forgotten man. Where is Teddy Bluger in all of this right now? He hope like hopefully just after Christmas. I mean, you know, he he pretty much had to go back to square one with with what happened to him a while back there. So, real real frustrating for him. It was such a quirky movement that he had the first time. I don’t think I’ve ever done it as a player what he did. We saw it on video. So, it happened and it’s whether it’s fluky or not, it uh it’s too bad because we we miss him, but he’ll be back. Start with what’s going through your head as you step back into the lineup tonight. A lot of fun finally back. So, I’m excited to go here. What are the things you need to focus on in your game to get, you know, right back into it quickly? I just think play pretty easy the first couple shift and I’m comfortable to get back to it. Looks like an opportunity on the power play as well. Yeah, I mean I like that spot in the bumper there. So hopefully get some chances tonight. How difficult has it been, Neils, sitting and watching and just rehabbing for so long? Yeah, I mean I never really been doing this for this long. So has been tough time, but feels like been working hard to to get back to it again. So yeah, um feels pretty good. Does it make you miss it more or appreciate it more the sport? Yeah, I mean I’ve been watching every game from up top, so um feels like I’ve been learning a little bit from there, too. So, um yeah, maybe I appreciate it more now. Game look easy from up there. It does. So slow. You’re always a guy that plays with a lot of energy. Have you got two months of pent up energy to to release tonight? Yeah. Um I guess so. What are you pulling from the win last night that you liked from the group and want to see more of in this one? I like the confidence we had. Yeah. The last game. So, build from that. Coach said he doesn’t want you to think too much. What is What does that mean to you? Just don’t think. Just go out and play. Christ.

Nils Höglander and Head Coach Adam Foote speak to the media ahead of tonight’s game.

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