Canucks' Hoglander motivated to finish challenging season strong |
VANCOUVER – Nils Hoglander’s season peaked in training camp.
We know, you could pretty much say that about the Vancouver Canucks team.
But for Hoglander, the 25-year-old whose National Hockey League career seems to be back where it started, every day has been a challenge since he broke his ankle in the Canucks’ first pre-season game against the Calgary Flames on Sept. 24.
After a disappointing season last year, when his scoring plummeted to eight goals from 24, the Swedish winger reported to training camp in Penticton as the best-conditioned Canuck. He looked excellent at camp, fast and direct and hungry.
“I feel like I was working my ass off the whole summer, then I had a really good camp,” Hoglander told Sportsnet after Wednesday’s practice. “Then I scored in my first pre-season game. Then the next shift, I broke my ankle. And since then, yeah, it’s been hard.”
In his sixth NHL season — and after signing a three-year, $9-million contract extension two years ago to be an important middle-six piece for the Canucks — Hoglander has one goal in 28 games and has become a semi-regular scratch on the league’s worst team.
The victim of an awkward, mid-ice collision that required surgery, Hoglander did not make his season debut until Dec. 8. Since his first three games, the left winger’s ice time has surpassed 12 minutes in only six contests.
Coach Adam Foote has removed the left winger from the Canuck lineup six times for a total of 13 games, including Tuesday’s 5-3 loss against the Anaheim........