Canucks’ Malhotra leads by example at energizing camp

PENTICTON, B.C. — We knew Manny Malhotra could yell and coach. We didn’t know he could still fly.

At the end of an energetic opening day of training camp that launched the rebuild era for the Vancouver Canucks , Malhotra capped Day 1 as a National Hockey League coach on Thursday by joining players — and beating some of them — in a back-and-forth conditioning skate at the South Okanagan Events Centre.

“Yeah, that would be a first where you're getting toasted in the bag skate by your head coach,” 36-year-old defenceman Luke Schenn said.

Malhotra, 46, and his staff of new assistants actually did the skate twice, at the end of both split-squad practices. Each player had to do it only once.

“Don’t ask others what you're not willing to do yourself,” Malhotra explained to reporters. “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. We’re a part of doing the work and ... building something.”

The re-energization began with regime change last May when Ryan Johnson was hired as general manager by new co-presidents Daniel and Henrik Sedin. Johnson promoted Malhotra just over two weeks later — one year after the duo guided the minor-league Abbotsford Canucks to the Calder Cup.

The positivity grew as Johnson and Malhotra built out their staffs over the summer, and was stoked by the early return to Vancouver of the entire roster of players, who were encouraged by veterans Brock Boeser and Thatcher Demko, among others, to report for pre-camp skates no later than Sept. 1.

This is all part of the foundational plan drafted by Johnson and the Sedins to build a healthier, more positive environment for the Canucks after the team collapsed over the last two seasons amid dysfunction that former president Jim Rutherford said was the worst he had encountered during his lifetime in the NHL.

Everything the Canucks are doing has this environment in mind, which is why it seemed fitting that Malhotra threw himself and his assistants into the miserable task of skating lengths on Thursday — even though Malhotra was simply doing what he did as a head coach in the American Hockey League

“It doesn't shock me,” longest-serving Canuck Boeser said. “Manny would do that stuff my first couple years when he was assistant coach (with the Canucks).”

“Absolutely,” Boeser said. “When I'm gassed and I see the other coaches doing this, I'm like, ‘All right, they're in the fight with us.’ Some of those guys are older. They could be like, screw it, take the easy path. But they're doing those sprints with us. It was great to see.”

“I mean, it has changed so much from last season,” centre Marco Rossi, who arrived in Vancouver from Minnesota in last December’s blockbuster trade of Quinn Hughes, said of the change in atmosphere around the Canucks. “When I came here, I could feel like maybe it's not a team, you know, where you feel comfortable around everyone.