"Keith Ballard was playing left wing at practice on Friday at Rogers Arena, but the Canucks are hoping the defenceman doesn't have to play there on Saturday afternoon when they take on the Colorado Avalanche in Denver.

With just 11 healthy forwards due to the absence of ailing Chris Higgins, head coach Alain Vigneault said the club is trying to get minor-league winger Byron Bitz into Denver to fill that gap — but severe winter weather around the Colorado city is making that problematic.

"[Higgins] is not travelling today with the team," said Vigneault. "He's still feeling under the weather so we're going to keep him behind. When he feels better, we're going to have him join the team."

Red flags flew before Thursday's game with the Red Wings when Higgins was an unexpected no-show in the pre-game warm-up. The team said he was ill, but had not suffered a third occurrence of the staph infections that caused his foot and then hand to swell dramatically on separate occasions in early and late December.

"Our doctors feel that the antibiotics he's been taking are affecting his immune system a little bit, so it might be easier for him to catch the flu bug from someone else right now," said Vigneault."