"Thank goodness Kevin Bieksa is back.

Not back playing, just back in the dressing room, trading barbs with reporters.

The defenceman will miss his 14th game tonight since he broke a foot, but he took part in his first practice with the Canucks since his last game, Feb. 15 at Minnesota.

Before the club announced on Tuesday that it was recalling Yann Sauve from Manitoba, it was put to Bieksa that it must be that either he or Sami Salo would be playing tonight.

"Oh yeah?" a skeptical Bieksa said. "That's very presumptuous I don't know, I'm just a player.

"I'm not a writer or a GM, I don't know what's going on."

Salo will be a game-time decision, his left elbow that blocked a shot Monday night feeling numb but a lot better than it did the night it happened, Alain Vigneault said."