VANCOUVER — Welcome to the top line, Jake Virtanen. Meet your taskmasters, Henrik and Daniel Sedin.

The Sedins may not seem like drill sergeants, but Henrik served notice Friday that Virtanen will be held to a high standard by him and his brother.

“I think me and Danny are very focused during games and we don’t like to see a lot of mistakes,” Henrik said after Friday’s practice at UBC. “We want guys who know what they are doing. So we are going to be hard on him.”

Virtanen is expected to make his regular season debut with the twins when the Canucks play the Nashville Predators tonight at Rogers Arena.

Not surprisingly, Virtanen is thrilled about it.

“It is pretty sweet,” the 19-year-old rookie said. “I haven’t really played with them since pre-season … I am looking forward to playing with those guys, they are world-class players.”

Virtanen is being rewarded for his strong play of late. He has been a much better player the past couple of months and assisted on Markus Granlund's game-winning goal in Vancouver's 3-2 overtime win over the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday. He has been asserting himself physically and using his speed and strength lately to drive the net.

Virtanen’s season seemed to turn after his disappointing performance at the World Junior Hockey Championship in Finland.

“Since I have been back, the game has slowed down a little bit,” Virtanen said. “When I got here and was playing the first couple of months, everything was happening so fast and my mind wasn’t as fast as the game.

“I came back from world juniors, I don’t know exactly what happened, but everything felt a lot slower. I was seeing plays happen and reading plays better. I am feeling a lot more confident every game by making plays and stuff.”

Virtanen has three goals and three assists in his last nine games. By comparison, he had only three goals and three assists in his first 32 games. He now seems to be playing with oodles of confidence and conceded his world junior disappointment was a wake-up call of sorts and served as a motivator.

“I kind of agree with that,” Virtanen said. “After the world juniors and not having a great start to the season, in the back of my mind I was thinking that maybe I’d get sent back to junior.

“For the management to have that faith in me and that confidence to bring me back and keep playing me was good. My game has been great since then and I want to keep improving.”

After emphasizing his tough-love approach with regards to his new linemate, Henrik made a point of saying Virtanen earned the opportunity with his recent play.

“He is playing better,” said Henrik, who will return tonight after missing two games with an upper-body injury. “It would have been wrong to throw him into this spot if he wasn’t playing well. But now I think he is earning more ice time and he is showing more. It is a good step.

“We’ll see how this unfolds down the stretch, but I think it’s good for him to maybe play on our line a little bit and get used to seeing some tougher matchups sometimes.”

On paper, Virtanen seems like he could be a good fit with the Sedins. He is a right-hand shot, which Daniel and Henrik prefer, and has great speed that will give him the opportunity to get in and retrieve pucks for them.

Virtanen said he’ll simply try to do what has been working for him lately.

“Maybe I’ll try to drive the net a little bit more,” he said. “When they have the puck on the outside and you can get up into open ice and get to the net they can create things. They can find your stick if you have your stick on the ice.

“So just find open ice, obviously be a physical presence out there for them to create space for them so they can do their thing as well.”

While Virtanen was preparing for his first start with the Sedins, new defenceman Nikita Tryamkin was practising with the Canucks for the first time.

“I liked it very much, I enjoyed myself,” Tryamkin said through an interpreter. “My teammates were supportive and they picked me up and made it a lot easier for me.”

He was paired with veteran Dan Hamhuis for most of Friday’s practice.

“He has got a great skill set and is such a great skater,” Hamhuis said.

Tryamkin is not expected to play until some time next week.

ICE CHIP: Canucks prospect Anton Rodin has won the Golden Helmet as most valuable player of the Swedish Elite League. Rodin, selected in the second round of the 2009 draft, had 16 goals and 37 points in 33 games this season with Brynäs IF. The Canucks are expected to try to sign him in the off-season.

bziemer@postmedia.com

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