Every player will be special, Crawford says

CANUCKS WILL HAVE 3 POWER-PLAY UNITS

VANCOUVER • Marc Crawford thinks everyone is going to need to be a special teams player in the newlook National Hockey League.

With a parade to the penalty box expected at least in the early going as players and teams adjust to an anti-obstruction crackdown, the Vancouver Canucks’ head coach says he will likely employ three powerplay units, not two.

And the guys who don’t get power-play time almost certainly will find themselves killing penalties. A select few will do double duty.

“I think guys are going to have to have a specialty, one way or another, now,” Crawford said yesterday. “You’re going to have to be a really good offensive type of power-play guy or a really good defensive penaltykilling type of guy.”

Either that, Crawford joked, or “you’re going to get really cold feet” sitting on the bench.

The Canucks open up their seven-game pre-season schedule tomorrow night in Edmonton. If that game follows the scripts of pre- season contests to date, there will be lots of power- play time and penalty- killing duty.

“I don’t think there is any question that special teams are going to play a dominant role in the early going,” Canucks centre Brendan Morrison said. “I think the teams that can adjust the quickest are going to benefit the most.”

Adapting to the obstruction crackdown has been a significant focus of the first week of training camp.

“It’s been a huge emphasis for our coaching staff,” Morrison said. “We have really tried not to put a stick on a guy at all and we’ve done some drills for our defencemen where they don’t even have sticks and have to focus on body positioning. That is going to be a key, your ability to move your feet and get in the right position. You can still battle with guys, you can push on them and lean on them, but you just can’t impede them with your stick.”