Canucks-Flames: Vancouver will stick with four-line philosophy despite loss

Vancouver Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins rolled four lines for much of the regular season and he doesn’t plan on changing that philosophy in the playoffs.

A day after his club dropped Game 1 of its Western Conference quarterfinal 2-1 on home ice to the Calgary Flames, Desjardins had to defend how he distributes ice time, especially when it comes to his star players.

Henrik and Daniel Sedin each played under 18 minutes in the game, with the latter clocking in at just 16 minutes 14 seconds.

The twins each played under five minutes in a third period in which the Flames scored twice — less than the line of Bo Horvat, Jannik Hansen and Ronalds Kenins that was on for Kris Russell’s winner with 29.6 seconds left in regulation.

“We play every game to win that game,” Desjardins said after Thursday’s practice. “If we burn up our energy then we’ll worry about that for the next game. It’s not that we don’t play to win that game.

“At the same time, the Sedins play their best game when they’re fresh. If they’re not fresh they won’t be as successful. If you ask them I think they’ll say the same thing.”

Some of last season’s failure to make the playoffs was blamed on former head coach John Tortorella leaning too heavily on the Sedins.

“It’s something we’ve done all year,” Henrik Sedin said of the four-line game.

“Most of the time we’ve been around 16, 17 minutes. Sometimes more, sometimes less. We’ve been successful at rolling four lines. As a player you want to be out there all the time. That’s how you are as a player, but it’s a team game.”

Henrik Sedin added that ice time wouldn’t be up for debate if the Canucks had buried some of their chances early in the third on Flames goalie Jonas Hiller when Vancouver was still up 1-0.

“I thought our line should have had a couple goals at least,” said the Canucks’ captain. “It’s one of those games. You’ve got to give Hiller credit. He played great.”