Coaches re- stack the deck to energize second line
NASHVILLE — It’s seven games until the Stanley Cup playoffs. Do you know where your forward lines are?
The Vancouver Canucks are still trying to find them.
After experimenting with line combinations Saturday in Denver, where Jannik Hansen played on the top unit so Alex Burrows could be reunited with Ryan Kesler, Canuck coaches returned to the lab for Sunday’s practice here.
The biggest change had Kesler playing right wing beside centre Derek Roy, who hasn’t scored in five games as a Canuck and is pointless in the last four.
“We’re loading up in the top six,” associate coach Rick Bowness said. “We’re trying to get Derek going a little bit and trying to get the second line going so we have two lines scoring consistently and not just one. And then the third and fourth lines need to chip in when they can offensively.”
Roy hasn’t looked as dangerous since winger Chris Higgins suffered a knee injury a week ago.
He said his lack of scoring has been frustrating. “I’ve had my chances ( to score) and I’m setting up chances, but it’s just not going in right now,” Roy said. “I just have to stick with it and keep making plays and being confident.”
Roy narrowly missed on a couple of shots from the high slot on Saturday. Given the velocity of his shots, it’s almost incomprehensible he has only four goals in 35 games this season.
The Canucks are 4- 1 since acquiring Roy from the Dallas Stars two weeks ago, and the centre’s skill has been obvious.
But he is struggling for a bottom line on the stat sheet, which Saturday showed him on the ice for the Avalanche’s tying and winning goals.
It was the first game as a Canuck that Roy was scored against.
The Burrows- Roy- Kesler combination, which debuts Monday night against the Nashville Predators, has the potential to become a scoring line. But it also makes it more challenging for the Canucks to be a threeline team, offensively.
The third line at practice had Andrew Ebbett between Mason Raymond and Zack Kassian.
Kassian started in Denver with Kesler and Burrows, but played on all four lines.
Hansen, whose goal against the Avalanche was his first in 12 games, remains with Daniel and Henrik Sedin on the top line.
Hansen barely propelled the puck over the line from Danny Sedin’s clever goalmouth pass in the second period.
How much of the puck did Hansen get? “Enough,” he said. “I don’t know if I felt relieved. You always want to score more. Sometimes it takes a dirty goal or two.”
Max Lapierre, who scored during a shift with Kesler, centred the fourth line in practice between Dale Weise and Steve Pinizzotto.
Roberto Luongo will start in goal for the Canucks after watching Cory Schneider play in Denver.
With back- to- back games — the Canucks play the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday — Bowness said Nashville was a planned start for Luongo. MY BAD, REALLY BAD: After getting battered on the boards by the Avalanche, Canuck defenceman Kevin Bieksa had the fortitude to stand at his locker in Denver and wait for reporters to arrive and take their runs at him.
Bieksa figured he deserved it. In a game of turnovers, Bieksa’s first- period gift to Gabriel Landeskog was easily the most grotesque.
But the blueliner defended himself with honesty, answering without excuses for his ghastly giveaway in the slot that put his team down early and characterized Vancouver’s sloppy play in a surprising loss.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got to be responsible with the puck,” Bieksa said. “There’s not one excuse I can think of on that play, other than I made a bad play.
“I just kind of assumed when I saw ( Landeskog’s) stick that it was our guy. But obviously you can’t make assumptions like that when you’re in our end. Obviously, I don’t feel too good about that play and it’s my fault.” PREDATOR DOWN: Nashville’s ability to make the playoffs six out of seven years between lockouts was remarkable, given the Predators’ limited resources and the fierce competition in the Western Conference.
But five straight losses heading into their home game Sunday night against the Detroit Red Wings all but extinguished their playoff hopes this spring.
“Guys need to have pride in this room,” captain Shea Weber told The Tennessean. “You need to play hard, and it’s not over for us, either. The season is still going; we have to play desperate. The biggest thing is pride, not to quit and not to quit on each other.”
NUMBERS: Top defenceman Alex Edler’s thirdperiod ice time Saturday of 6: 28 was well below the TOI of Dan Hamhuis ( 9: 01), Bieksa ( 8: 08) and Jason Garrison ( 7: 52) ... Hamhuis, a former Predator, returns to Nashville riding a five- game points streak into today’s contest ... With Garrison scoring his sixth goal in his 41st game, his pro- rated 12- goal season isn’t quite the disaster some critics projected when the defenceman scored only once in his first 15 games as a Canuck.