After several games in the Vancouver Canucks' bottom-six, Andrei Kuzmenko will finally be off the fourth line on Tuesday against the Nashville Predators. Unfortunately, it's because he won't be in the lineup at all.
At the Canucks' morning skate, the fourth line was a combination of Phil Di Giuseppe, Nils Åman, and Sam Lafferty, with Kuzmenko on the outside looking in. When the power play took the ice, defenceman Filip Hronek was on the top unit instead of Kuzmenko.
Kuzmenko played just over 11 minutes against the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday, with just two shifts in the third period.
Tocchet was blunt in his assessment of why Kuzmenko will be scratched, saying it's just about putting together the best lineup to beat the Predators.
It will be the third healthy scratch of the season for Kuzmenko, who has found himself in Rick Tocchet's doghouse not just because he hasn't been scoring at the same rate as last season but because he's not meeting expectations when he's not scoring.
"I think he needs to get his game a little sharper," said Tocchet prior to his first scratch of the season. "When you’re not scoring, you’ve gotta make sure of your details in your own end. He’s thinking too much. There's some system stuff that we have to count on — not just him, everybody — to be in those positions. So, I feel he needs a reset. He needs to work with me a little bit more on the ice. We haven't had a lot of practice time."
The lack of scoring, of course, heightens the attention on those other details.
At this time last season, Kuzmenko already had 13 goals. This season, he has just six and is on pace for just 16 goals, though he did have goals in back-to-back games at the end of the Canucks' last homestand. That's not what the Canucks were hoping to get when they signed Kuzmenko to a two-year, $11 million contract extension after just two games under Tocchet last season.
It's not just the goalscoring. Kuzmenko has gone 13 games without recording an assist despite still getting ice time on the Canucks' first power play unit when he was demoted to the fourth line.
Kuzmenko's future with the Canucks remains up in the air, with trade rumours cropping up recently. Those rumours appear to primarily involve other teams contact the Canucks inquiring about Kuzmenko, rather than the Canucks looking to trade him.
But this is an untenable situation for Kuzmenko and the Canucks. The team can't afford to have a winger with a $5.5 million cap hit who isn't contributing on the ice or isn't even on the ice. Kuzmenko has to be frustrated that he's no longer playing in a top-six role when he's playing at all.
