Elias Pettersson has missed four games with an upper-body injury and is likely to miss a few more. At Friday’s Vancouver Canucks practice, he wasn’t the only forward missing on the ice.
Three of the team’s bottom-six veterans were not at practice: Brandon Sutter, Jay Beagle, and Antoine Roussel. As a result, the Canucks had to call on two defencemen from their taxi squad to rotate in on the fourth line for drills.
That’s concerning for several reasons. One is that with Pettersson, Sutter, and Beagle out, that’s three centres out of the lineup, forcing J.T. Miller, Adam Gaudette, and Zack MacEwen to play in the middle.
The three missing forwards are also three of the Canucks’ key penalty killers, so that could mean Bo Horvat taking on a larger role shorthanded.
Then there’s the possibility of a defenceman having to fill in on the fourth line. Are the Canucks really going to dress 11 forwards and 7 defencemen when they face the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday?
Well, maybe not. Head coach Travis Green said that he suspects two of the three veterans missing on Friday will still play on Saturday.
“I don’t think I’m going to play centre tomorrow,” joked Green, “and I don’t know if [MacEwen] will play centre either. We’ll wait and see what happens tomorrow...This was practice today, we had a few guys off the ice. A lot of these questions might not be for anything.”
Green was a pretty good two-way centre in his day, but he might have lost a little footspeed at the age of 50, so it’s probably for the best if he doesn’t have to dress on Saturday.
While Green was not forthcoming on why the three players missed practice, Sutter did miss time during Wednesday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens. While he did return to the game after heading to the locker room in the first period, he was late coming out for the third period, which could have been an indication that he was being treated for an injury during the intermission.
As Green said, we’ll need to wait and see what happens.
Canucks are short on depth
Even with just one more player out of the lineup, the Canucks’ depth will be tested. It will likely mean MacEwen slots back into the lineup after being a healthy scratch over the last four games, or Loui Eriksson could be called up from the taxi squad if the coaching staff feels the need to add a penalty killer.
Beyond those two, the Canucks don’t have any other forwards available, hence the two defencemen rotating in on the fourth line at practice.
Justin Bailey is injured, so he’s not available. Tyler Motte is back skating but likely won’t return until next week at the earliest.
All of the forwards in the AHL with the Utica Comets are at least two weeks away if called up, as they’ll need to go through a 14-day quarantine. Tyler Graovac, a forward loaned to the Manitoba Moose who would potentially have a shorter quarantine, hasn’t played since March 1 and is reportedly out with a concussion, so he isn’t available either.
That puts the Canucks in a precarious position where a couple of injuries could indeed result in dressing 11 forwards in a game. Green said how he’d deploy his players in that situation would depend on matchups as to whether he’d double-shift a forward on the fourth line or put a defenceman in that position instead.
“It's easy to say put another forward on that wing, but some of our forwards are already playing a lot of minutes,” said Green. “Depending on what kind of matchups and the team you're playing, that might determine what you're doing, but we're not there yet.”
What's it like for a defenceman to play forward?
Defenceman Nate Schmidt smiled as he recalled having to play forward early in his professional career. Very early.
“I don't know if it was my first ever pro game,” said Schmidt, trying to remember the exact game. “I was in the American League, I played wing. I played a lot of wing in college in my freshman year and, as well, I played centre in Junior.”
According to Schmidt, it’s not any harder or easier to play forward compared to defence — it’s just different.
“It’s a different game. You’ve got to get your feet moving, you don’t just stand at the blue line when you get in the offensive zone,” he said with a laugh. “But on the flip side, it’s a lot more fun to actually go hunt the puck down and, when you’re playing D-zone, especially if you play wing, I would say your responsibilities are a little bit different.
“I always give the guys a hard time and say they just stand there and wait for us to give the puck to them, but what do I know, I’m just a defenceman.”
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