When you've lost 13 of your last 17 games, you can't be too precious about your lineup.
Accordingly, following Thursday's embarrassing 6-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers, the Vancouver Canucks shook up their lines at their morning skate heading into Saturday's tilt with the Washington Capitals.
Pius Suter will centre a line with a couple of top-six linemates in Jake DeBrusk and Conor Garland. Danton Heinen will get another chance to prove himself in a top-six role with J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser. Elias Pettersson will centre a Sweded line with Nils Höglander and Linus Karlsson. And Teddy Blueger will get bumped to the fourth line with Phil Di Giuseppe and Max Sasson.
"When you’re in a situation where you are struggling, you have a group of guys that are really trying hard and they’re tight or whatever, and a group that obviously we need some guys to get going," said head coach Rick Tocchet. "So we just need both groups to get together here and make a little bit of a run. And I think sometimes you try different things, some chemistry."
The shakeup goes beyond just the forwards, as prospect defenceman Elias Pettersson will make his NHL debut.
D-Petey, as he is colloquially known, will play on a pairing with Carson Soucy after the team's recent experiment with Filip Hronek on Soucy's right side went poorly. It will be a trial by fire for Pettersson, as the Capitals are first place in the NHL and are third in the league in goals. Pettersson has earned praise for his physical defensive game in the AHL but the jump up in speed and physicality in the NHL could prove a challenge.
UPDATE: Minor change at game time: Pettersson will skate on the third pairing with Vincent Desharnais, while Derek Forbort will skate with Soucy on the second pairing.
"He's played really well down there. Love his enthusiasm, we need that," said head coach Rick Tocchet. "He can skate, he's physical, and those are exactly the attributes we need. And he can move the puck. So, we definitely want to give him a chance."
Of course, given the Canucks' struggles with their defence corps this season, Pettersson can't be much worse than what they've already got.
The 20-year-old defenceman is listed at 6'3" and 209 lbs and is known for throwing heavy hits along the boards but he's also a smooth skater who makes a good first pass. The Canucks have plenty of big defencemen who can hit; they don't have enough who can move the puck.
Pettersson has 13 points in 36 games with the Abbotsford Canucks this season and leads his team in plus/minus at plus-8.
Of course, the real fun is that the Canucks will have two Elias Petterssons — or is that Eliases Pettersson? — in the lineup for the first time, much to the consternation of John Shorthouse.
Vancouver Canucks projected lines
Kiefer Sherwood didn't take the morning skate after leaving Thursday's game in the second period. Tocchet suggested he would be a game-time decision and the lines at morning skate "might be changed in five hours." We'll assume, for the moment, that Sherwood won't be in the lineup and they'll run with the same lines from morning skate.
Accordingly, here are the Canucks' projected lines:
The Canucks' starting goaltender will be Kevin Lankinen after four straight starts for Thatcher Demko. Lankinen was reportedly dealing with an illness during that time but the Canucks have also talked about wanting to get Demko on a roll. Demko hasn't started rolling yet.
Washington Capitals projected lines
The Capitals are cruising right now with a five-game winning streak and an 8-0-3 record in the month of January. They haven't lost in regulation since December 29.
They're the top team in the league and yet have just one player above a point-per-game pace: Alex Ovechkin with 34 points in 32 games. The Capitals are getting it done with balanced scoring, with three players with 20+ goals, including Ovechkin, and seven players with 30+ points.
Here are the Capitals' projected lines:
Connor McMichael - Dylan Strome - Alex Ovechkin
Aliaksei Protas - Pierre-Luc Dubois - Tom Wilson
Taylor Raddysh - Lars Eller - Ethen Frank
Brandon Duhaime - Nic Dowd - Andrew Mangiapane
Rasmus Sandin - John Carlson
Martin Fehervary - Matt Roy
Jakob Chychrun - Trevor van Riemsdyk
Charlie Lindgren
Logan Thompson
The Capitals' starting goaltender is expected to be Charlie Lindgren, who has been the lesser of the Capitals' two goaltenders with a .905 save percentage compared to Logan Thompson's .925 but is coming off a shutout of the Seattle Kraken.
