Petteri Nokelainen probably summed it up best.
Those two guys — centers Saku Koivu and Ryan Carter — didn’t take part in a full practice Tuesday with their teammates. Koivu at least attempted to start, after skating for a half-hour on his own, but lasted about 15 minutes before walking off the ice. Carter, who bruised his foot in Columbus when it absorbed a teammate’s shot in practice, didn’t skate at all.
The forward lines in practice were certainly a hodgepodge, and somewhat resembled Monday’s lineup against the Penguins:
Bobby Ryan – Ryan Getzlaf – Corey Perry
Said Carlyle: “We felt it was going to be difficult to compete in games if we didn’t spread out some of our offense. It wasn’t really that drastic. We brought Kyle Calder in, then we decided to move him in a situation where we’d have a pairing if it was Getzlaf and Perry, and Calder or anyone else we decided to put there. Then we had Bobby Ryan with Selanne, and the option of Marchant and Nokelainen. That was the mindset behind it, to try to create enough that we would have two lines of offense, and formerly a checking line with Brown, Lupul, and be it Marchant or Nokelainen.”
Nokelainen, for his part, hadn’t played his natural center position all season before Monday.
“It takes a little time to adjust,” he said of all the changes, “but it’s not that big of a difference. We know our roles. Right now we know we have to concentrate on simple things and try to get it going that way.”