Tkachuk out with injury; Blues alter power play
Blues forward Keith Tkachuk is expected to miss tonight’s game in Calgary with a sore left shoulder.
Tkachuk re-aggravated an old injury when he and Jay McKee collided in the second period of Saturday’s 4-2 loss to Vancouver.
“I’m not going to play tonight and I doubt tomorrow night,” Tkachuk said. “Hopefully I’ll be better by San Jose (on Friday). It’s stiff and I have no strength in it right now. It kind of jammed me. I didn’t see (McKee) coming. I just got drilled hard.”
Tkachuk said that he originally injured the shoulder in a fight with Calgary’s Dion Phaneuf earlier this season. ”It got better, but that hit (Saturday) did not help,” Tkachuk said.
One game after being told that his playing time might be limited the rest of the season, Martin Rucinsky is expected to take Tkachuk’s spot in the lineup tonight.
The Blues have also made some changes on their anemic power play. Today in practice, this is how the units were divided . . .
The first unit: Erik Johnson at the point, with Brad Boyes and Andy McDonald on the sides and David Backes and Keith Tkachuk in front of the net. (Tkachuk did practice this morning and took turns with Rucinsky in that spot).
This unit was set up in the ”umbrella,” in which the four forwards make the arc in front of the net and Johnson stands in the middle of the ice at the blue line.
The second unit: Barret Jackman and Eric Brewer at the point with David Perron and Paul Kariya on the sides and Lee Stempniak in front of the net.
Reaction to the changes . . .
Boyes: “I think our unit is going to look more at shooting the puck with two guys in front (Backes and Tkachuk/Rucinsky). David Backes obviously is great in front of the net. That’s the goal there. The second unit . . . change it up, give two different looks. It doesn’t hurt to change things up.”
Stempniak: “I guess any time you’re not having a lot of success, you’ve got to change something,” Stempniak said. “Just changing the look . . . it’s something that (opponents) haven’t been able to scout and hopefully it gives us a little bit of an edge. We’re excited to see how it works and hopefully we’ll get a couple of power-play goals.”
The Blues did not skate on Sunday because there wasn’t ice available at the time the Blues wanted to practice. So instead, the team went to the local theater and watched Will Ferrell’s new movie “Semi-pro.”
Most of the players gave the movie “two thumbs up.”
“Yean, it was good,” Barret Jackman said. “It’s Will Ferrell, so . . . everything he does is pretty funny.”
It seems kind of funny to have 23 guys sitting together in a movie theater. It seems like a field trip for adults.
“It’s different, but a lot of laughs and a lot of jabs going back and forth between the guys,” Jackman said. “Anybody else in the movie might not have liked it, but we had a good time.”
Of course, no movie is complete with licorice, snow caps, popcorn and soda. Which Blue left the concession stand with their hands full?
“Manny . . .” Jackman said. “A bag of Twizzlers and a huge bag of popcorn.”
Is that true Manny?
“Me?” the Blues goalie fired back, getting defensive. “You should have seen the bag of popcorn ‘Jacks’ had.”
The team liked being away from the rink for the day.
“It’s such a long season . . . you’ve got 82 games and a lot of practices,” Jackman said. “Changing it up a bit, especially if you’re struggling, can never hurt.”
I talked to David Perron briefly about his breakaway Saturday against Vancouver. He was denied by Roberto Luongo, but a minute later, Boyes scored for the Blues. Perron said it felt good to get into the open ice, but unfortunately it came at the end of his shift.
“It would have been nice to score, but I was exhausted at the end of my shift,” Perron said. “I saw the opening and (Lee) Stempniak made the nice pass. I tried to go five-hole. I thought the defenseman caught since I was real tired. It would have been nice to score, but then we scored right after that. So, maybe it ended up being momentum for a goal.”
Also in Vancouver, D.J. King and Cam Janssen were in the lineup together. King talked after that game about what it was like playing together.
“We both know our style of game and we’ve just got to keep it simple,” King said. “It works when you’re both on the same page. It’s exciting to watch and it’s good for us because we have to wear teams down.”
Yan Stastny did not play Saturday because of a 103-degree temperature and he had strep throat. Stastny did practice today, but I don’t think he’ll play. It appears that Janssen and King will be in the lineup again, but don’t hold me to it.
Legace, the Twizzler’s man, will be in net.
JR
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