2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs Blog - Conference Quarter-finals

Is there anything more tiresome or a greater waste of time than a Mats Sundin scrum? The man moved far more deftly than at any time he's been on the ice by doging all the questions about his absence in Game 3 and the possibility of him playing Game 4.

He did make one slip however, admitting that in fact he did hurt himself in the third period not the first period (which Alain Vigneault claimed in his post-game news conference Sunday iin what appeared to be a deliberate attempt to mislead people).

"I haven't spoken to the doctor yet today," said Sundin after missing the Canuck practice Monday, he believed to have either a groin or hip problem. "We'll see how it feels tomorrow."

Given Vancouver is up 3-0 in the series, it's unlikely he'll play Tuesday night, for if Vancouver win they will free up at least another week for him to rest whatever ails him to get him ready for the next series. If they lose, Game 5 isn't until Friday so that would be a week between games to treat the injury and Vigneault slipped up a little in his attempt to cloak what was happening when he talked about how the lines will be handled for Game 4.

"We've got some things we're thinking about trying," said Vigneault, forgetting perhaps that if Sundin were a possiblity, there would be no such thoughts, the team pretty committed to Sundin playing with Pavol Demitra and Ryan Kesler.

BLUE JUGGLING

Andy Murray apparently is going to change his lines for Game 4, moving young David Perron off the disappointing kid line and putting him with Andy McDonald and David Backes, at least that's the way they practised. That frees up Brad Boyes to play with T.J. Oshie and Keith Tkachuk while the other two lines which have been invisible the entire series continue on their merry way toward oblivion.

The Kid line has obviously been in need of some sort of jolt, generating just the one point on a change when Perron made the play to McDonald for the Blues second goal in Game 3. Otherwise it's been all doughnuts for a line that helped get St. Louis into the playoffs.

Keith Tkachuk didn't practice preferring to rest his body which is 37-year-old and looking to depart the playoffs in the first round for the 11th time in his 13 post-season appearances.

CANUCKS WANT A BETTER START

Foremost on the minds of most Canucks and their coach after Game 3 was to improve on how they start the game.

"I guess it's human nature that when the other team has it's fans going and they're down in the series that maybe they're going to start quicker than us but we've got to do a better job of responding," said Alex Burrows of the fact the Canucks could easily have been overwhelmed had the Blues been able to make it 2-0 with all the power play time they enjoyed in the first period.

"We really want to stress our start Tuesday night," said Vigneault, who said he was happy with the way his team responded afterwards but didn't like the idea of taking so many penalties.

The Canucks have now given up three 5-on-3 situations which have lasted over a minute in the series. Fortunately the Blues power play has been a dismal 1 of 17 while the Canucks have four power-play goals despite the loss of Sundin.

LUONGO TAKES A BREAK

Roberto Luongo took a rare practice off to rest his weary body, the man finally showing some signs of maturity instead of working himself into a situation where he tires as he may have done two years ago despite his heroicplay.

One of the Canucks equipment guys put on the equipment and played in one goal with Jason Labarbera at the other end to the general amusement of all.

Luongo is desperate to shake the reputation of never having taken his team anywhere and feels this is his best chance to take a deep run since he came into the league with the Islanders and then proceeded on to Florida.