Vancouver Canucks coach Alain Vigneault has had to take a more defensive approach recently as goaltender Roberto Luongo has been performing below standard.

So Ryan Kesler and Alex Burrows have racked up more ice time as checkers than Daniel and Henrik Sedin, who have accounted for 31 of the Canucks' 128 goals this season.

But Vigneault told the media on Tuesday he wouldn't change tactics when his winless-in-four club hosts the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday (7 p.m. PT).

So expect Kesler and Burrows, who held Minnesota's Marian Gaborik to three shots in Monday's 4-2 loss, to shadow Blues leading scorer Paul Kariya (42 points) and his linemate Brad Boyes.

The latter has already established a career-high in goals with 27 in 46 games this season.

"They did a great job in shutting down a pretty special player [in Gaborik]," said Vigneault of Kesler and Burrows. "If you shut those [highly skilled] guys down, in my mind, you give yourself a really good chance to win the game."

The offensively challenged Canucks have had little chance to win games this season unless Luongo steals the spotlight. But his save percentage has crept above .880 just once in the last five games, four of them losses.

It's a far cry from November when the six-foot-three goaltender posted eight victories, a 1.56 goals-against average and .940 save percentage. Since then, Luongo has eight wins in 18 starts.

"You cannot win in the NHL in today's hockey with good goaltending. You have to have very good to great goaltending," Vigneault said. "When we were on a winning run [a 17-5-4 stretch before Christmas] we were getting a little bit more timely saves."

Vigneault played down the notion that Luongo's injured rib is a factor.

"He's managing it properly," Vigneault said of Luongo's injury, which occurred on Dec. 2.

The Sedins, meanwhile, have said they like to play early and often in games to get into the flow, but Henrik currently ranks 57th (19 minutes, four seconds) in the league in average ice time, while Daniel is 71st (18:47).

"When you get behind [in games], I think you have to get away from [line matching] a little bit," Daniel Sedin suggested.

On Jan. 13, the Sedin twins combined for five points in regulation against St. Louis and then watched Alex Edler cap a 4-3 triumph in the shootout.

The Canucks (25-19-5) are clinging to the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with 55 points, one more than Nashville and Columbus.

The Blues (22-18-6) sit five points back in 12th spot and have three games in hand on Vancouver.

But St. Louis has dropped five in a row, including a 6-3 decision to Nashville on Monday in the second leg of a home-and-home series against the Predators.

The Blues have been outscored 26-13 during their longest losing streak of the season and, like Vancouver, haven't received stellar netminding from Manny Legace (0-2-1 with a 4.03 GAA in past four starts).

"We haven't paid as much attention to detail," coach Andy Murray told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Some of our players that we expected to be better have not been better."

Next game for the Canucks is after the all-star break, versus the Dallas Stars on Jan. 29.