Canucks Notebook: Kuzmenko’s return both encouraging and a little too familiar

NEW YORK — The return of the Lotto Line dominated the narrative around the Vancouver Canucks‘ 6-4 win Saturday against the New Jersey Devils, but the return of Andrei Kuzmenko was pretty good, too.

The $5.5-million winger emerged from his fifth healthy scratch of the season and quietly played a strong game on a newly-formed line with Ilya Mikheyev and centre Pius Suter.

Kuzmenko led the Canucks with six shots on target and a 78.6 per cent share of shot attempts. And while he still didn’t exactly lead the forecheck or physically separate anyone from the puck, the Russian was around the Devils’ net and skated hard on his backchecks. Alas, he didn’t score or register a point, which is really what will decide his future as a Canuck — if that hasn’t already been decided.

Kuzmenko’s line should have had at least one goal, but Mikheyev swung and missed from the top of the crease when Quinn Hughes beautifully set him up in the first period for what looked like an open-netter.

Coach Rick Tocchet made it clear during his pre-game media availability that he may be able to live with some of Kuzmenko’s deficiencies, to an extent, as long as the 27-year-old scores. He has eight goals in 33 games this season after scoring 39 last year.

“No offence, but if you’re less than a .500 team, you know, you get away with stuff,” Tocchet told reporters a couple of hours before puck drop. “To be a top team — not just Kuzie but everybody — if you’re depended on to be a middle-drive guy, you have to be middle drive. You can’t do it once in a while.

“We’ve just got to be careful on details. To strive for what we’re trying to accomplish, everybody’s got to be connected and do the right thing. Now, if you’re a little loosey-goosey, if you’re that type of player, if you get an opportunity (to score) then it’s got to be in the net. You can’t miss opportunities and also then on the other end, you’re loose. I think that’s kind of where we’re at with everybody.”

Tocchet said there was no “message” to Kuzmenko in sitting him out Thursday in St. Louis.

“Any player, I mean, I’ve had a message by a coach,” Tocchet said. “But after a while, it’s got to come from yourself. You know, you have to be able to do some stuff. Now you have to own it.”

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LOTTO DO ABOUT NOTHING

Before we move on from the absurd debate about whether the 6-40-9 Lotto Line is still the Lotto Line because Elias Pettersson played Saturday on the wing instead of centre, here is what J.T. Miller told Sportsnet about positional designations: “Back when we played together, I played centre pretty much the whole time. His number was on the board as 40 (at centre), but I took all the faceoffs. If you watch, whoever’s back first, stays low. It really doesn’t even matter what we put on the board for the lines, the first man back is low. I just take the draws.”

If you want to get technical about it, the Lotto Line was always a contrived label — like most — because numerically, Miller, Pettersson and Brock Boeser lined up as 9-40-6.

So, 946. Maybe they should be the Middle Ages Line, or Late For Work Line or the Millennium Line (because Wikipedia says the 946 AD eruption of Paektu Mountain in China and what is now North Korea was so immense, it is sometimes referred to as the Millennium Eruption).

Like we said, this discussion is silly, and we shall no longer contribute to it. But of course, any combination of Boeser, Miller and Pettersson is the Lotto Line.

CARSON CITY

If defenceman Nikita Zadorov returns from whatever minor injury Tocchet said kept him out of Saturday’s game, the Canucks could have their strongest lineup of the season when they face the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Monday night.

Out eight weeks due to a cracked bone in his lower leg, Carson Soucy successfully returned to the lineup against the Devils and logged a steady 20:19 of ice time, mostly alongside Tyler Myers on Vancouver’s second pairing.

“It felt good,” Soucy said after his first game since blocking a shot in Montreal on Nov. 12. “We’ve had a lot of practices and it worked out with the break (over the holidays) that it was ideal timing for coming back from an injury. I feel like I got enough reps to get that confidence back. Me and Myers like to talk a lot on the bench; that kind of just helped me get some of the nerves out.”

Soucy was the Canucks’ top free-agent acquisition last summer, signing a three-year deal worth $9.75 million to move up the highway from the Seattle Kraken. The 29-year-old from Alberta believes his transition back to playing will be smoother this time than when he returned from a pre-season injury in Game 3 of the regular season.

“I think that was probably (complicated) by just kind of coming into the season and not being comfortable quite yet,” Soucy explained. “But with this group and this system, I’m comfortable now.

“I think we did a good job of bringing guys in, but there are stars on this roster. I’ve seen that from playing in Seattle. You know, it was almost just confusing to me that they weren’t as solid the last couple years. But I definitely knew there was potential here, just with the skill and the players that were already in this locker room.”

Zadorov entered the locker room on Dec. 2 after a trade from the Calgary Flames. If he plays against the Rangers, the Canucks will have probably the largest bottom-four on defence in franchise history in Zadorov (six-foot-six, 248 pounds), Myers (6-8, 229), Soucy (6-5, 208) and Ian Cole (6-1, 225).

Soucy’s ice time Saturday was actually his season-high. He had the second assist on Conor Garland’s wraparound goal late in the second period and finished plus-two. Soucy had a crucial penalty-killing shift late in the third period, and shot attempts were 20-8 for the Canucks when he and Myers were on the ice at five-on-five.

MAESTRO MILLER

It’s common for a centre to reposition his wingers for a faceoff, but rare to see it on the opening draw at centre ice. Miller told Boeser and Pettersson to switch sides on the first faceoff, then huddled with defencemen Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek to explain what was happening.

What was Miller doing?

“I can’t tell you that because other people might find out,” Miller responded. “We always run a play off every draw, so we’re just trying to create some confusion and chaos. It’s one more thing to get people thinking about, especially off the hop of the game.”

Miller won the draw and the Canucks spent much of the opening shift in the Devils’ zone.

“I mean, I think he does that every game,” Boeser said of Miller’s orchestration. “That’s just who he is as a guy and a player. He likes to have a plan in place and usually it works.”

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