Vancouver Canucks: Should They Rest Key Players before the Playoffs?

The Canucks have nothing left to play for, at least not in regard to the standings.

They have already won the Presidents' Trophy for best regular season record, and their last four games are against the lowly Edmonton Oilers (15th in the West), Minnesota Wild (11th in the West) and Calgary Flames (ninth in the West).

Edmonton and Minnesota have already been eliminated from making the playoffs, and by the time the Canucks play Calgary on April 9, the Flames should have been eliminated as well.

These games are worthless in the standings, and aren't even against good competition, unlike the Canucks recent games against playoff teams in LA, Nashville and Detroit.

In terms of individual stats, barring Stamkos or St. Louis putting up three points a game over the last week of the season, Daniel Sedin has clinched the Art Ross trophy as scoring champion as well. 

Henrik Sedin surely wouldn't mind a few more points to pass St. Louis and finish second to Daniel in the scoring race (a historic first in NHL history if it happens), and Roberto Luongo wouldn't mind a few more wins, maybe even a shutout or two, to pad his stats in hopes of a Vezina Trophy, but really, this team doesn't care about individual accomplishments, they just want to win a Cup.

So the question being asked in Vancouver is, should the Canucks rest key players before the playoffs?

In short, no.

The argument for resting players is to keep them fresh for the playoffs and prevent any possible injury from derailing the Canucks' season. 

You could do so by either reducing the minutes played by key players (i.e. Kesler) or by simply scratching star players for the last week of the season. Under Scotty Bowman, Detroit used to do this all the time with their veteran players. For example, Igor Larionov seemed to develop a chronic injury every March that could only be healed through a week off in Florida.

The argument against resting players is far more persuasive.

Momentum

The Canucks are currently 9-1 in their last 10 games, and are riding a five-game winning streak, both of which are tops in the NHL currently. 

Why squander that momentum by sitting out the starters that got them to this point and risk backing into the playoffs by losing games to non-playoff teams?

Key point: There has been quite a discussion about the President's trophy not meaning much, as recent winners in San Jose (2008-2009 winner) and Washington (2009-2010 winner) both were upset in the first round by an eighth seed.

However, when you look at their records, both teams coasted into the playoffs and wasted their momentum from monster regular seasons, playing roughly .500 hockey down the stretch. The Sharks lost five of their last 10 games (5-4-1) and the Capitals lost four of their last 10 games (6-1-3). 

The last Presidents' Trophy winner to win the Stanley Cup was the Detroit Red Wings in 2007-2008 (as an aside, Mikael Samuelsson was part of that team). They didn't coast into the playoffs, instead going 7-2-1 down the stretch. 

Would you rather the Canucks emulate the Red Wings or the Sharks? That should be a no-brainer for Canucks fans, and a big hint as to what the Canucks will do, as GM Mike Gillis has repeatedly stated that he is patterning the Canucks after the Red Wings.

Injuries

Yes, anyone could be injured at any time. Just look at what happened to Malhotra off an innocent shoot in. But risk of injury is a part of the game, and you can't get around injuries, so there isn't any point in trying to eliminate them completely. 

What the Canucks can do is maybe tell Torres and Bieksa not to get into any fights and risk hand injuries, but aside from that, there isn't much you can do but remind the skaters to keep their heads up. Plus, the Canucks have been dealing with injuries all year long. I think they can handle another four games.

Keeping Players Fresh for the Playoffs

Now, I did say above that the Canucks should try and emulate the Red Wings. And the Red Wings regularly rested veteran players like Larionov. But when they were doing that, Larionov was forty. The Canucks key players are all on the sunny side of 30, so that isn't such an issue.

Plus, the Canucks have been doing a great job of managing ice time all season long. Daniel Sedin (18:33) and Henrik Sedin (19:18) are first and third overall in the scoring race, and average the least ice time of any of the top 20 scorers in the NHL, with the exception of Teemu Selanne, the ageless Finnish Flash. Ryan Kesler is 13th in scoring, but even with all his time on the penalty kill, he only averages 20:35 per game, below the average of about 22 minutes for a top scorer. 

Roberto Loungo is leading the NHL in wins (37) while only playing 58 games this year, significantly below the 73 (68 NHL, 5 Olympic) games he played last season, or the 76 and 73 game seasons he logged earlier in his Vancouver tenure (he only played 54 in 2008-2009, but that was due to injury).

When you compare him to the other top five goalies in wins, you see that Carey Price (35 wins in 69 games), Ilya Bryzgalov (35 wins in 65 games) and Miikka Kiprusoff (35 wins in 69 games) all have played significantly more games.

So the Canucks are already doing a great job minimizing the ice time of their top players, and there isn't any real reason to change.


Chemistry

The Canucks currently have two forwards (Mikael Samuelsson and Tanner Glass) out with injuries, and they are both expected back in time for the playoffs. They are also auditioning players internally amongst the starters to fill the third line centre role with the season ending eye injury to Manny Malhotra.

Head Coach Alain Vigneault is trying to come up with the best possible line combinations before the playoffs, so it doesn't make sense to rest healthy forwards and throw things off even more. Every possible line on the Canucks could be impacted by this shuffling, even the Sedin/Burrows top line. 

It is possible that given the loss of Malhotra, Vigneault might lean on Ryan Kesler (a Selke nominee) to play head to head against the opposing top line. And if that is the case, Alex Burrows might drop down to play with his old line mate (and current PK partner) to form a good two-way checking line with some scoring punch. If that happens, look to see Samuelsson reprising his starting role from last year's playoffs (eight goals and 15 points in 12 games) on the top line with the Sedins.

In terms of the defense, the Canucks have started 13 different defencemen this year due to injuries.

Currently Christian Erhoff, Kevin Bieksa, Sami Salo, Keith Ballard and Aaron Rome are healthy (knock on wood), while Alex Edler, Andrew Alberts, Dan Hamhuis and Chris Tanev are out with injuries. 

Edler (back surgery) and Alberts (broken wrist) have started practicing with the team, and should get in a few regular season games. 

Dan Hamhuis suffered a concussion against St. Louis and is still out, although he says he is feeling good and will be back before the playoffs. 

Chris Tanev suffered an upper body injury against the Kings on Thursday night, but is a game-time decision for tonight's game vs. the Oilers, so he should be fine for the playoffs.

Vigneault needs to work the returning defencemen into the lineup, and try to figure out defence pairings so that the new partners can get some game time together to build chemistry. So again, it doesn't make sense to rest someone like Sami Salo (the most likely candidate to be injured at any time) when Salo is trying to build some chemistry with a new partner.

In terms of the goalies, it has already been announced that super backup Cory Schneider will start Saturday vs. the Oilers. I'd expect Schneider and Luongo to alternate starts down the stretch, which will give Schneider the start against the Wild, a team Luongo has historically had problems with. 

The Canucks want to hit the first game of the playoffs already up to speed, to get that all important first win at home, as well as dispel any talk of the Presidents' Trophy curse. So it just doesn't make sense to rest players.