LATEST | Tocchet explains the reasons for his major line changes: One of the team's top scorers on the fourth line

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Felip Gosselin
April 7, 2023 (7:58 PM)

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Rick Tocchet took everyone by surprise when he announced this morning that he had offered his lines an almost complete revamp. After a 3-0 win against the Hawks, Tocchet fully metamorphosed his first line since Pettey now has two new wingers, while Andrei Kuzmenko and Anthony Beauvilier were now rotating on the team's fourth line with Aidan McDonough and Sheldon Dries.

Rick Tocchet then had the opportunity to speak to the media and offered explanations for his radical line changes:

''Just trying to get more offense, haven't seen a lot of offense last 3-4 games. I don't know, we had 5 or 6 chances against Chicago. Just trying to get more chemistry, plus it's a good time to try and get some life out of other lines''�

Tocchet referred to this as an opportunity for players to activate in playing with some of the leader guys (Vitaly Kravtsov with Elias Pettersson). The team's head coach also specified that it wasn't necessarily a punishment to have guys move around the lines. Kuzmenko has 37 goals on the season and added one more last night, but Tocchet felt like now was a good time to try a new mix and move players around to see if there could be some chemistry.

The Canucks will be playing their final game at home tomorrow when the Flames come for a visit. The team is currently trying to build new bases, standards, and surely culture for next year since the game's results are meaningless. It's definitely in everyone's best interest to try things out and see if we wouldn't be able to find unexpected chemistry!