Rick Bowness was asked about the different looks in his top six forward group.
"Well, we have to change something up, at six (losses) games in a row. The Ehlers-Monahan-Toffoli line has been our best line. I hate to do that," said Bowness.
"That being said we know that Nik and Mark and Gabe have had some success together before. We need those two lines to be going. We finally get that Ehlers-Monahan-Toffoli line going but now the other line’s not going. So we switch it up and see if we can get those two lines being a threat."
Gabe Vilardi will be playing his second game in a row, he played just under 18 minutes (17:52) on Saturday and managed two shots on goal.
“I think my conditioning was better than I thought it would be," said Vilardi of his first game in over a month.
"My legs were good. It’s just the timing of a lot of things.”
Vilardi played with Scheifele and Ehlers for a long stretch from mid-December until January 11, Vlad Namestnikov centred Vilardi and Ehlers for one game during that run.
“I don’t know if I can really explain. Just playing off each other. Three different skill sets I’d say," said Vilardi on why the three have had success together.
"Playing with Fly he creates a lot off the rush. He’s very smart. Great skating in the neutral zone and quick in transition. That’s fun to play with. Obviously Mark’s a very good player, very smart on the ice. We’ll see, hopefully we can create some offence.”
This is just the second time in 28 contests that Kyle Connor won't start the night on Scheifele's left side. He has gone six games without a goal after scoring in three straight.
"I think, as a group, we just need to be ramping up a lot more," said Connor.
"Everybody can give a little bit better for the guy next to him and I think it will make a big difference."
Bowness has also made some changes to his defence pairings:
Morrissey - Pionk
Samberg - DeMelo
Dillon - Schmidt
"It’s a little bit of everything. You’ve got to try different things. We can’t keep running back the same pairs, we can’t keep running back the same lines," said Bowness.
"That’s enough. Six games in a row. It’s nice to say we hung in there and we had a chance, but there’s no moral victories. We have to find a way to get the two points."
Laurent Brossoit will start in goal tonight, he has a .945 save percentage in his last five appearances.
