CHANGING THINGS UP

If Bill Peters hadn't left home in Killam to become a hockey coach, Derek Ryan has an inkling of where he might've wound up.
Under a Big Top somewhere. Or as a street busker. Or maybe as part of a travelling carnival.
"Bill,'' said the versatile centreman, from long-time experience, with a knowing smile, "likes to juggle.
"He isn't shy about putting the balls in the air.
"I think you guys are aware of that from the first seven-eighths of the season.
"He's never scared to shake up the lineup when things get a little stale. Whether he's putting guys in situations he thinks they deserve or he's just looking for a spark …
"Guys maybe get a little comfortable and he's trying to shake that out of them. That's his way of doing it.
"Definitely a big part of what Bill does to get a group going."

For Tuesday's practice, Peters, the ol' juggler, had performed more mix-'n-match stitching than can be found in granny's patchwork quilt.
Meaning on the eve of a visit from the Dallas Stars the attacking units consisted of:
Johnny Gaudreau - Derek Ryan - Michael Frolik
Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund - Elias Lindholm.
James Neal - Sean Monahan - Austin Czarnik.
Andrew Mangiapane - Mark Jankowski - Garnet Hathaway
"We're going to change it up, going into tomorrow,'' assured the Calgary boss. "We might go with what we saw today but that's up in the air a little bit.
"Different look, right? For everybody. It's impossible to split it up and keep certain lines together. We're going to talk about it a little bit more this afternoon."
The tinkering, Peters said, had nothing specifically to do with Monday's 3-0 loss to the LA Kings.

"Nah. It's something we knew we wanted to do coming down the stretch. Had a good conversation with Lindholm, putting him in the middle. I liked his feedback in that area.
"We need to have some versatility to us. We know the lineup we really like, that's very effective, that's gotten us to this point. We can go back to that any time."
The (temporary) disassembling of the top unit, so dynamic for so much of this season, is designed to benefit all three men. Outside of that one mega-night vivisection of New Jersey on March 12, when Gaudreau, Monahan and Lindholm collectively gorged themselves on 14 points collectively, it's been tough sledding recently for the offensive focal point of the Flames.
"We haven't been playing great. When that happens, things have to change,'' reasoned Monahan.
"We've played together basically all year. We had a long streak where we were really good. Myself, I haven't been good as of late. You get a new look, get your game going again, that's huge.
"It's just confidence. When you're confident out there, you've playing with pace, you're moving the puck around and you're feeling it.
"That's when things are happening.
"Right now, I don't feel that way.
"When things aren't going your way, you play frustrated. That's when you tend to tighten up your stick and not make the plays you want to.
"When you're coming into a game without that confidence … it's tough.
"You've got to be tough minded and ready to go each and every night."

Winger Frolik, most renowned for his work the 3M Line alongside Backlund and Tkachuk, has been moved around like chess piece often so far this campaign.
So another alternation in partnership is to be taken in stride.
"We'll see how it goes,'' he said. "It's a good thing, keeping your options open. But I believe in chemistry, too. Me, Backs and Chucky, when we get together, right away we know what to expect. It only takes a couple shifts to get back up to speed.
"It'll be fun to play with Johnny. We've played a couple of periods together now and then, on different nights. But certainly nothing through a stretch of games.
"Just give him the puck, open things up for him and let him make plays."
With the postseason closing in fast, experimentation now, of course, could pay vital dividends down the road. As Peters pointed out, there's always the tried-and-true to fall back on.
"Especially in playoffs,'' reminded Ryan, "it's important that if something's not working, you can go to something else having seen it succeed before.
"That's a part of it.
"Bill keeps his cards close to his chest but there are a lot of reasons for the things he does."
Tuesday, the old juggler had all kinds of balls floating in the air.
How many remain up there against the Stars is anyone' guess.
"If you're gonna shake it up,'' Peters reckoned, "let's shake it up."
More shake than Little Richard, this guy.