ANAHEIM >> As expected, veteran forward Antoine Vermette on Friday appealed a 10-game suspension imposed by the NHL one day earlier for striking a linesman in the back of the leg with his stick during the Ducks’ 1-0 victory Tuesday over the Minnesota Wild.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman could reduce Vermette’s penalty to five games or even three.
Meanwhile, the Ducks moved swiftly to prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. Vermette, who in addition to scoring eight goals and 22 points in 58 games before his suspension, has won 62.4 percent of his faceoffs, second-best in the league going into Friday.
Ducks coach Randy Carlyle shuffled his lines for Friday’s game against the Florida Panthers at Honda Center by inserting rookie Ondrej Kase into Vermette’s spot on right wing, forming a line with Ryan Getzlaf at center and Jakob Silfverberg flipping to left wing from right wing.
In addition, Carlyle said he would rely more heavily on Nate Thompson to take some of the faceoffs that ordinarily would have been assigned to Vermette. Thompson played for only the eighth time this season after missing 51 games because of an Achilles tendon injury.
“You have to tap into your depth,” Carlyle said after the Ducks’ morning skate. “I think Nate Thompson would be a guy who’s going to be expected to play a little more now. He’s another left-handed center iceman who can take some defensive-zone faceoffs.”
Thompson also could play an expanded role on the Ducks’ penalty-killing unit.
“I feel good physically,” he said. “I feel good skating-wise. Certain parts of my game I would like to get better, but I think being out as long as I have there’s a little bit of a phase I guess you have to go through and get everything in sync. But it’s going well. I feel good physically.”
Carlyle also said Rickard Rakell could get more ice time as a center. Rakell has centered a line with Nick Ritchie on left wing and Corey Perry on right wing recently, as Carlyle sought a way to inject more scoring depth into his lineup by splitting up Getzlaf and Perry.
In addition, the Ducks recalled center Corey Tropp from their AHL team in San Diego. Tropp didn’t make his Ducks debut Friday against Florida, however. He has played 148 games in the NHL with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Buffalo Sabres, but none since 2014-15.
Vatanen returns
Defenseman Sami Vatanen returned to the Ducks’ lineup after sitting out for five games because of a lower-body injury suffered during a Feb. 3 game against the Panthers in Sunrise, Fla. Vatanen formed a defense pair with Kevin Bieksa for the Ducks’ rematch Friday against the Panthers.
“It’s day-to-day. It always goes like that,” Vatanen said after the morning skate when asked if his return took longer than he expected. “It’s just little things. You put yourself in the wrong spot and it doesn’t feel so good. Now it feels good and I can’t wait to play.”
The Ducks assigned Shea Theodore to San Diego to make room for Vatanen on the roster.
“Of course it’s tough eating the popcorn in the press box,” Vatanen said of his five-game absence from the lineup. “It’s not very fun. You gain some weight. I can’t wait to play again. I’m not a big cookie guy. I like more the popcorn and the pretzels.”
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
