To his credit, Pavol Demitra took the demotion like a good team player.

BY MARK SPECTOR
sportsnet.ca

LOS ANGELES -- Alain Vigneault is in a tough place.

Andrew Alberts was the big trade deadline acquisition of Vigneault's boss, Canucks GM Mike Gillis. Meanwhile Gillis also has a long-term relationship with the flagging Pavol Demitra, first as Demitra's agent and now as the GM who signed him to that two-year, $8-million deal.

But if the morning skate is any indication -- and it is a darned good one -- Alberts is out for Game 3 and Demitra is being demoted to the fourth line to play with Tanner Glass and Jannik Hansen.

Join Mark Spector for a live chat Tuesday afternoon from Los Angeles. Time will be determined when we know the team practice schedules.

To his credit, the often sullen Demitra took the demotion like a good team player. "We have to do whatever to win the game. I hope this is going to help. We'll see tonight," said Demitra, who averaged 18:30 of ice time in Games 1 and 2, but has drawn the ire of Vigneault.

Has he been frustrated?

"Not really," said the 35-year-old, who played with Ryan Kesler and Mikael Samuelsson for the first two games of this series. "Especially the second game, our line had a very strong game. We got a lot of chances, we scored a goal, and I think we could have scored a lot more."

A pending UFA who may well take his game back home to Slovakia after this season, a younger Demitra may have popped off at the demotion. But not anymore.

"It's the playoffs. I want to win, so whatever it takes," he said diplomatically. "I've been in the league for so long, I want to win. If this is going to help…

"I'll take whatever they're going to give me and use it."

As for Glass, playing his first ever NHL playoff game, he's just going play like a table hockey player. Go to the net, stick on the ice.

"I played with him a couple of times in the regular season," Glass said of Demitra. "Over those games I maybe wasn't expecting the pass a couple of times when I should have been.

"It's just about getting your stick on the ice more in the offensive zone. He'll put it right on your tape when you're not expecting it."

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Poor Alberts.

The Canucks defenceman is wearing a big bull's eye in Vancouver, with fans and media looking to lay blame for the fact that four of the five Kings goals have come on the power play. A more misleading stat has the Canucks averaging more penalty minutes per game than any other team in these playoffs at 16.5 minutes per night, though that includes the major and game misconduct given Alberts in Game 1.

And now the nicknames have begun.

"A Minor." "Andrew A-H-L-berts."

A press box vulcher points out the irony that the one Canucks player with the initials A.A. is driving his coach to drink.

Vigneault wouldn't confirm that Alberts is out and Aaron Rome is in tonight for Game 3, but that's the switch that will be made.

The Canucks have been assessed 10 penalties in total through two games. Alberts has taken six of those. Even Vigneault went from issuing a passionate defence of the player before Game 2, to admitting afterwards, "Obviously, his penalties weren't very good."

Aw, maybe we're going too far with those nicknames. We apologize, courtesy these lyrics from Paul McCartney:

"We're so sorry, Uncle Alberts. But (you) haven't done a bloody thing all day…"

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My, how the Sedin brothers have matured both on and off the ice.

Long gone are the days when people questioned their ability to lead a team to a Stanley Cup. Today, they are comfortable in their roles, and completely aware that people will judge them by the quantity of their points more than the quality of their play.

"We didn't score (in Game 2). That's the bottom line," said Daniel. "We're pretty good at analyzing games, and I think we played better in the second game.

"In the regular season you can kind of build yourselves up by saying those things. In the playoffs, it can end pretty quickly if you don't score. It's totally fair."

You're not going to believe this, but an independent study shows that Henrik's viewpoint on this issue is identical to his brother's.

"We know we have to score. If you look at it that way, it wasn't a good game at all," Henrik said of Game 2. "If you look at the game you're going to see us having five, six Grade A, really good chances. The first game we didn't have as many chances, but we had two points each.

"It's been like this way since we came over (from Sweden). That's the way it is," Henrik continued. "In the playoffs, it doesn't matter how good you play. If you don't score and you don't win, it still doesn't look good. And it doesn't feel good."