George Richards, FHN Publisher
A few years ago, the Florida Panthers had success by moving defenseman Mark Pysyk up to their fourth forward line.
Keith Yandle called his pal Pysyk a ‘Prius,’ because he was “a hybrid who can do it all.’’
The Panthers have gone back in time — only this time Yandle is not around to give Uvis Balinskis a cool nickname.
To stick with the Toyota hybrid theme, perhaps ‘Yaris Balinskis?’
Nah. We’ll stick with Uvis.
And he is doing the Panthers a solid.
When Joel Quenneville asked Pysyk to play up as a forward in 2019, it was done to not only give the team some needed depth on their fourth line, but give Pysyk a chance at some playing time of which he was not getting at the time.
Balinskis is basically helping the Panthers out in a time of need.
With Sasha Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk out to injury and illness, and the Panthers up against the salary cap, Florida has no available bodies and are playing 11 forwards and seven defensemen.
“We are kind of in a tough situation right now, can’t call anyone up,’’ he said. “Paul came up to me and asked if I could do it for him. ‘No problem.’ It’s interesting, but I am having fun with it.’’
Knowing that Balinskis was once a forward back in his younger days, coach Paul Maurice came up to him and asked if he would play some shifts with Patrick Giles and Jonah Gadjovich.
So far, it has worked out.
“I have never played forward professionally, but I did as a kid,” Balinskis said after Florida’s 4-3 win in Columbus on Tuesday night. “I was 14 or 15 when I switched to being a d-man, so I kind of know what to do on offense.”
Maurice said that knowing Balinskis used to be a forward put it in the back of his mind that this is a move which could work.
Balinskis was averaging about 10 minutes a game in his new role before only playing 3:53 on Thursday night after Gadjovich got hurt early and Maurice went heavy with three lines.
“Most of his career, when he was younger, was as a forward,” Maurice said. “And when you watch him play, you can see that skill set of a forward. He has good hands, he can make plays, he tight-turns. He looks like he has spent a lot of time with the puck as a forward. And he is a gamer.
“Here’s the thing about Uvis: I did not really care for his game in the final exhibition against Los Angeles. We’re trying to pick guys … but he played so damn hard that I could not take him out of the lineup. And I really liked his next game in the opener against Boston. I just really love how hard he plays. I am willing to forgive so many mistakes players make, and won’t even say a word to them, when they play as hard as he does. Uvis has that part figured out. I think he can play here a long, long time.”
Barkov and Tkachuk are expected to be back soon; Florida is hopeful that Tkachuk can return Tuesday against Minnesota with Barkov not long afterward.
Balinskis has been running Florida’s second power-play unit, so, he will likely stay in the lineup even when the Panthers go back to playing 12 forwards and sic defensemen.
Still, this experiment has given something Maurice to chew on in the future and gives him some flexibility with the salary cap situation not going away.
“It’s obviously a little different than playing on defense, just in knowing where to go,” Balinskis said. “There have been a couple of times where I felt a little lost out there. But, I think I have done a pretty good job.’’
ON DECK: GAME NO. 7
VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS AT FLORIDA PANTHERS