Canes try a different combination

RALEIGH -- Rod Brind'Amour, a center nearly every game of his career, now is a left winger.

Eric Staal has been moved to the point on the power play.

Brandon Sutter has been recalled from the Albany River Rats and is the third-line center. Or will it be Jussi Jokinen?

While the Carolina Hurricanes are winless in their last six games, coach Paul Maurice recently made some moves that he believes will translate into victories, starting tonight against the St. Louis Blues at the RBC Center.

"We have to get it going," Brind'Amour said Tuesday. "We can't have any more down time."

Since the 7-2 win over the Florida Panthers on Oct. 7, the Hurricanes have gone 0-3-3, slipping further behind in the Southeast Division and Eastern Conference. Teams have lulls during a season. The Canes (2-5-3) have to hope theirs came early, realizing they now can't have another.

"We've kind of put that affordability out of the question," Brind'Amour said. "At least we have a lot of season. We don't have to get to the top of the leader board in a month, but we do need to be there at the end of the year. We've got to chip away and chip away and get back in it."

Maurice believes the tweaks made during last week's three-game road trip will help. Brind'Amour was shifted to the wing on Matt Cullen's line opposite Scott Walker. Staal went to the point. Sutter, called up Saturday, gives Maurice the flexibility of playing either Sutter or Jokinen at center on the third line.

Brind'Amour said he has played some on the wing during his career -- in his first year, with the Blues. But no complaints, he said.

"It doesn't really matter," he said. "As long as I'm getting out there, I don't care where it is.

"It's a little bit of an adjustment. You have to think a little differently. But your responsibilities are not that much different the way our system is."

Maurice said he liked the way the Cullen line has played.

"Every year people have to kind of reinvent themselves at times and Roddy looks good on the left wing," Maurice said. "They're generating a lot of chances. Scotty Walker brings a little bark into that line."

Staal said he likes taking over the point on the power play.

"I'm able to handle the puck a little bit more back there," he said. "Obviously, you can carry it up the ice, too. You can see the whole ice - see everything in front of you. When there's a hole, you can jump into it.

"We've got some pretty good guys up front offensively that can hang on to it. It's a good, different look. We've scored a couple of power-play goals the last few games and hopefully it will continue to get better."

In Tuesday's practice, Maurice had Staal and Joni Pitkanen at the points, with Brind'Amour, Ray Whitney and Sergei Samsonov.

"With Staal on the back end, it's a little more of a threat," Maurice said. "When we play Washington or we play Atlanta, there are a couple of guys you don't want shooting the puck. When teams come to play us they say, 'That's fine, that's fine, we'll give you that but we're not going to give you anything from Eric Staal off the half-wall or down low.'

"So we move him out there, he's harder to cover. And we give him a little more room to move out there, as well. Maybe generate some offense by the goalie having to stop the first shot and maybe getting some rebounds."

Another emphasis tonight will be in eliminating careless penalties. Aggressive play can lead to penalties, Maurice said, but there have been too many of the needless, lazy variety.

Stephane Yelle, placed on waivers Monday by the Hurricanes, cleared waivers Tuesday.

The Hurricanes again will be without defenseman Tim Gleason, who is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury. And forward Tuomo Ruutu will sit out the second game of his three-game suspension.

"There's been some better hockey by us the last couple of games," Staal said. "Obviously it didn't translate into what we want, but no one's going to feel sorry for us. We're going to have to work out of this."