Photo Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin/USA TODAY Sports

Willie Desjardins is loyal to his players. Sometimes to a fault, as he himself has admitted.

With Alex Burrows out of the Canucks lineup for Game 4 with what’s reported to be a broken rib injury sustained a Tuesday’s game-day skate, it was assumed that recently recalled forward Sven Baertschi might draw into the Canucks lineup. That won’t be the case though. 

Instead Linden Vey is expected to make his playoff debut in Game 4, according to Sportsnet’s John Shannon.

This move is sure to cause a good deal of second guessing in the Vancouver market, particularly because patience for Vey’s performance wore thin down the stretch when Brad Richardson was out of the lineup. A versatile player who can draw in at centre or at wing, Vey struggled to generate offense or drive play at even-strength in his first full year of NHL duty, and he was often lost in matchups against heftier teams. 

Of course, we should mention that the Flames aren’t one of those heftier teams.

By the underlying numbers Baertschi produced points at twice the rate Vey did this season, and had a modestly larger defensive impact – in terms of team-relative shot attempts against rate – than Vey. Overall though Vey is a roughly third-line caliber shot suppressor at even-strength, and one suspects that his perceived advantages over Baertschi in his own end are part of the reason he’ll draw into the lineup on Tuesday night.

It’ll be interesting to see whether or not Vey lines up with the twins – he only logged about 18 minutes 5-on-5 with Henrik Sedin during the regular season – or whether Radim Vrbata returns to top-line duty, with Vey perhaps joining Nick Bonino and Chris Higgins on the second line. 

Another possible option could see Shawn Matthias take Vrbata’s second-line spot, while Vey skates with Brad Richardson and Derek Dorsett on the fourth line. 

Worrying too much about this is a bit besides the point though, considering the balanced fashion with which Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins doles out ice time at even strength. Wherever Vey lines up, he’ll probably play 11 minutes or more, particularly if he replaces Alex Burrows on the second power-play unit.

If in fact the decision is to play Vey in Burrows’ stead and scratch Baertschi, then this seems like the safe, dull and loyal choice by Desjardins and the Canucks. 

What do you think about the decision dear readers?