Defenseman Jaroslav Modry is not expected to play tonight because he still dealing with the death of his father. Lasse Kukkonen will replace him. Also, Riley Cote will take Mike Kunble's spot in the lineup, but John Stevens has shuffled his lines a bit.
Joffrey Lupul moves up to the second line to replace Knuble, Patrick Thoresen moves up to the third to take Lupul's place and Cote slides in on the fourth unit. It seems like a lot of fiddling to get a guy who probably won't play more than four minutes in the game. Dressing a seventh defenseman (Ryan Parent) to help keep Derian Hatcher's and Jason Smith's minutes down in case there is a Game 7 tomorrow night was another option, but Stevens went with Cote.
We'll see if that has any impact. I won't be surprised if Cote picks a fight early to justify his presence, but I doubt it would be with Donald Brashear. That didn't go very well for Cote earlier in the year.
