PHILADELPHIA — This is a dilemma that dogs and defines the Devils. Deadly as such a one-two punch may be, Ilya Kovalchuk and Zach Parise both play left wing, which means one superstar always will skate on the second line.
The order almost certainly will change, swing the other way, then change again. This week, it has been the $100 million man, Kovalchuk, working as the second-liner — all about a year since John MacLean tried to turn Kovalchuk into a right wing as his solution to the inevitable quandary.
Coach Pete DeBoer’s current answer has been to rejoin Patrik Elias, the transplanted left wing who has become their No. 1 center, with former A linemate, tryout Petr Sykora. Parise has been attached to that old partnership to form the nominal top line.
That solution puts Kovalchuk alongside sophomores Jacob Josefson and Nick Palmieri on what must be regarded as the second line.
Kovalchuk said he hopes Elias, Sykora and Parise go wild.
“I would be more than happy for them to be very successful,” Kovalchuk said. “When your top two lines play well, your team’s going to be successful.”
Kovalchuk seems to have accepted what necessarily follows from having two star left wings, that something, someone, has to give.
“It’s the coach’s decision — totally.” Kovalchuk said. “[Sykora] and Patty [Elias] played together before in the old days, and Zach would fit in anywhere because he works so hard, has great skills and can play both sides of the ice.”
During preseason, such as tonight when the Devils face the Flyers in Philadelphia, DeBoer might use one line one night, the other the next.
But come the regular season, a week from Saturday against these same Flyers in Newark, the situation will become real, the return of the dilemma deferred from last season when Parise missed most of the year from knee cartilage surgery.
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The Islanders visit Newark tomorrow, and the Flyers invade Sunday to complete preseason. . . . Anton Volchenkov returned to practice from what he said was a leg injury, and Dainius Zubrus sat out practice after skating lightly beforehand.
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DeBoer said that rather than a specific checking center or checking line, he wants a third and fourth line that can play with some identity.
“In order to do that, a coach has to feel comfortable that you can play against anybody, that there aren’t going to be matchup issues,” DeBoer said. “They have to be defensively responsible. They have to get over the boards and change the momentum of the game with a check, a shift or a hit. The short version is not a defensive center, but a couple of lines that can do a little bit of everything.”