from miami herald.......
Midway through his near-soliloquy, Keenan said, ``The skilled players aren't getting their noses dirty and making a difference, being willing to sacrifice themselves more consistently. That's how you turn in a performance level that starts to develop your team to where you can be considered to be more of a competitor. Now, the translation.
"Skilled players'' refers to center Viktor Kozlov, left wing Kristian Huselius and right wing Valeri Bure. None of the three distinguished himself Saturday, especially Kozlov.
Six missed nets, one a gift open-net rebound, lowlighted Kozlov's evening. He quickly ducked out of the locker room after the game. Bure, in his second game after a return from knee surgery, created few scoring chances. Huselius, still light from his stomach infection problems, came off as too genteel for a hard game with Washington.
Discussing the lagging Panthers power play -- two for 31 this calendar year -- Keenan threw some roses toward Bowman, who coached Montreal's great 1970s teams. In the process, he again sideswiped Kozlov.
``When it's not there, we've tried to ask them to establish a point shot,'' Keenan said. ``Just take the point shot and look for the rebound opportunity. I can always, I guess, go back in the history of the game and the great Montreal Canadiens teams. They had eight losses, I believe, one year [1976-77]. When things didn't go well for the power play, all they did was put [defenseman] Larry Robinson in front of the net and shoot the puck. Well, Kozlov's as big as Larry or any other player that wants to go into the trenches and wade in there.''
Translation: Kozlov's too big to play so soft. Also, if he doesn't want to shoot from the comfort of the outside, he can be positioned amid the crosschecks and slashes in front of the net.
That's unlikely, though, because that's where the Panthers will play Saturday's waiver wire pickup, 6-5 right wing Pierre Dagenais
Paul Laus returned to a familiar spot during Tuesday's practice. He was back on the blue line to keep his defensive skills from atrophying. Laus has gone back and forth between forward and defense for most of his career with Florida.
``It's a little bit of a tough assignment, but it's a good assignment to go back and forth,'' Keenan said. ``We may call on him in different situations and I want him to have familiarity with both positions. That's not to say he'll play defense [tonight], but I want him feeling good about his game.''
