Williams' possible replacement

Justin Williams had only been injured for about 20 minutes when Terry Murray talked to the media post-practice today, so he didn’t yet have a firm idea of what his lines might look like tonight. As reported earlier, Murray said Williams “has a little bit of a lower-body issue and is doubtful for the game tonight. … It just happened on the ice today, near the end of the practice actually, the last drill that we were going through.” Murray said Williams’ injury “will not be long term.”

Murray, understandably, was a little scattered in his immediate thoughts about who might be the first-line right wing. First he said he hesitated to break up other lines, which is a bit odd since the second and third lines have only been together for about 26 hours. Then, Murray discussed all of his potential options…

MURRAY: “I’ve got to think about that. I’m going to talk and make a decision on it, obviously for this evening. I’m a little hesitant, when a player gets injured, to break up another line, to move a player to that spot. I generally like to keep my second and third lines the same in this kind of situation, and move another player into that spot. Saying that, it could be (Trevor) Lewis. Harry (Peter Harrold) is my other option on the right side, so it could come down to one of those guys.”

Later, Murray was asked if moving Alexander Frolov into that spot was a possibility…

MURRAY: “It’s possible, absolutely. It’s possible that Teddy Purcell could go over there. Again, I’m getting into what I kind of want to stay away from, which is breaking up other lines, but absolutely it’s a possibility. We’ll see how things go. Fro on the right side, I don’t mind him on the right side. I thought he did a good job when we used him there last year, so that’s a possibility.

“I think also, in mentioning Purcell, he kind of complements that style of play, with the possession and making plays in the offensive zone. And Brownie (Dustin Brown) is an option there too. It’s nice to have that kind of flexibility, but it is short term. It might be only this one game that we’re talking about.”