Movin' on over

You can’t tell the players without a scorecard, as they say in baseball.

Oscar Moller moves from fourth-line winger to fourth-line center. Brad Richardson moves from fourth-line center to third-line left wing. Scott Parse moves from third-line left wing to third-line right wing.

None of those players will truly be out of position. Richardson is a natural center but has played plenty of wing in the past. The most interesting move is probably Moller’s move, since Moller, Terry Murray and Dean Lombardi have all talked about moving Moller to wing on a more permanent basis this season. But “need” wins out over “want,” so it’s back to center for Moller.

This morning, Moller talked about what he needs to focus on at center…

MOLLER: “Just playing the game of hockey. Center comes with more responsibilities, especially down low in your own zone, so I just have to make sure I take care of that and play solid. Just read and react, and play the game and have fun.”

Moller talked, recently, about being able to use his speed more as a winger. Today he was asked how the move back to center would impact that.

MOLLER: “It’s more about getting the puck with speed. You’re skating more at center, which is good, and you’re probably involved more, so you get the puck more with speed, I think.”

Murray was also asked about Moller’s move, and Murray brought up the fact that Harrold, who will start as the fourth-line right wing, also can play center.

MURRAY: “I talked to him [Moller] just a bit here on the ice. He has played only a little (center) in Manchester. I have a little bit of concern there, with that, but I think on the other side of it, with Harry on the right wing, that’s a role that I think he can deal with. I talked to him about it last year, at the end of the season, and in training camp. I think he can make that switch very easily.

“What happens, anyway, in your D-zone coverage, both those guys are, inevitably, going to be the low-tracking forward, assuming the center position, and I think they can make the adjustment, read off each other. But if it’s more comfortable for Harry, as a center iceman, as we go through it, then I’ll make that change right away.”