Any role suits Wheeler

Wheeler

WILMINGTON, Mass. — With 21 goals and a plus-36 rating, first-year pro Blake Wheeler enjoyed a successful rookie season in the NHL.

But even a performance like that through the grind of the 81 games doesn’t guarantee him a spot among the Bruins’ top nine forwards, or even their starting lineup, for the playoff opener against Montreal Thursday night at TD Banknorth Garden.

Today Wheeler practiced among a foursome of players wearing brick-red, fourth-line jerseys, along with usual fourth-liners Shawn Thornton, Stephane Yelle and Byron Bitz. Wheeler had finished up the regular season skating on the Bruins’ top line with Marc Savard and Phil Kessel. While these line combinations are always subject to change, it would appear that Wheeler is in a battle for playing time.

“You go out there and do your best and I have no control over what the lineup is. You’ve just got to go with it.,” said Wheeler post-practice, after admitting he didn’t know how to answer the question of whether he expects to be in the lineup against the Habs.

The conventional thinking would be that Bitz will be the odd-man out, just as he was in the aftermath of the Bruins’ trade-deadline day acquistion of Mark Recchi. But it’s worth pointing out that the Thornton-Yelle-Bitz combination has been the Bruins’ most reliable line in terms of night-in, night-out intensity, and also brings an element of physicality that it would lack with Wheeler riding the wing.

If he’s cast in a fourth-line role, Wheeler knows he’ll have to tweak his approach ever so slightly.

“You always approach the game the same way. You always kind of go into it the same way. But regardless of who you’re playing with, you have to find it within yourself to play your game and play the best you can,” he said. “If it’s with Thornty and Yeller, it’s a good opportunity because Yeller’s such a smart guy with the puck and Thornty is such a good forechecker that you’re going to be playing with the puck a lot and you’re going to have the opportunity to hopefully play in the offensive zone quite a bit and you’re not going to give up much. All year we’ve had four lines and guys have gone in and out and been interchangeable, and it’s been a great formula for us all year.”

Assuming he gets a sweater and sock hung in his stall before tomorrow’s game, Wheeler is prepared for the anxiety that will come with skating in his first NHL postseason game. And he already has a plan for how to handle it.

“I’m excited. You’re going to be a little nervous too, obviously that’s a part of it,” he explained. “But you’ve just kind of want to harness it and use it to the positive way instead of being timid or scared out there.”