Babcock said after Game 4 that he's not "a big change guy" and thought his team had been doing fine but an early deficit persuaded him to throw a new wrinkle at the Ducks.
The Ducks didn't handle it well, turning the puck over repeatedly, taking bad offensive zone penalties (where have we heard that before?) and spending only 49 seconds on the power play. Goaltender Jonas Hiller was less than stellar, but he didn't get much help from his defensemen or his forwards.
"Hossa probably feels like the weight of the world is off his back, which is great for him," Babcock said.
"He's an elite player and they're all big bodies and they can all skate. It's an opportunity to send a different look. Datsyuk and Zetterberg played really well together so that should be good."
Good enough, probably, to sway the series in Detroit's direction.
"Sometimes when things don't go your way a little shakeup doesn't hurt," Hossa said.
The question becomes what options do the Ducks have to shake things up?
Short answer: Not many.
Carlyle on Thursday made a move he has done before, taking Bobby Ryan off the top line and replacing him with Ryan Carter to get the more physical Carter with Getzlaf and Corey Perry. Ryan had a tremendous rookie season but has been out of his depth in this series, especially defensively. He'll learn and he'll be better in years to come but that won't help the Ducks now.
The second line of center Andrew Ebbett, right wing Teemu Selanne and whomever Carlyle throws on the left side has underperformed in this round, too. Selanne has scored twice but was invisible in Game 4 and took no shots. Ebbett isn't winning faceoffs -- he's five for 22 in the series -- and he's getting pushed around by a team that's labeled as skillful but has size to go with its agility.
The Miller-Marchant-Rob Niedermayer line has produced some chances, notably Marchant's triple-overtime winner in Game 2, but Miller has muffed a couple of breakaways that could have meant a lot to a team that's relying on the Getzlaf line for most of its scoring. Getzlaf, apparently ailing, played only 15 minutes, 55 seconds in Game 4 but the extra day of rest before Game 5 should help him. The extra day should also help James Wisniewski, who planned to skate today for the first time since suffering a bruised lung in Game 3.
Carlyle always says the next game is the Ducks' most important game of the season. This one could be their season. It's a game of adjustments, and it's the Ducks' turn to find some that work.
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helene.elliott@latimes.com
