In Adam Foote’s answer Thursday morning about his deployment of Elias Pettersson on Tuesday, there was really only one thing that was interesting to me: the admission of the obvious, that the game was well and truly lost in the third period and it made no sense, in a league where the schedule is absolutely punishing, to keep throwing him out.

The Canucks were coming off a brutal three in less than four days, playing their fourth in six days, bridging into another four in six through this weekend. With his lineup short of experience, Adam Foote said he figured why burn out his best centre.

That’s an important thing. Hockey teams have long been afraid to talk openly about the idea of load management, but here it was, and here was the coach being honest about it.

Of course there was the qu

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