Dineen shuffles the roster deck

The Portland Pirates were back on the ice today after having a day away from the arena. It was also the first time the Pirates were skating without the services of forwards Luke Adam, Colin Stuart and goaltender Jhonas Enroth.

Enroth joined Adam and Stuart after being recalled by the Sabres last night as Ryan Miller is still nursing a groin injury. Enroth will get the start tonight against Pittsburgh.

Pirates coach Kevin Dineen doesn’t plan on bringing anybody in to replace Stuart or Adam, but will take a wait-and-see approach before making any final decisions on player personnel.

He is expected to have another goaltender in town for Friday to replace Enroth.

“We’ve got to bring a goalie in,” he said. “We’re going to wait til after the game tonight in Buffalo. See how their health situation is and go from there.”

“We’ve got 18 healthy guys here ready to play this weekend,” he said.

During practice Dineen did shuffle the lines, moving Whitmore up to the top line with Matt Ellis and Mark Mancari. Corey Tropp was skating with Paul Byron and Mark Parrish. Defenseman Tim Conboy was moved to forward, playing left wing with Dennis McCauley and Travis Turnbull. Brian Roloff, Jacob Lagace and Maxime Legault filled out the fourth line.

“You get a couple guys called up and we’re giving a couple different looks and we’ll probably change them again tomorrow,” Dineen said. “Give everybody a feel with each other to build a little chemistry.”

With only 11 forwards in the lineup, moving Conboy to forward seem to be a natural option for Dineen because of his experience, playing forward with the Carolina Hurricanes.

“He played 50 games in the NHL as a forward,” Dineen said. “He’s such an enthusiastic leader/veteran player that wherever he’s needed, he’s going to hop in there.

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