ST. PAUL – When Kevin Bieksa was nailed on the left foot by Nick Schultz' shot halfway through the first period of the Canucks' game with the Wild here, you could almost read the dialogue balloon over his head as he limped to the bench.

For a second it looked like the Canucks would be down yet another defenceman, bringing the walking wounded blueliners to six.

But Bieksa walked it off down the tunnel and came back out for the next shift.

“The first thing that ran through my mind were a couple swear words when I got back to the bench,” quipped Bieksa. “I went out the next shift and played decent. We'll see how it is tomorrow.”

Bieksa added that he thought he'd be fine to play in Nashville on Thursday, but the way the D-man karma has been going don't assume anything.

The Canucks get a well-deserved off-day on Wednesday in Nashville before taking on the Predators to finish up this three-game road trip. They can use the break, even though they're expected to practice.

Going into the game against Minnesota, the Canucks had two rookies on the back end – Chris Tanev and Yann Sauve – who had NHL experience of 11 and zero games, respectively.

The other four carried the brunt of the load and it all got done by committee.

Sami Salo played his third NHL game since coming back from a torn Achilles tendon last July and ramped his minutes up to 21:28. He may be needed to play more.

As it was, Bieksa played 22:59 and Christian Ehrhoff logged 26:49  in the 4-1 win.

“I think we did a pretty good job,” said Salo. “(Goaltender Cory Schneider) was there to make the big saves. It was our third agme in four nights so we might have been running out of gas so we kept it pretty simple there in the third. Overall, we can be pretty happy how the guys mixed up together. There were a lot of new faces, but I think we kept it pretty simple.”

Sauve logged a pretty benign 12:16 in his first NHL game, although he did get turnstiled by John Madden midway through the third. Schneider bailed him out with a big save, though.

“That was one mistake, it's going to happen and I'll probably play it different next time for sure,” said Sauve. “After the first couple of shifts I was feeling a bit better and the nerves were gone. It was a good experience.”

It's been a roller coaster season for Sauve, who was hit by a car in dowtown Vancouver just before Canucks' training camp and suffered a concussion. It cost him two months in inactivity while the symptoms settled down and nearly three month of hockey.

He's just now back in hockey shape and has been playing well in Manitoba.

The improbably string of injuries to Canucks defencemen got him his first NHL game sooner than he expected.

It even surprised his parents when he called them in Montreal to break the news on Monday night.

“My mom didn't believe it,” said Sauve. “She thought I was kidding because I always do this, but they were really happy even though they were half asleep.”