We know Jason Garrison can hit for power. But the Vancouver Canucks need him to bat from both sides of the plate.

The defenceman from White Rock, who won the National Hockey League team's hardest-shot competition Saturday with a thunderous wallop of 105.1 miles-per-hour, has struggled in several games since an injury six weeks ago to Alex Edler forced Garrison to switch sides on the ice.

The surprising part is that Garrison, a left-shot defenceman who had been playing out of position on the right alongside Edler, moved back to his natural side after his partner sprained a knee Dec. 3 in Nashville. The left is Garrison's strong side. At least, it is supposed to be.

But the 29-year-old, the Canucks' steadiest defenceman last season, has been uncharacteristically erratic since re-forming a defence partnership with righty Kevin Bieksa.

Garrison's nadir was last weekend in Los Angeles, where he was on the ice for six of seven goals the Canucks surrendered in losses to the Kings and Anaheim Ducks. He made critical mistakes on decisive goals in both games and finished the weekend minus-five.

Like his team, Garrison bounced back at home last week. He scored to start the Canucks' rally in what became a 5-4 shootout loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday, then assisted on the winning goal in Friday's 2-1 victory against the St. Louis Blues. Although the Canucks were outshot while Garrison was on the ice, he was plus-three in the two games and made a key defensive play in the final seconds against the Blues when he rebounded like Dwight Howard, outjumping everyone to swat away a loose puck that was about to fall on to or behind Canuck goalie Eddie Lack.

“I played a little basketball growing up,” Garrison said. “But I was always too small to make the team. Maybe I could show them that tape.”

The good news for Garrison is he's making an excellent living playing hockey and Edler, who practised fully with the Canucks on Sunday, could return to the lineup tonight. The bad news is the Canucks are back in L.A. to face the Kings and, even when Edler returns, Garrison still will be asked to switch-hit.

“He's going to have to play both,” Canuck coach John Tortorella said. “There have been some struggles on the left side. Whether it's because it's the left side, whether it's because it's the responsibilities that have been added with some of the injuries, I don't know. But he's going to end up playing both sides.”

Garrison's ice time spiked when defenceman Ryan Stanton hurt his ankle on Dec. 17 and followed Edler out of the lineup. Garrison has averaged over 25 minutes the last 11 games and in some of those has played too much. His average ice time this season is 22:10.

Edler practised Sunday on the left side of the third pairing, with Yannick Weber and Frankie Corrado taking turns beside him. Regardless of where Edler plays where that leaves Garrison, the minutes of all Canuck defencemen are going to come down.