23 Oct 2015
The Vancouver Sun
Iain MacIntyre
Ovie punctuates Capital comeback
Winless at home: Vrbata scored, power play clicked and for two periods all seemed well before
Canucks crumbled
There’s only so much you can do about Jay Beagle. But even beyond him, the Washington Capitals
have a depot of firepower. They do not need help scoring.
The Vancouver Canucks gave them plenty of help anyway.
Winger Radim Vrbata blemished his fine night by turning the puck over before the tying goal. Canuck
defenceman Alex Edler was beaten by a deflected stretch pass on Alex Ovechkin’s winning goal — a
partially whiffed shot on a 2-on-1 that arced over goalie Ryan Miller.
These were largely unforced errors Thursday that took the Canucks way beyond the margin of error
between winning and losing in the National Hockey League. For the fourth time in four home games
this season, the Canucks lost, beaten 3-2 by the potent Capitals after Vancouver took a 2-1 lead into
the third period at Rogers Arena.
It was Washington’s first win here since Valentine’s Day in 2001 — 4½ years before Ovechkin came to
the NHL from Russia and became the most dangerous goal-scorer of his generation.
It seems nearly that long since the Canucks, now 3-2-2 after a 3-0-1 start to the season, last won at
home.
“In this league, if you look at the stats being up after two periods, the great teams usually never lose
those games,” Canuck captain Henrik Sedin said. “We have to look at this and get better. We have a
team that can win these games, but it’s two or three mistakes and they cost us. Look at their lineup;
they have three lines that are dangerous off the rush. We kept feeding them. If you give them
enough, they’re going to score. Four minutes left, you can’t give them a 2-on1. That’s costly.”
For a while it looked like Beagle, whose 23 goals over the previous five seasons is roughly equivalent
to about three months of production for Ovechkin, might beat the Canucks. He beautifully set up
Washington’s first goal and luckily scored the tying one at 5:42 of the third period. Instead, it was
Ovechkin who won it with his fluttering one-timer from the slot after Dmitry Orlov’s stretch pass to
Evgeny Kuznetsov marooned the Canucks’ Edler.
“He rainbowed it and hit the bar on the way down, I think,” Canuck goalie Ryan Miller said. “He
whiffed. He swung fully on it. We know it’s Ovechkin; we’re going to shade (toward him). The pass
probably wasn’t in his wheelhouse, but with Ovechkin, he gets himself around on everything. He
rainbowed it. I would have had to be standing to get it and that’s not realistic.”
But should the Canucks surrender a 2-on-1 with Ovechkin on the ice late in the third period of a tie
game?
“At that point in the third period — we’d played a hard game — maybe need a little bit better
awareness,” Miller said. “A heads-up play by them.”
Edler said of the stretch pass that allowed Kuznetsov to get behind him: “I think it hit something. I felt
like I was in the passing lane. In the end, it was my guy who got the puck and I’ve got to make sure
I’m on the right side of him. Ovechkin is a guy that whether he’s playing good or not throughout the
game, when he gets the puck he’s dangerous wherever he is. It’s definitely something that shouldn’t
happen. You can’t give him a 2-on-1 at the end of the game like that.”
Beagle tied the game with a greasy deflection — or bounce — from John Carlson’s point shot after
Vrbata, who had a goal and assist for the Canucks, inexplicably dropped a blind pass behind his net to
Capital Marcus Johansson.
“I thought somebody called a reverse,” Vrbata said. “I thought it was one of our D. I guess it was
somebody from them and it just went from there. It’s too bad we couldn’t hold the lead. Tough, tough
loss. It’s a fine line between winning and losing, and we’re learning the hard way so far, at home
especially.”
After Jason Chimera easily beat Matt Bartkowski’s check to convert Beagle’s goalmouth pass and
make it 1-0 at 15:10 of the first period, Vrbata tied it at 4:14 of the second when he skated to the
edge of the crease in time for Sedin’s centring pass to bounce in off him. Sedin put the Canucks ahead
on a power play at 14:01, squeezing a sharp-angle shot past the left pad of Capitals goalie Braden
Holtby.
At that point, Ovechkin was hardly in the game.
“If he gets a clean swing on it, maybe he still scores anyway,” Miller said of the winner. “But it doesn’t
feel good to have a guy misfire and it rainbows over your head.”
Somewhere over the rainbow, skies aren’t blue.
23 Oct 2015
The Vancouver Sun
Brad Ziemer
GAME ESSENTIALS
THE SKINNY
The Canucks could not hold on to a thirdperiod lead and are still looking for their first win on home ice
this season. The Capitals got third-period goals from Jay Beagle and Alexander Ovechkin to hand
Vancouver its fourth consecutive loss at Rogers Arena. Secondperiod goals by Radim Vrbata, pictured,
and Henrik Sedin had given the Canucks a 2-1 lead. Jason Chimera scored Washington’s other goal in
the first period.
BY THE NUMBERS
The Canucks won 65 per cent of faceoffs, going 30-16 in the circle. That was thanks in large part to
Brandon Sutter, pictured, who was 13-2. Bo Horvat was 10-3 ... The Caps improved to 5-1-0 this
season, while the Canucks fell to 3-2-2 … The Canucks surrendered the first goal for the fifth time in
seven outings this season ... Rookie Jared McCann played a teamlow 7:58 for the Canucks.
THIS AND THAT
The secondperiod goal by Henrik Sedin, pictured, snapped a zero-for-18 drought on the power play for
the Canucks. It was also the first goal of the season for Vancouver’s first power-play unit … It was the
Capitals’ first win at Rogers Arena since Feb. 14, 2001 … Ovechkin has scored in all five games he has
played this season. He had seven of Washington’s 35 shots on Vancouver goalie Ryan Miller.
QUOTABLE
Caps head coach Barry Trotz, pictured, sounds like he has fallen in love with Washington centre
Nicklas Backstrom: “He is the best two-way forward I have ever coached,”Trotz told reporters before
the game. “And I have coached some pretty good guys like Mike Fisher. Everyone just thinks he is an
offensive player. He is as good as there is in the business at both ends of the ice.”
WHO’S NEXT?
The Canucks host the Detroit Red Wings Saturday in the fourth game of their five-game homestand.
The Red Wings are 3-3-0 under new head coach Jeff Blashill, pictured. However, the Wings have
dropped three straight after winning their opening three. A visit by the Montreal Canadiens on
Tuesday closes out the homestand.
23 Oct 2015
The Vancouver Sun
Cam Cole
Rookies revere Alexander the great
Star-gazing: Ovie, the Cap who loves appearing on highlight reels, can be intimidating — and
sometimes impossible to stop
So you’re a rookie, trying to secure a place on the team, and it’s early season, and into town rides The
Boss with a larger-than-life persona, a tank for a body, a blink-and-you-missit release, a palpable
hunger to score and an archive of highlightreel goals you’ve been watching since you were in peewee.
But no worries, kid. Just go out there and act normal, yeah?
The trap is to get caught watching Alex Ovechkin play, hoping he doesn’t score one like he once did
against Wayne Gretzky’s Phoenix Coyotes while sliding flat on his back, hooking the puck backwards
past the goalie after being tripped.
“I think that’s the one that stands out the most. I could try that a hundred times and never do it,” said
Jake Virtanen, one of five 23-and-under skaters in the lineup the Vancouver Canucks iced against the
Washington Capitals on Thursday.
Not all of them are raw rookies: Bo Horvat, 20, solidified his place a year ago, Sven Baertschi has had
a few stops and starts here and in Calgary. But for Virtanen, Jared McCann and defenceman Ben
Hutton, facing a big-league superstar in his prime is still very much virgin territory.
When both teams practised Wednesday at UBC, Virtanen said he hung around for 10 minutes
watching Ovechkin shoot the puck.
Hutton’s a-ha moment came against Anaheim.
“I was battling with (Ryan) Getzlaf in front of the net, and then I got to the bench and was like, ‘ Oh
s---, that was Getzlaf!’” he said.
Getting over that throat-constricting feeling of “Am I really going to be out there against this guy?” is
a coming-of-age obstacle every young player has to hurdle.
“Oh, yeah,” Caps head coach Barry Trotz said. “Wayne Gretzky’s first time in Nashville, he got five
assists and we were trying to get his autograph the whole time. No one wanted to go near him.
“With a young team you see some of that, but I think young players now, there’s less of it. They get
to brush shoulders (with the stars) through their agents. A lot of the high-profile kids are going to the
same camps with the Crosbys and people like that. I just think they’re a little more confident now.”
“I remember when I first started, I was really star-struck playing against Eric Lindros or Tie Domi,
playing in the same league as them,” Alex Burrows said.
“But for me, when it really kicked in was when I started playing with the (Sedin) twins, and I was in
the opening lineup against Detroit and everyone on the ice was an Olympian, and I was the only guy
that didn’t belong at all.
“We had Sami Salo and Mattias Ohlund and the twins and they had Zetterberg and Datsyuk and
Lidstrom … so for me, it was like, boy, I gotta pull my weight tonight and be a difference-maker.”
Ovechkin’s stock has risen steadily after a mid-career plateau, ever since Trotz moved from Music City
to take over the Caps last season.
He has become a better, more complete player while losing none of his physicality or scoring skills —
hardly a 200-foot player, but more group-oriented than he was in the days when a coach, according to
a possibly apocryphal legend, suggested Ovechkin needed to be more of a team guy, so he bought all
the players Rolexes.
Early-season returns have been positive. He had four goals and six points in five games for the 4-1
Caps heading into Thursday’s game, and keeping him in check is always going to be a handful for
anyone who draws the assignment.
“He’s that rare combination of pure skill and ability to shoot the puck and do some one-onone stuff
that is eye-popping,” Trotz said, “and also physicality and toughness.
“He’s not afraid of big challenges. When I first got here, we were playing Boston and I said, ‘I’ve got
last change here. I’d better get a matchup that’ll get you away from Chara.’ And he looks at me and
goes, ‘ Why?’
“So we don’t worry about matchups with Alex. He loves to play against the best. That’s pretty rare.
Guys look for an advantage. He says, ‘I’ll make my own advantage.’”
For a kid, facing that level of athletic arrogance can be intimidating. Virtanen admits it may take a
little time.
“I mean, maybe after a couple more games. It’s still soaking in right now,” the 6-1, 208-pound winger
from Abbotsford said. “It’s pretty cool going head-tohead with those top guys you watched growing
up. If they’re out there and you’re out there, hitting them or something, you go, ‘Holy, this is not
happening right now.’”
“These guys have grown up watching Ovechkin and Crosby and all the goals they scored, and I’m sure
they have gone straight out to their driveway trying to score on that same shot,” Burrows said, “so
now to finally play against them, it’s special.
“But it’s like golf. The guys who get matched against Tiger … they have to play their own games,
because they have bright futures, too.”
23 Oct 2015
The Province
Ben Kuzma
Caps coach, Ovechkin connect
Trotz’s formula includes respect and genuine interest in players
What better place to roll the dice than Las Vegas?
When Barry Trotz was hired by the Washington Capitals on May 26, 2014, the new coach knew he had
to connect with Alex Ovechkin on some level.
And it was a good bet that the amiable and accountable bench boss would get through to the oftenmisunderstood Russian because of his passion to care as much about the person as the player.
It was his strong suit in Nashville, and has carried on in Washington.
As some players gave short retorts to questions at the game-day skate Thursday at Rogers Arena,
Trotz did what he has always done. He held court for more than 10 minutes because he had a lot to
say. Especially about Ovechkin. “I went to the NHL awards (in Vegas) to meet with Alex and I had 45
questions for him just in case, because we didn’t know each other and I wanted to keep the
conversation going,” Trotz began.
“I just told him up front that I would like to go through these questions and I said it would probably
take one-and-a-half or two hours of his time. It ended up being a three-anda-half-hour meeting,
where we just chatted. The great thing I liked is that he’s honest — and bluntly honest — which is
fabulous.
“He’s not giving you a bunch of bull about what he thinks you want to hear. He’s very open. I love
going to war with those guys because you know where they stand and what they stand for.
“He’s terrific to work with and really easy to coach. You hear all the speculation going into it, but until
you own it, you don’t know.
“We have a mutual respect to help him grow as a player and with leadership. He’s 30, not 21, and is
maturing as an icon in this league and he’s going to be a Hall of Famer.
“He has the rare combination of pure skill and ability to shoot the puck and do some 1-on-1 stuff that
is eye-popping and gets people up out of their seats. And there’s that rare combination of physicality
and toughness — he’s not afraid of the big challenges.”
Nobody has more goals since the 2000-01 NHL season than the hotshot Russian, who had four after
four games this season going into Thursday’s game against the Canucks.
He didn’t come into the league until 2005, but had racked up 497 regularseason goals and hit the
900-point plateau after Tuesday in Calgary.
Ovechkin is the second-fastest active player to reach 900 points and did it in 764 games. Jaromir Jagr
needed 681. A prime example of Ovechkin’s willingness to overcome any obstacle came early in
Trotz’s first season.
Against the Boston Bruins, he wanted to get his winger away from imposing defenceman Zdeno Chara
with the last change on home ice and look for a better matchup.
“He looked at me and goes: ‘Why? Give me a chance tonight and I’ll show you,’ ” said Trotz.
“So, we don’t worry too much about matchups and he likes going against the best in the business.
“That’s pretty rare. Guys look for an advantage. He says, ‘I’ll make my own advantage.’ ”
The union works because of how Trotz works with players and the time he has for people.
He called Capitals centre Nicklas Backstrom “the best two-way forward I’ve ever coached.”
He has made unannounced calls to coach youngsters and carries himself in a humble manner, not as a
look-at-me head coach.
At a summer hockey school in the Okanagan the 53-year-old native of Dauphin, Man., once surprised
a wide-eyed little kid and helped him learn to skate backwards.
When the Predators went to the Garrison Curling Club during some down time in Calgary and bolted
back to the ice after wolfing down pizza and sub sandwiches, their bench boss wiped down tables,
picked scraps off the floor and made sure the chairs were pushed back in.
And when a visiting scribe spotted Trotz at the end of the hallway long after practice and hoped to get
a couple of minutes with the coach, he got 20. None of this surprises Canucks defenceman Dan
Hamhuis.
He broke into the NHL under the watchful eye of Trotz and was thrown into the deep end of the
development pool — and didn’t sink.
“He believed in me early on and gave me a lot of opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them,”
said Hamhuis, whom the Predators selected 11th overall in the 2001 draft.
“Right from my first year, I was playing 20 minutes a game and that’s how you learn to be better.
He’s a great teacher and analyzes so much on the video.
“And he’s just a great person. He genuinely cares about you and your family, and that goes a long
way. He’s in a prominent position as a coach in the NHL, but it’s just his hometown roots from smalltown Manitoba.
“Guys are just drawn to him and he’s not intimidating for a young guy. And the older guys really
respect how he handles himself — and any time you have that approach, it works for everybody.”
It’s working for the Capitals.
23 Oct 2015
The Province
BEN KUZMA
POWER PLAY KILLING THE CANUCKS
Vancouver is still winless on home ice
Maybe a change of address can change their fortunes.
That has really become the burning question because the self-inflicted wounds of a plodding and
predictable power play were more vital to the Vancouver Canucks than keeping Alex Ovechkin in
check Thursday at Rogers Arena.
And when the Russian’s fluttering one-timer went up and over Ryan Miller to settle the issue, it only
brought another issue into clear focus. Without any significant signs of life with the man advantage —
especially the four-forward first unit with the occasional drop pass, half-wall residency and
considerable confusion — the Canucks aren’t going anywhere with a mishmash that entered the night
ranked 28th with but one goal in 20 attempts.
Then it happened, and it looked like a rare power-play connection was going to save the night. The
Canucks moved their home office to behind the net and when Daniel Sedin found Henrik Sedin at the
side of the goal for a short-sided effort from his knees, the captain looked to the heavens and relief
was etched on his face. The power-play goal provided a 2-1 lead over the Washington Capitals, but a
3-2 loss kept Vancouver winless on home ice. But there may be hope in a new way to score with the
man advantage.
“That’s something we know we’re good at,” said Henrik. “For Danny to find guys from behind the net,
it’s dangerous the whole time he has the puck because they have to look at him and lose guys in
front. That’s one thing. When you’re struggling, it’s easy to go to the easy shots and just shoot from
the point. But teams are so good at blocking shots, you have to have one little thing to get pucks
through.”
On a night when Matt Bartkowski lost his check on the opening goal and can’t afford to lose any more
confidence from the coach, you have to wonder if Yannick Weber is becoming more of a roster
consideration. He has played one game. He has a heavy and accurate slapper that would be a boon to
either power-play unit and he excelled in a pairing with Dan Hamhuis last season.
It’s going to overshadow the good stuff if the power play doesn’t strike with more regularity. Radim
Vrbata had his first goal of the season go off his skate and rookie Jared McCann kept doing things to
get noticed. But in a special-teams league, the power play has to be the hammer and not an anvil
dragging the club down.
23 Oct 2015
The Province
JASON BOTCHFORD
Vrbata has big goal — and big giveaway
Radim Vrbata got what he had wanted for weeks. Relief. It didn’t last long. The Canucks’ high-paid
sniper couldn’t buy a goal in the first six games. And to hear him talk, he would have been willing to
spend a good chunk of his $5-million yearly salary if he could. Lined up with the Sedins for the first
time since baseball started spring training, Vrbata finally made it rain, scoring his first goal of the
season.
It was off a skate. It was ugly. It was lucky. He’ll take it. He needed it.
The Canucks needed it. This team is going nowhere, and fast, if the Sedins and Vrbata aren’t carrying
the offensive mail as often as possible. But hockey can be a fickle sport. Vrbata got to hold on to those
good feelings about as long as San Francisco stayed in Thursday’s NFL game against Seattle.
In the third period, with the Canucks clinging to a 2-1 lead, the Caps scored. It was all on Vrbata. It
was Vrbata who mistakenly, and blindly, passed the puck to Marcus Johansson behind his own net.
Luca Sbisa batted the puck out of the air, trying to clear it out of Ryan Miller’s crease, but it ended up
in the net for the tying goal.
The miscue is all the Caps required. Alex Ovechkin finished it. For some reason, in the third period,
the Canucks’ fourth line kept ending up on the ice with Ovechkin.
It proved costly when Ovechkin was left wide open to Miller’s right. He fell to one knee as he unloaded
on a one-timer.
The puck fluttered over Miller and into the net. Yes, Bo Horvat was on the ice and this hasn’t been a
good run for the 20-year-old centre. Already this season, he has been on the ice for six even-strength
goals against.
But it never would have got there if Vrbata just had one night where everything went his way.
What this means
The power play lives. At least to see another day. The Canucks had gone 6½ games to start the
season without a goal from their first power-play unit.
Henrik Sedin changed that with a sharpangled goal in tight to put the Canucks up 2-1 in the second
period. It gave Vancouver only its second goal in 22 power-play opportunities. Before that, the only
other goal was courtesy of Bo Horvat.
Pressure had been mounting for the team to get Yannick Weber into the lineup. That will continue to
bubble below the surface.
Weber’s absence from the lineup remains one of the most curious decisions by coach Willie Desjardins.
Weber spent the second half of last year in the top four playing with Dan Hamhuis and the pair held
up just fine in its own end.
Weber ignited the power play, scoring five man-advantage goals and adding two assists in the final 30
games of the season.
With a right-shot defenceman playing the point, all kinds of room opened up down low for the Sedins.
Advanced stats
-6
This was Dan Hamhuis’s shotattempt differential. It was another tough game for the Canucks’
defence, specifically the team’s second pairing. Only Luca Sbisa was on the ice for more Washington
shot attempts.
17
This was the number of shot attempts the Caps had when Derek Dorsett was on the ice. It was the
most of any Canuck. It was strange to see his line on the ice so often in the third period.
-23
This was Matt Bartkowski’s even-strength, scoring-chance differential during the first six games. It
means, when he was on the ice, opponents had 23 more scoring chances than the Canucks did.
+8
This was Chris Tanev’s evenstrength, scoring-chance differential through the first six games.
Opponents only had 38 scoring chances when Tanev was on the ice. Bartkowski was on the ice for 20
more.
In a word
BACKCHECK
Yes, that was Alex Ovechkin coming out of nowhere to hunt down
Bo Horvat in the first period, preventing the Canucks’ second-year player from a partial breakaway. So
much speed. So much effort.
CAUGHT
Matt Bartkowski was late changing in the first, in fact still calling for the puck, when the Caps were
pinned in their end. When Washington finally got it out, Bartkowski didn’t have enough in the tank to
defend a 2-on-2 rush. Caps scored.
MISSED
Officials called Jannik
Hansen for a late second-period high stick, but actually Evgeny Kuznetsov hit himself with his own
stick in the head. Maybe the NHL can add this to review?
What we learned
The Columbus Blue Jackets were initially reluctant to pay the price it cost to sign coach John
Tortorella.
The NHL’s collective bargaining agreement allows for teams to get draft picks when coaches or
management get promoted in other organizations. The Jackets argued it’s a bad rule that will be
changed in January. The NHL initially stepped into this, but backed off, allowing the two sides to figure
it out.
The Canucks started a negotiation that ended with them agreeing to pay a significant percentage of
Tortorella’s contract, but in return they got the second-round pick.
The Jackets can choose which year they give the pick up from any of the next three.
Most believe they’ll choose 2017.
Eric MacKenzie
October 22, 2015
24 Hours
Capitals battle back to beat Canucks
Home ice continues to be a difficult place for the Vancouver Canucks.
The Washington Capitals trailed 2-1 after two periods at Rogers Arena on Thursday night but scored
twice in the final frame to claim a 3-2 victory over the Canucks.
Alex Ovechkin’s one-timer with five minutes left to play sealed it for the Capitals, and ensured the
Canucks lost their fourth in a row at home to start the season.
Thursday served as a reminder of what kind of production the Sedins and Radim Vrbata can have
together, as the three played together at even strength for the first time this season. Vrbata and
Henrik Sedin each scored second-period goals for Vancouver, but the Capitals took controls over the
final 20 minutes, outshooting their hosts 12-7 in the third and 35-25 on the night overall.
“In this league, when you’re up going into the third … those are the games you’ve gotta hold on and
win,” said Henrik. “It’s disappointing because I thought we played well enough to win.”
The Canucks got another excellent outing from Ryan Miller, who made 32 saves and had stopped
Ovechkin on two other one-timers from the left circle before the Washington sniper tallied an offspeed winner at 15:05 of the third.
“(Ovechkin) rainbowed it and it hit the bar on the way down,” said Miller. “He whiffed … If he gets a
clean swing at it, maybe he scores anyway. But it doesn’t feel good to have a guy misfire and it
rainbows over your head.”
The Capitals led 1-0 after one period thanks to Jason Chimera’s goal off a 2-on-2 rush. But the
Canucks tied things up 4:14 into the second.
Henrik threw the puck out front of the Washington goal, and it bounced in off Vrbata’s skates to make
it 1-1. Henrik then scored on the power play with six minutes left in the middle frame, taking a pass
from Daniel and squeezing a shot between the post and skate of Capitals goalie Braden Holtby.
The visitors knotted the game at 2-2 at 5:42 of the third, as Jay Beagle got credit when a puck
bouncing in front of the Canucks goal took a strange hop off Miller’s glove, and Luca Sbisa couldn’t
keep the fluttering puck out.
NOTES:
-The Canucks sat Adam Cracknell for this one, meaning all of Vancouver’s players aged 23-and-under
on the roster played together for the first time. However, Sven Baertschi and Jared McCann saw their
ice times crater in the third – Baertschi played just 17 seconds and McCann 32 seconds over the final
20 minutes.
However, head coach Willie Desjardins did send Jake Virtanen out in the final minute as the Canucks
were trying to tie the game with Miller on the bench for an extra skater. Despite playing a team-low
7:45 on the night, Virtanen shared the team lead in hits – three of them – with Sbisa.
-Vrbata finished with two points on the night, stopping his pointless streak at six games – his longest
stretch of regular season play without hitting the scoresheet in five years.
“It wasn’t the prettiest goal I’ve ever scored but I’ll take it,” he said. “Hopefully with this, the luck will
change for us a little bit.”
Vrbata also had a hand in Washington’s second goal, though, as Marcus Johansson gobbled up a drop
pass the Canucks forward had left behind the net, starting the sequence that led to Beagle’s tally.
“I thought somebody called reverse, I thought it was one of our D but I guess it was somebody for
them. And it just went from there,” Vrbata said. “It’s too bad we couldn’t hold the lead.”
-The Canucks (3-2-2) welcome the Detroit Red Wings (3-3-0) to Rogers Arena on Saturday, then wrap
up their five-game homestand on Tuesday against the Montreal Canadiens (7-0-0).
Ronnie Shuker
The Hockey News
Wed Oct 21 2015
Vancouver Canucks must improve before the
defining stretch of the season
After losses to St. Louis and Edmonton last week, the Canucks could go winless on this homestand.
Oilers goaltender Anders Nilsson makes a save against Sven Baertschi on Sunday.
Well, that wasn’t how the Canucks wanted to start their five-game homestand. And the news doesn’t
get any better. In fact, it could get much worse for
Vancouver.
After losses to St. Louis and Edmonton last week, the Canucks could go winless on this homestand,
with games against Washington, Detroit and Montreal to finish it off. That wouldn’t necessarily be the
death of their season, but the coup de grace could come shortly thereafter if they set themselves up
to fail for what will be the most crucial part of their season.
Following this homestand, the Canucks play 13 of 17 games on the road, which will take them into
December. (Looking all the way to the Christmas break, they play 19 of 27 on the road.) If there’s a
section of their schedule that will make or break their season, this is it.
The good news about all of this is that the first part of this stretch includes very winnable games in
Arizona, Buffalo, New Jersey, Columbus and Toronto. The bad news is that the second part takes them
through Minnesota, Dallas, Anaheim and Los Angeles.
There’s no need to panic, but there is need for urgency. The Canucks have to come away with nine or
10 wins in this 17-game stretch if they want to stay in the thick of the Pacific Division race. San Jose
has already shot out of the gates, and L.A. and Anaheim are beginning to show signs of picking up the
pace after slow starts to their seasons. If the plucky Flames and promising Oilers get it going, the
Canucks could find themselves on the outside looking in if they lay a dozen or so eggs on this brutal
stretch of road games.
Vancouver was one of the best teams in the NHL on the road last season, with a 24-14-3 record away
from Rogers Arena, so there is reason for optimism. And teams will often tell you they like to get long
road swings out of the way early, because players are freshest physically early in the season, and road
trips like these often have the added benefit of helping teams bond and form an identity.
So it all isn’t doom and gloom. But this next month-and-a-half is about as close as it’ll get to do or die
for the Canucks this season.
October 22
Josh Clipperton
The Canadian Press
Ovechkin, Capitals down Canucks
VANCOUVER - For 55 minutes, it didn't look like it was going to be Alex Ovechkin's night.
The Washington Capitals sniper fired shot after shot at Vancouver Canucks goalie Ryan Miller— oddman rushes, one-timers — but couldn't get anything through.
Then with the score tied 2-2 in the third, Evgeny Kuznetsov fed Ovechkin on a 2-on-1 for a final
attempt that fluttered up and over Miller, off the crossbar and in with 4:55 left in regulation Thursday
as the Capitals downed the Canucks 3-2.
Ovechkin smiled when asked about his fifth goal in as many games after having so many other
chances saved.
"Muffin shot by me and it goes in," he said, adding later: "Lots of opportunities today to get more, but
that's why they have goalies.
"Lucky one."
Jay Beagle, with a goal and an assist, and Jason Chimera also scored for Washington (5-1-0), which
picked up its fourth straight victory and won in Vancouver for the first time since 2001. Braden
Holtby made 23 stops.
Henrik Sedin and Radim Vrbata had a goal and an assist each for Vancouver (3-2-2), while Miller
made 32 saves in the loss.
Down 2-1 through 40 minutes, the Capitals tied it at 5:42 of the third after Vrbata gave the puck
away behind his own net, with Beagle eventually tipping John Carlson's point shot past Miller for his
first of the season.
"It somehow tipped up and hit me and came out and I took a swing at it," said Beagle. "It was a
melee, a nice grinder goal."
Holtby stopped Daniel Sedin on a 2-on-1 midway through the period before stoning Bo Horvat with
under seven minutes to set the stage for Ovechkin's winner.
"That's my job," said Holtby. "A team like Vancouver, they are going to get chances. They are pretty
skilled, creative, and that's one thing we knew coming into the game."
The Canucks are now 0-2-2 at home this season and have dropped the first three of a five-game
homestand.
"It's disappointing. I felt we played well enough to win," said Henrik Sedin. "They have a good team
over there. It's not good enough to be OK. You have to be great. Today we were good, but it wasn't
enough."
Vancouver trailed 1-0 after the first period before getting back to even terms thanks to their reunited
first line of Vrbata with Henrik and Daniel Sedin.
Vrbata, who was pointless through six games, skated alongside the superstar twins for the first time
this season and was rewarded for going to the net at 4:14 of the second when Henrik Sedin's centring
pass went in off his skate.
Vrbata had 31 goals and 32 assists while playing with the Sedins for most of 2014-15, but had
struggled to find chemistry on the second line with Horvat early this season.
"It wasn't the prettiest goal I ever scored, but I will take it and go from there," said Vrbata. "Too bad
it didn't lead us to two points."
The Canucks grabbed the lead with 5:59 left in the period on the man advantage when Henrik
Sedin took a pass from his brother at the side of the net and squeezed a shot between Holtby and the
near post for his second.
The Capitals opened the scoring with 4:50 left in the first period off the rush when Beagle fed Chimera
for his third of the season.
Ovechkin nearly made it 2-0 moments later, but Miller came across to make a great save on a 2-on-1
— one of many on Washington's captain before he finally struck late.
"We haven't had success in this building in a long time," said Ovechkin. "Mentally it's huge for us to
get these two points."
Notes: Washington visits the Edmonton Oilers on Friday. ... Vancouver hosts the Detroit Red Wings on
Saturday.
Associated Press
NBC Sports
Oct 23, 2015, 2:12 AM EDT
Ovechkin’s latest game-winner guides Caps
by Canucks
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) Alex Ovechkin broke a tie with 4:55 left and the Washington
Capitals beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 on Thursday night for their fourth straight victory.
Jay Beagle pulled Washington even at 5:42 of the third, and Ovechkin won it with his fifth goal of the
season.
Jason Chimera scored in the first for the Capitals, but Radim Vrbata and Henrik Sedin each had a goal
and an assist in the second for Vancouver.
Washington’s Braden Holtby made 23 saves. He stopped Daniel Sedin on a 2-on-1 midway through
the third and made a save against Bo Horvat with less than 7 minutes left.
Washington is 5-1-0 and has beaten Chicago, Carolina and Calgary on its streak.
Vancouver lost its third straight, including a 2-1 overtime loss to Edmonton last time out, to fall to 32-2.
Ryan Miller stopped 32 shots for Vancouver.
Ovechkin scored the winner on a fluttering one-timer off the crossbar following a 2-on-1. It was his
fifth goal in his five games – he sat out Washington’s lone loss against San Jose after he overslept and
missed a practice.
The Capitals tied it when Vrbata gave the puck away behind his own net, with Beagle eventually
tipping John Carlson‘s point shot past Miller.
Vrbata was pointless through six games but skated alongside the superstar Sedin twins for the first
time this season. He was rewarded for going to the net at 4:14 of the second when Henrik Sedin’s
centering pass went in off Vrbata’s skate.
Vrbata had 31 goals and 32 assists while playing with the Sedins for most of 2014-15, but had
struggled to find chemistry on the second line with Horvat early this season.
The Canucks grabbed the lead with 5:59 left in the period on the man advantage when Henrik Sedin
took a pass from his brother at the side of the net and squeezed a shot between Holtby and the near
post for his second of the season. Vancouver’s power play had been 1 for 22 this season, and the goal
was the first for the top unit.
Ovechkin nearly made it 2-0 in the first, but was robbed by Miller on a 2-on-1. The goal judge at
Rogers Arena was fooled initially, but it was ruled a save.
Notes: Washington visits the Edmonton Oilers on Friday. … Vancouver hosts the Detroit Red Wings on
Saturday.
Jason Brough
Oct 22, 2015, 2:28 PM EDT
NBC Sports
Hutton has been ‘way beyond’ expectations
for Canucks
A year ago, Ben Hutton was playing defense at the University of Maine, on a struggling Black Bears
team that finished the season 14-22-3.
Nobody expected him to make the jump to the NHL in 2015-16.
But that’s exactly what he’s done with the Vancouver Canucks, while displaying the kind of poise with
the puck that’s hard to teach and so valuable in today’s fast-paced game.
“He’s way beyond my expectations,” Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said this morning ahead of
tonight’s game against the Capitals.
“For a young player, he’s been real consistent.”
Desjardins wasn’t sure if Hutton’s eye-opening preseason performance would carry on into the games
that count. The skepticism was understandable. There just aren’t many fifth-round draft picks that go
straight from college to the NHL, with only four AHL games in between.
Yet Hutton has dressed in all six games for the Canucks. He has three assists and 15 shots on goal
while averaging 18:50 of ice time.
“I didn’t personally know who he was,” his defense partner, Luca Sbisa, said earlier this month.
“Nobody really knew who he was.”
They know him now.
THOMAS DRANCE
OCTOBER 23, 2015, 9:47 AM
Sportsnet
5 takeaways: Depth an issue as Canucks fall
to Capitals
Alex Ovechkin’s fifth goal of the season was the winner as the Washington Capitals defeated the
Vancouver Canucks.
The Vancouver Canucks fell to Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Thursday night, losing
their third consecutive home game to fall to 0-2-2 at Rogers Arena this season. Here are 5 Takeaways
from Wednesday’s entertaining tilt.
Vrelief
Radim Vrbata, the Canucks’ leading scorer in 2014-15, entered Thursday night’s contest without a
point in six games.
Vrbata has bounced all around the Canucks lineup in the early going, but he landed back on
Vancouver’s top-line on Thursday night – playing triggerman for the Sedin twins for the first time this
season. His impact was felt in a major way.
At 5-on-5 the Sedins and Vrbata managed to control better than 58 per cent of all shot attempts, and
recorded 10 of Vancouver’s 25 shots on goal. One of those shots was actually just a fortunate bounce
off of Vrbata’s skate, which slipped past Washington Capitals netminder Braden Holtby for the second
period game-tying goal.
The goal wasn’t a typical Vrbata tally, but was the sort of greasy goal a snake bit player sometimes
needs to get going. And sure enough Vrbata would add a secondary assist just a few minutes later on
the power play.
“It wasn’t the prettiest goal I’ve ever scored,” Vrbata told reporters post game, by way of the official
Canucks feed, “but I needed it. Too bad it didn’t lead to two points.”
The Canucks and Vrbata will get at least another game as a trio, Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins
told reporters after the contest. And they should. When that line was on the ice on Thursday night
against the Capitals, the Canucks threatened more consistently than they have in any other game this
season.
A disturbing trend
The Canucks are now winless in four tries at Rogers Arena this season, with all four of those losses
coming in one-goal games (two of which were decided in extra time).
Vancouver built their success last season on the back of a stellar – and unsustainable – record in close
contests, but neither the recent string of one goal losses or the slow start in home games are trends
that should really worry Canucks fans at the moment. What should be more concerning is that the
Canucks have now dropped three consecutive contests at home as the more rested side – a stretch
that includes multiple losses to teams playing the second leg of back-to-back game
It’s still very early in the year, but Vancouver has had a favourable home schedule over the past week
and has failed to take advantage.
Miller solid despite muffin
To my eyes it was a pretty sweet goal, but Ryan Miller might want Ovechkin’s game winner back, if for
no other reason than that it came off of a one-timer that the Russian super sniper described as “a
muffin shot”.
Miller was otherwise excellent in a losing effort on Thursday night though, as he has been all month.
The 35-year-old netminder managed to stop 32 of 35 shots against the Capitals and nine of the 11
“high-danger shots” he faced, according to war-on-ice.com. Miller bailed out his defence repeatedly,
and probably deserved a better result in the third frame.
Though Miller’s win/loss record dropped below .500 with Thursday night’s loss, he’s managed a .931
save percentage while appearing in every single game the Canucks have played so far. There’s no
arguing with that.
Stunted youth
When a pair of teenage forwards in Jared McCann and Jake Virtanen won roster spots out of training
camp earlier this month, it seemed as if the organization was prepared to usher in a new and more
youthful era of Canucks hockey. Development isn’t always linear though, and so far Vancouver’s
ambitious youth movement is more limp than canter.
On Thursday night Virtanen played just over two minutes in a tight third-period contest, while Jared
McCann logged fewer than 40 seconds in the final frame. 22-year-old Sven Baertschi, meanwhile,
played just seven total seconds in the game’s final 20 minutes.
It wasn’t wholly a negative outing for Vancouver’s young players. McCann had his moments and 20year-old Bo Horvat and 22-year-old Ben Hutton both logged regular shifts on Thursday. Late in the
contest both Hutton and Virtanen logged some high-leverage ice time, as Vancouver went in search of
an equalizer.
Still, with all three of Virtanen, Baertschi and McCann logging under 10 minutes in the contest, it’s
clear that the Canucks’ young guns are still working through some growing pains.
Depth issues
A year ago the Canucks leaned heavily on a four-line approach. 11 different Canucks forwards scored
10 goals or more, and every single Canucks forward who appeared in at least 10 games with the club
averaged over 10 minutes of even-strength ice time per game.
It’s a different story this season. Because the club is carrying some younger players who rather
obviously haven’t earned the trust of the head coach yet, three Canucks regulars – Virtanen, Baertschi
and McCann – are logging fewer than 10 minutes at even strength per contest.
When you’re forced to lean rather heavily on three lines, it can become more difficult to parcel out ice
time appropriately. It’s partly why Derek Dorsett logged more ice time in the third period than Daniel
Sedin did against the Capitals.
It can also make it more difficult to manage matchups, even when you’ve got last change. Though the
Sedin twins and the Canucks’ top defence pair of Alexander Edler and Chris Tanev were brilliant on
Thursday, Ovechkin’s game-winning goal was scored against the club’s ostensible third-line
of Brandon Prust, Derek Dorsett and Bo Horvat.
The paying customers at Rogers Arena got their money’s worth on Thursday. The Sedin twins were as
good as they’ve been all season, and Ovechkin put on a show. Ultimately Washington’s depth held
together better than Vancouver’s though, which was the difference.
Friday, 10.23.2015 / 2:15 AM
Kevin Woodley
NHL.com Correspondent
Ovechkin goal late in third helps Capitals top
Canucks
THREE STARS OF THE GAME
1ST
ALEX OVECHKIN
LW
G: 1
Shots: 7
A: 0
Hits: 0
PTS: 1 PIM: 0
+/-: 0 TOI: 19:13
2ND
HENRIK
C
G: 1
A: 1
PTS: 2
+/-: -1
SEDIN
Shots: 2
Hits: 0
PIM: 0
TOI: 20:58
3RD
RADIM VRBATA
RW
G: 1
Shots: 5
A: 1
Hits: 0
PTS: 2 PIM: 0
+/-: -1 TOI: 18:20
VANCOUVER -- Alex Ovechkin failed on his first three one-timer attempts Thursday.
He wasn't thrilled with his fourth either, but it got the job done.
Ovechkin finally put one past Vancouver Canucks goalie Ryan Miller with 4:55 left in the third period
to lift the Washington Capitals to a 3-2 comeback win at Rogers Arena.
A long stretch pass by defenseman Dmitry Orlov stranded Canucks defenseman Alexander Edler in the
neutral zone and created a 2-on-1 for Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov, who passed it across to
Ovechkin for a one-timer that fluttered over the shoulder of a sliding Miller.
"Lucky one," said Ovechkin, who has a goal in all five games he's played this season. "We talked
about our breakout, and it worked. Good pass by Kuzy, and muffin shot by me and it goes in."
Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby, who made 23 saves in his sixth straight start to open the season,
has seen Ovechkin's one-timer enough in practice to know it was only a matter of time before it went
in.
"He was probably not very happy with himself not getting it over the pad on those earlier," Holtby
said. "He takes extreme pride in that, so you could tell he was itching to get one for us, and he does
that, he scores those big goals when I thought we weren't very sharp. Your leaders, your big guys,
need to come up with those big goals to turn momentum your way."
Holtby did his part too, making several big saves in the third period, but it was the third line that had
the biggest impact for the Capitals.
Charged with shutting down the Canucks' top line, center Jay Beagle set up Jason Chimera's goal late
in the first period, and then tied the game 5:42 into the third period with his first goal of the season.
"It was really the Beagle line, they were the ones that put the work boots on and just went to work,
and they sort of pulled the rest of the group into the fight," Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. "We were
able to tie it up and then cash in on a controlled breakout and two skilled players making a pretty
good play … but today we won because of the Beagle line."
Washington (5-1-0) has won four in a row.
Radim Vrbata scored his first goal of the season after being reunited with Daniel Sedin and Henrik
Sedin on Vancouver's top line, and then helped set up Henrik to end a long power-play drought and
put the Canucks ahead with 5:59 left in the second period.
"In this league, when you are up coming into the third, those are games you have to hold on to win
and get the points," said Henrik Sedin, who also had an assist.
Miller made 32 saves, but it wasn't enough for the Canucks (3-2-2), who have lost all four games at
home, including two in regulation.
"We have to be grittier and stop thinking home ice is going to come easy for us," Henrik Sedin said.
"You can't start making plays at the blue lines, trying to make the cute plays. You have to be direct
and get pucks deep and go from there. We haven't done enough of that."
Vancouver had chances early, but Holtby stuffed Brandon Prust on a great chance from atop the
crease with five minutes left in the first period, and the Capitals opened the scoring on the ensuing
rush. Beagle got behind Edler and held him off down the right wing, then cut to the net and passed
through the crease to Chimera, who outraced Canucks defenseman Matt Bartkowski to the back of the
net for a one-touch goal.
"When you got powerhouses like Ovi, [Nicklas] Backstrom, Kuznetsov and those offensive guy,s we
have to chip in every once in a while to get the wins," Beagle said. "We can't rely on them every night
offensively, and tonight was one of those nights where the third line had to step up and produce. We
play against the No.1 line on the other team and try to be that shutdown line, but we also want to
contribute when we can."
Vrbata, who was held without a point the first six games after leading the Canucks with 31 goals in
2014-15, tied the game 4:14 into the second period after a nice spin move by Henrik Sedin behind the
net. Back with the Sedins at even strength for the first time this season, Vrbata went to the front of
the net, and Henrik Sedin's pass bounced off his skate and trickled in between Holtby's legs.
"It wasn't the prettiest goal I ever scored, but I will take it and go from there," Vrbata said.
"Hopefully, with this, the luck will change for us a little bit. Too bad it didn't lead us to two points."
The Canucks pulled ahead with some nice passing from behind the net, with Daniel Sedin moving the
puck to Vrbata and his brother on either side, forcing Holtby to go back and forth, right to left. Henrik
finished it with a one-timer between Holtby's left pad and the post.
The power-play goal at 14:01 of the second was the Canucks' first since their second game.
Vancouver entered 1-for-20 with the man-advantage.
The Capitals, who wrap up a three-game Western Canada trip when they visit the Edmonton Oilers on
Friday, tied it after Vrbata gave the puck away with a drop pass behind his own net. It ended up at the
point, and Beagle tipped defenseman John Carlson's shot up and over Miller from in front of the net.
The puck was still in the air behind Miller when Vancouver defenseman Luca Sbisa tried to bat it away
but instead knocked it into his own net.
"A nice grinder goal," Beagle said.
October 22, 2015. 11:01 pm
The White Towel
Jason Botchford
The Provies: Hot takes, Horvat takes, Torts
takes, and what took so long for the
Vrbata reunion
BIGGEST DILEMMA
Get used to it.
The Canucks have one foot in the past, and the other in the future, and on a lot of nights, like tonight,
it is going to split them apart like an overcooked sausage.
They have owners who, all things being equal, sure would like to make the playoffs again. They have
management which sees value in developing youth and also is aware of the appetite for it in the
market.
Sometimes they will get caught trying to be all things to all people, and that includes doing the right
thing and playing those kids and that includes the questionable calls, like benching the kids, three of
them, when they are attempting to “not lose” a game in the the third period.
That’s what they were doing tonight. Developing kids, and trying to win a game, or not lose one, and
in so doing not really giving the kids the chance to develop when it matters.
Maybe all this changes when Higgins gets back, and McCann is sent to junior.
But until then there are going to be more experiences like tonight, not fewer.
BEST TOI POLICING
In the third period, it seemed like Dorsett was never not on the ice. He played 6:42. He was mostly
fine.
Jared McCann played 35 seconds in the third. He too was mostly fine, and that goes for the first twe
periods. All game.
Dorsett and McCann started the game on the same line. It really was decent.
I had just said McCann was flying tonight, not playing great but playing well, as well as he has in any
game this season.
For most of the first month, many of us assumed McCann had to be in a third line centre role, playing
with more offensive-minded players.
But there he was tonight torching the narrative for two periods, shining while flanked by Prust and
Dorsett.
The underlying stats appeared to back that up. McCann kept his head above water possession-wise,
finishing the game with a plus-1 in shot-attempt differential.
This, despite not having an o-zone start for the game.
This is the one he gets benched? Surprising.
So what kind of impact can this have on a team?
“I think it’s a good impact,” Willie said. “The young guys know. They’re young players. Whatever
minutes they get, it helps them develop.
“Right at the start of the third, they went to a three line rotation. They have two big lines there. If
you’re rotating four, you’re going to get some tough matchups.”
But when you play Dorsett and Prust that much in the third, are you trying to win the game or are you
trying to hold on?
“Their line is a real good forechecking line,” Willie countered. “They got on it. They turned some over.
They had chances on it.
“Those guys can create. I had confidence in them.
“The play we just about scored on, Prust takes it wide, Horvat goes to the net. It was an empty net,
we just didn’t complete it.”
BEST WHO ARE WE KIDDING?
It’s Yannick Weber time!
0-2-2 at home has got to be enough to make a switch, right? Right?
You with us, coach? Anyone?
BEST OF OVI
This backcheck of his to stop a Horvat partial-breakaway was just sick. You seeing this, Ovi haters?
So great.
BEST TURN OF TIDE
I can feel it coming like a KC Royals rally. Starts slow, but there’s momentum happening here as
people hit some gappers wondering aloud why the second-year centre, billed as a stud, only has one
goal.
Oh, and Horvat has been on the ice for six even strength goals against in just seven games.
But here’s the thing, he’s making things happen. He nearly had that breakaway. He nearly scored on
that Prust play. He’s around the net. He’s dangerous.
He’s also getting used to a new role, and hasn’t been getting much help from two linemates who may
actually not be NHL players. And if that last part is true, you can deal with Virtanen but the Baertschi
could be a real problem.
They probably both need to play some third periods to know, though.
Horvat is minus-12 on scoring chance differential at evens. This is not good. Sutter is minus-18. This
is worse.
Horvat will get better, more productive. They are asking him to play differently than he did a year
ago. He’s taking chances. The mistakes he makes now will pay off in the second half of the year. Book
that. Fave that. Whatever.
Here are the first 12 games of Henrik’s second year (spoiler – it’s hard):
“The second year is tough sometimes,” Willie said. “We were looking at and right from the start you
don’t want to throw him up (in the top six).
“You just want him to develop. He’s 20 years old. He’s a real good 20-year-old hockey player, one of
the best in the league.
“The year hasn’t gone the way he wants. But he’s still a real solid player and at 20 he’s real good.”
I thought Horvat showed up tonight. I can’t say that for everyone.
I did want him to take this puck to the net though instead of passing to 14.
BEST QUESTION
JPat: “Willie, when you shorten the bench, you’re going to lean on some other guys to score. What
about Alex Burrows, has he looked dangerous to you these days?”
Willie: “He plays hard. He always plays hard. That’s when you talk about the pressure on one line, all
of a sudden you’re putting other guys in (positions) where if they shut down (the Sedin line) other
guys have to contribute.
“I thought Alex was good. I think he is skating better this year than he did at the start of last year.”
BEST BLAME
Sure, Prust blindly tossed the puck through the middle of the ice and it was turned into the Caps first
goal on that 2-on-2 rush.
But the Canucks were in the middle of a change. Hamhuis had already got off the ice for Edler.
Bartkowski, who was at the end of his shift, stayed late, as the Canucks pressed offensively.
He was even calling for the puck at the point, and then didn’t exactly do a great job handling that
rush, looking slow to react as Edler swept in to take his side and he had to cover an open Chimera.
BEST HOT TAKE
If the Sedins wanted Vrbata playing with them instead of other options — especially in the playoffs —
he would have been playing with them.
Discuss the implications with your barista.
BEST MEMORY
Vrbata couldn’t remember the last time he played an entire game with the Sedins. He thinks it was
before pitchers and catchers reported to spring training in February.
“I don’t even know, I know it was around the midway point of last season,” Vrbata said. “We did get a
shift here and there, but not where we started a game together like this.”
“I think as the game went on, we started to get back to where we were last year,” he said. “We
started reading each other, and creating some chances.
“It was good to score. But they also scored on us.”
BEST RATIONALE
So why has Willie gone ABV on the top line for nearly nine months? He is your $5-million sniper
brought in specifically to play with them.
I concede it can’t be all the time. A team needs different looks. But when the Sedins needed to score
in the playoffs, it was not an option.
Really, it hasn’t been an option for nine months.
“I didn’t think it was the best match,” Willie said of Vrbata with the twins.
“I thought other guys gave us a different look. I want to be more than a one-line team so teams have
trouble matching against us.
“I think that limits us a little bit on that. I think Hank and Danny keep the puck a lot. The third guy
doesn’t touch the puck that much. (Doesn’t this sound perfect for Vrby?)
“Vrby has good skills, he’s a guy you want handling the puck. He doesn’t handle it as much with them.
“But they were good tonight and we’ll keep it going as long as they’re good.”
Maybe there were other times in the past they could have been good?
What we do know is that Willie has got it in his head that Vrbata needs to make plays with the puck.
The one play this team needs more than any is him shooting the puck.
BEST CALL BACK
Henrik on that goal Daniel missed against Edmonton:
“We tried today in practice, and we weren’t able to get it over the net.”
BEST PLAY AROUND THE NHL TONIGHT WHICH BROUGHT UP OLD MEMORIES
Anyone remember a guy who played 2-on-1s like this:
BEST HOPE
Lots of people seem to believe the Jackets are a better fit for Torts than the Canucks.
Thing is, “fit” is not going to mean a thing if he hasn’t learned from the Vancouver experience. People
can spin that year anyway they want, the truth is Torts was never invested in the Vancouver Canucks.
Maybe he wasn’t over N.Y. Maybe he thought it would be easy, wave a wand, drop some F-bombs
and, voila, win some games, get a contender.
But he wasn’t into it and he wasn’t into it right from the start.
Leading up to training camp, there were no coaches’ meetings. There were no planning or preparation
sessions with management. Nothing. He showed up to training camp and essentially said, “Let’s go,
boys” on the fly.
That will get you killed in the NHL and it doesn’t matter how many good forwards you think the
Jackets have.
BEST WEEK
Burrows went Daniel Murphy, knocking balls out of the park in his media sessions all week long.
He told stories about his mom being a Quebec separatist here.
He fielded questions about that jump into the stands against the St. Louis Blues, the one in which the
NHL twitter feed cut to make look like he was diving.
“I guess I did too many squats in the summer,” he said.
He couldn’t understand why the NHL would cut the viz like that — why didn’t they show the whole
play? — but shrugged off those who took the bait, whole hog.
Chomp chomp:
That last one does bring the lulz.
Burrows explained that Tanev warned him that he was “going to get the puck and rim it hard, right
away.”
So he knew it was coming and got caught in no man’s land. It was either jumping or, I’m not sure
what else he could have done there.
But, narratives and all.
Burrows’ best material was on everything Torts.
Q: Does the Torts-Hartley incident come right to mind when you think of him?
Burr: “There’s a lot more stories that come to mind for me, internally. We have some good laughs
with the boys talking about all the stories that happened that year.”
Burrows on Torts’ intelligence: “He’s a really smart hockey man. People don’t realize that from the
outside.”
Burrows on how the team responded to him: “Some guys like it, some guys didn’t. He’s done it in the
past and it worked. He probably thought, ‘It worked for me before in Tampa. I pushed Vinny, I pushed
Marty, I pushed Richards, I pushed Boyle. And it worked.’
“He probably thought he may as well stick with it.”
Burrows on Torts’ motivational techniques: “He could get guys going, that’s for sure. But other times,
guys just didn’t buy in and didn’t believe it could work.”
BEST UPDATE
OK, so the Leafs have sent Corrado to the AHL for a conditioning stint, something not unheard of for a
player who hasn’t played in weeks.
He can be on the conditioning assignment for two weeks before he needs to be recalled into the NHL.
I’ve said this before, but there’s a chance Corrado finds himself back on waivers. The Leafs have
nothing invested in him and picking him up was a free look. If he doesn’t fit, they won’t lose any sleep
about tossing him back into the pond.
It’s not automatic the Canucks get him back. If he’s put on waivers again, the Canucks would have to
put in a claim for him. I think they would, but no guarantees.
But there’s more. The team who waived him originally, in this case, the Canucks would have to be the
only team to put in a claim on his second run through on waivers, something that is at least plausible.
If the Canucks do get him back, they would then be in position to re-assign him to Utica without
further waivers.
BEST NUGGET
It was no sure thing the Canucks were getting a second-round pick out of the Columbus Blue Jackets
for signing John Tortorella.
Initially, Columbus balked at the concept of surrendering a draft pick, arguing the rule that allows for
it is either going to be overhauled in January or dissolved.
The NHL at first suggested to the Canucks that they not stand in the way of Tortorella getting back
into the league as a head coach.
But eventually the NHL backed out, and told the two sides to work it out on their own.
The Canucks negotiated their way to the second round pick, and it could have been anything, by
paying a good chunk of Tortorella’s remaining deal. How much is unclear, but half would seem a good
bet.
It was not a breezy negotiation. But the Canucks were adamant about the second round pick. This was
a W.
Torts has this year remaining and two more years on a deal that was originally in the five-year, $10million neighbourhood.
Columbus has to now make a choice of when to cough up the pick, and it must be a pick within the
next three drafts.
People around the league expect them to pick the 2017 draft. The theory is they won’t pick this year,
the draft is too deep and there’s too much risk they tank. Meanwhile, they’ll be reluctant to pick 2018,
especially if they believe in their program, because by then they could have a good team and be in a
position where a second-round pick could help them at the deadline.
October 22, 2015
The White Towel
Ben Kuzma
Canucks Game Day: All Ovechkin all the time
as wily vets, wide-eyed rookies face the
Great 8
Notes and quotes as the Canucks prepare to face Alex Ovechkin and the red-hot Capitals — and their
second-ranked power play — tonight at Rogers Arena in a 7 p.m. start (Sportsnet, TSN 1040):
ALL OV, ALL THE TIME, EXCEPT FOR PUTIN:
Pretty funny poll on the TSN 1040 this morning. Asked to name the baddest Russian — Alex Ovechkin,
Vladimir Tarasenko or Vladimir Putin, the Russian president was the winner. Hey, the guy scored
seven goals recently in a celebrity game featuring Pavel Bure. Dude can play, or certainly influence
the outcome, right?
“He has some skill,” laughed Ovechkin. “I played once with him.”
Which, of course, brings us to tonight.
“We just need to go out and do our thing,” added Ovechkin. “We’ve obviously had some success (41-0) and if you want to have more in the future, you have to have a good start.”
Seriously, stopping Ovechkin is like stopping a freight train. There’s the imposing frame of the 6-foot3, 239-pound winger, the blazing speed, one of the best and hardest one-timers in the league and his
crease presence. The Canucks held the Russian menace off the scoresheet in two meetings last season
— a 4-2 win here Oct. 26 and a 4-3 triumph in Washington on Dec. 2 — but he has four goals and two
assists through four games and looks as effective as ever.
“You need your whole team to shut him down,” said Canucks winger Jannik Hansen, who will skate on
a shutdown line tonight with Brandon Sutter and Alex Burrows.
“You can’t put one guy on him and you need to limit his time and space. He can hurt you with his
individual performances and there are not a lot of players in the league who can beat you one-onone and he’s definitely one of them.
“You need to be aware and maybe play a little bit safer. He’s so big and physical, you can’t just
contain him by keeping him to the outside. If he’s not scoring on you, he’s running over you. Very
tough to contain.”
The containment net will extend to the back end, where Alex Edler and Chris Tanev — who are having
a remarkably consistent and effective season — will see plenty of OV. Tanev’s ability to read plays and
skate pucks out of trouble will help the Canucks transition.
“We know how good he is,” said Tanev. “He’s such a dynamic player and a big body who always plays
hard and goes hard to the net. We have to try and keep him to the outside as much as we can.”
YES, McCANN CAN BRING IT:
Interesting that Willie Desjardins keeps referencing the speed of rookie centre Jared McCann and how
he needs to keep getting it into the lineup. Tonight, he’ll play between Brandon Prust and Derek
Dorsett and will have two things on his mind.
If he’s out there, even on a line change against Ovechkin, he can’t get caught gawking. And he’s got
to avoid collisions like the cornerboards hit with St. Louis defenceman Robert Bortuzzo last Friday that
shook him up a bit. But he’s gaining the coach’s confidence for his fifth career NHL game.
“I feel like my speed can help and I’m gaining a lot of confidence,” said McCann. “Ovechkin is a player
I grew up idolizing and I’ll never forget when he scored on his back against Arizona. He’s definitely
skilled and I’m going to play him as hard as I play anyone else. But I’ve got to avoid hits and not put
myself in a bad position. That’s a key thing.”
HEY, LOOK, IT’S OVECHKIN:
It says something about the exuberance of youth and the stature Ovechkin has in the game that Jake
Virtanen didn’t bolt after a UBC practice Wednesday. The rookie Canucks winger hung around to watch
the Capitals star skate and release his lethal slapper. While there was still some buzz about Radim
Vrbata being reunited with Henrik and Daniel Sedin tonight in hopes of finally scoring, Ovechkin
quickly stole the show.
“It’s pretty surreal watching him practise,” said Virtanen, who will skate again with Bo Horvat and
Sven Baertschi. “He’s pretty special. He was just taking a shot for fun and it was a rocket. And he has
such a quick release and you can teach it, but with him it’s a natural thing.”