Players having a Capitol time on the road
Brad Ziemer, The Vancouver Sun
Long trip offers time to explore
WASHINGTON, D. C. — The Vancouver Canucks are on their longest road trip of the
season, which means a lot of airports, hotels and arenas.
But when they get the chance, many of the players like to get out and explore. Monday
was one of those days.
It was a team day off, and having chartered to the U. S. capital after Sunday afternoon’s
5- 3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings, the players had the entire day to do as they pleased
on what was an unseasonably mild day.
Defenceman Luca Sbisa said he definitely would be getting out to see some of the sights
in Washington.
“I like to do stuff,” Sbisa said. “I am a guy that rarely caves it up in my room. I like to go
out and explore. In St. Louis ( last month) I went to the Arch and I like to do stuff like
that. Some cities are good for that. Some cities there’s not much to see.
“I haven’t had much time in Washington before. I heard some of the guys talking about
going out and seeing some of the historical sites like the White House. I am usually up
for things like that.”
Sbisa is reminded by his girlfriend how fortunate he is to visit so many places.
“She is always so jealous because I have been to every major city in North America. She
is always asking me, how is that place? Is it cool? I sometimes take it for granted. But for
someone who doesn’t get to travel that much, it’s special.”
Washington is one of those places centre Nick Bonino loves to visit.
“One of the positives of this game is you get to see the continent,” Bonino said. “You are
in every major city pretty much, so it’s definitely cool to explore some new places. The
best museum in Washington is the Holocaust Museum. It’s definitely chilling. It’s
important to know what people went through. I have never been up to the top of the
Washington Monument. I would like to do that.” If he does, Shawn Matthias will likely
be joining him. “I am going to follow Bones now,” Matthias said. “He knows his way
around, so I am going to follow him and see where he goes. Maybe some history would
be good.”
Three Canucks rookies — Bo Horvat, Frank Corrado and Nicklas Jensen — did some
exploring of their own on Monday. The trio rented bikes and visited several historic sites
in the Washington area.
This seven- game trip means the Canucks are away for two weeks. That can be tough on
players with young families. Winger Alex Burrows said long trips like this one are both
easier and harder for a veteran player like himself. Easier because he knows his way
around most places.
“You know what to expect, you know the city you are going to, you know what team you
are going to be facing, if the airport is far from the hotel, if you are going to get your
sleep and everything. It gets easier that way.”
What makes these long trips especially tough is being away from his two young
daughters for so long.
“It’s a good thing we have those iPads and the FaceTime,” he said. “When I first started
we didn’t really have that, we had the dial phone or Skype. You would always lose the
signal or you wouldn’t have Wi- Fi in the hotel room or plug- in Internet. It’s funny, I
called home twice the other day and my oldest daughter ( three- year- old Victoria) was
asking why am I calling a second time. I guess she had already had enough of me.”
Defenceman Kevin Bieksa knows road trips are part of the business, but he also misses
his kids.
“It’s tougher as the kids get older, I think,” he said. “I am able to FaceTime and talk to
them a little bit more now that they are older. But I miss out on some of their activities. I
missed my daughter’s music sharing the other day where they put on a little
performance. It’s tough missing stuff like that.” For the most part, the players enjoy
getting out on the road. They stay in a lot of five- star hotels and it’s a time to bond with
teammates and maybe enjoy a dinner or two out.
But these marathon trips can become a grind. Winger Chris Higgins said winning
definitely helps.
“Sometimes you enjoy them and sometimes you loathe them with every fibre,” Higgins
said. “This one, I think we are feeling good about our game right now and we want it to
be a fun trip and we have to win to keep the fun going. There’s nothing we can do to
change how long the road trip is, but we have to enjoy it and win games and things will
come together.”
Higgins tries to take advantage of his time on the road to do some exploring.
“I hate sitting around in a hotel room,” he said. “I like seeing different neighbourhoods
of cities, that is something I really enjoy is trying to get the essence of each city, I guess,
because with all our travel you might as well take it all in.”
Goalie Ryan Miller feels the same way, although when it comes to most of the eastern
cities he’s been there and done that as a result of playing all those years in Buffalo.
“I have explored all the eastern cities already,” Miller said. “I think I have seen
everything. I’d see some stuff again. It depends on weather at this point. Honestly, early
in the season and in springtime Washington is fun. You can see all the different
monuments and beautiful architecture and buildings. That is something I like to do in
Europe as well.”
Higgins felt like most of his exploring on Monday would involve a mall. He’s got
Christmas shopping to do.
“I have got the family coming down for Christmas so I have a lot of presents that have to
be there on Christmas,” he said. “I can’t say it was stuck in the mail for a couple of weeks
if it doesn’t arrive until January. It has to be there Christmas Day.”
RECENT RUN
The Canucks have split the fi rst two games of their seven- game trip. After winning 5- 0
in Columbus on Friday, they dropped a 5- 3 decision Sunday to the Detroit Red Wings.
Vancouver has won four of its last six games … The Capitals are 10- 9- 4 under new head
coach Barry Trotz and heading into Monday night’s action were tied for ninth spot in the
Eastern Conference. The Caps are coming off an ugly 6- 2 loss Saturday in Toronto.
WHO’S HOT?
Canucks winger Shawn Matthias has scored in each of the team’s last three games.
Linemate Linden Vey is coming off a three- point performance in Sunday’s loss in
Detroit … The Canucks are averaging 3.04 goals per game and are tied for fourth in off
ence … Capitals C Nicklas Backstrom had two assists versus Toronto to extend his points
streak to fi ve games ( 1 goal, 7 assists). Backstrom has three multi- point games in his
last fi ve games and leads the Caps with 24 points.
WHO’S NOT?
Winger Daniel Sedin has not scored in his last seven games and has just one goal in his
last 14. The only Canucks forwards with fewer than Daniel’s four goals this season are
Derek Dorsett, Zack Kassian and Bo Horvat … C Nick Bonino has not scored in the last
10 games but does have seven assists during that stretch … Caps centre Brooks Laich has
no goals and just one point in eight games this season. He missed a large chunk of the
season with a shoulder injury.
HEAD TO HEAD
The Canucks got two power- play goals in a 4- 2 win over Washington on Oct. 26 at
Rogers Arena. The teams split two games last season. Washington won 4- 3 at home,
while Vancouver won 3- 2 at Rogers Arena … The Capitals have the NHL’s secondranked power play, which has converted 28.8 per cent of its attempts. The Canucks’
power play has fallen to 18th ( 18.4 per cent). Vancouver has the penalty- killing edge.
The Canucks rank eighth at 84.2 per cent, while the Caps are 23rd at 77.5 per cent.
QUOTABLE
“They’re going to be productive players in this league, but we need time. One of the
problems is we don’t have time, so they have to learn under fi re. You’re looking for that
prototypical secondline centre man. They’re not out there. They’re just not out there. No
one’s selling them. No one’s giving them away. So we have to produce our own.” — Caps
coach Barry Trotz, speaking to the Washington Post about young Russian centres Andre
Burakovsky and Evgeny Kuznetsov.
Canucks look to avoid another slow start vs. Capitals
The Sports Network
The Vancouver Canucks are among the best teams in the NHL, but the opening period
has been an issue at times.
Meetings with the Washington Capitals are rarely a problem.
After another sluggish opening period eventually cost them, the Canucks go for a better
start Tuesday night when they try to continue their dominance of the stumbling
Capitals.
You can listen to the action on TSN Radio 1040 Vancouver starting at 2pm PT.
Vancouver is 12-4-1 since Oct. 26, and early struggles have proved costly. The Canucks
(16-7-1) have been outscored 8-1 in the first period in those defeats, giving up two goals
in the opening stanza as their rally fell short in Sunday's 5-3 loss at Detroit.
"It's disappointing," said center Shawn Matthias, who scored a goal and assisted on
another in the third period. "You look at the third period, we dominated them. All the
lines were working and all the lines were creating chances."
Matthias has been doing that on his own of late. He's collected four of his nine points on
the season over the past three games, scoring goals in each of them while taking 11 shots
- matching his total from the eight previous contests.
Matthias found the net on one of his five shots in a 4-3 loss at Washington on March 14.
Vancouver beat the Capitals 4-2 on Oct. 26, improving to 13-2-2 in the series since the
start of the 1998-99 season, while winning five of six.
Daniel Sedin had an assist in the October meeting, giving him seven points in his last
four matchups with a plus-5 rating.
Henrik Sedin had a goal on Oct. 26, giving him two with two assists in four meetings.
However, all of that scoring has come at home, and he's compiled three assists in seven
games in the nation's capital.
It's uncertain if Ryan Miller will be back in net after making 25 saves Sunday, two days
after making 31 stops in a 5-0 win at Columbus to open this season-high seven-game
road trip.
He's lost six of eight games with Buffalo in Washington with a 2.88 goals-against
average, but he made 20 saves at home Oct. 26.
The Capitals (10-9-4) have dropped three of four games (1-2-1), and are coming off a
listless 6-2 defeat at Toronto on Saturday. They had issues in net as starter Justin Peters
was pulled after allowing two goals on six shots in the first period, but Braden Holtby
wasn't much better while allowing a goal on the first shot he faced and two more on the
ensuing 11 before he was chased.
"You're trying to change the momentum after the first, that's why the goalie change,"
coach Barry Trotz said. "First shift, we turn it over and it ends up in the net. (Holtby)
couldn't do anything one that one. But those are critical moments. Things weren't going
our way."
Holtby is expected to face the Canucks for the first time, and he owns a 1.77 GAA while
splitting his last four home starts.
Alex Ovechkin was held off the score sheet Saturday after collecting four goals in four
games - one more than the previous 14. The three-time Hart Trophy winner has three
goals in his last four games against the Canucks, but failed to score at Vancouver in
October.
Without Hamhuis, it’s ‘next man up’
Jason Botchford, The Province
Top shutdown defenceman is sidelined for six weeks or more, so others
will have to fill the void
When he took over, GM Jim Benning never barked about the Canucks contending for a
championship. Instead, he talked about just making the playoffs.
He never sold his team as being capable of returning to its elite scoring days.
Instead, he said the Canucks would rotate four lines and relieve pressure on the Sedins.
With some artful under-promising, Benning’s team has managed to over-deliver early in
his tenure in a number of areas.
Two months in, the odds are much better now that the Canucks will make the
postseason than when the season launched.
Head coach Willie Desjardins has kept it a four-line team, and done that even with a 19year-old rookie centring one of them.
But Benning also vowed his Canucks would be deeper Canucks. This one is about to be
put to the test.
Dan Hamhuis may not require surgery, but he is still not expected to return for at least
six weeks. And Benning admitted there’s a chance it could be longer, depending on how
Hamhuis’s injury, believed to be a groin tear, heals.
Hamhuis is a load-bearing wall. You can get away with taking one out of your home, but
you’d better be very, very careful. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll seriously
compromise the structural integrity of your house.
Can the Canucks, as they’re built, survive long-term without their top shutdown
defenceman? Benning is betting they can. He may have made some inquiries about
finding possible replacements just after the Nov. 20 injury, but this week he leaned on
three words that should submerge any hope the Canucks are about to trade their way
out of this.
“Next man up,” said Benning. “That’s how it will have to be.”
The general manager said he has no plans to spend assets to bring in another
defenceman to weather this.
“I believe we have eight NHL defencemen on this roster. This is going to provide an
opportunity for guys to step up in the lineup.
“We still have seven good defencemen.”
None of this would be remotely possible if not for Alex Edler’s resurgence.
Edler has been the Canucks’ most consistent blue-liner, leading the defence in
traditional statistics (a plus-5 rating and eight points) as well as the underlying
advanced analytics (like his 53.9 per cent Corsi-for percentage and his 8.9 Corsirelative).
He’s been physical. And he has not been mistake-prone, something that dogged him last
year, a season in which he infamously had the worst plus-minus in the NHL.
Part of it is that this coaching staff plays him on his natural left side.
It’s helped he’s not playing with Kevin Bieksa regularly. The two have less chemistry
than snow and downtown Vancouver.
All of that has helped his confidence.
“A lot of his game is confidence,” Benning said. “When a coach has confidence in a
player and that player then has confidence in himself, it can take you a long way.
“I think from Day 1, Doug Lidster has worked with him and done a really good job
helping him regain his confidence.
“It’s helping him get back to where he was a couple of years ago.”
If Edler maintains this level of play, it’s a massive coup for the coaching staff.
If Lidster never accomplishes another thing as an assistant, that alone could get him
consideration if there is ever a coaches ring of honour in Rogers Arena.
Without Hamhuis, it will now be on Edler and Chris Tanev to be the loadbearing walls of
this blueline.
The Kevin Bieksa and Luca Sbisa pairing struggled plenty on Sunday in Detroit.
It’s a safe bet there will be a few more games like that during the next six weeks.
It’s up to Edler and Tanev to ensure it doesn’t bring the house down.
Virtanen earns Canadian junior invite
Jim Jamieson, The Province
2014 first-rounder among 29 players vying for 22 spots on Canada’s
national squad
Canucks prospect Jake Virtanen has been invited to Canada’s junior team selection
camp this month in Toronto and St. Catharines, Ont.
The timing couldn’t be better for Virtanen, said Dan Bonar, the director of player
personnel for the Abbotsford native’s WHL Calgary Hitmen team.
“Jake was able to go to the Canucks training camp, but he couldn’t take contact and
whatnot there,” said Bonar. “He missed camp with us, too, so you could say his season is
starting right about now.”
Virtanen, 18, who was selected sixth overall by Vancouver in last June’s NHL draft,
opted to have major shoulder surgery last May. He was able to attend the Young Stars
tournament in Penticton in September and then the Canucks’ main camp afterwards,
but was limited to no-contact drills. He was able to return to action with the Hitmen in
mid-October.
Bonar said Virtanen has shown his highend speed and big shot, but showed a little rust
with the time away from competitive hockey and the usual adjustment coming back
from major surgery.
Virtanen, a big (6-foot-1, 210 pounds) right-hand-shot power forward has 7-1219 in 17
games and leads the Hitmen in points per game with 1.12.
Virtanen will be among the 29 players vying for 22 spots on the team that will represent
Canada at the world junior tournament Dec. 26 to Jan. 5 in Montreal and Toronto. The
tryout camp runs from Dec. 11 to 15. Canada hasn’t won the gold medal at the event
since 2009.
Bonar is optimistic that Virtanen can make the final cut, but knows it will be tough.
“It’s going to be competitive,” said Bonar. “He’ll be in the mix. He’ll add some
physicality and some scoring ability for them.”
Virtanen, a winger, would certainly have been joined by fellow first-rounder Bo Horvat,
19, (ninth overall in 2013) if he was available.
Horvat was a core player last year on the team that finished fourth, but the big centre
appears to have earned an NHL job with the Canucks.
Canucks lose Movember bet, post ‘Go Habs Go’ pic
Sportsnet
December 1 marks the official end of Movember.
It’s also the day the Montreal Canadiens got to cash in on their bi-coastal bet with the
Vancouver Canucks.
The two teams faced off in a friendly facial hair competition to see who could raise the
most money and, according to the Canucks’ blog post, the Habs and their moustaches
“mopped the floor” with the Canucks for the second consecutive year.
And while there are no real losers in a competition that raises money and promotes
awareness for the fight against cancer, the Canucks did have to pay the price. As per the
teams’ agreement, the Canucks’ Twitter and Facebook accounts have been sporting a
photo of a Habs fan with a “Go Habs Go” sign. This was the third year the Canucks and
Canadiens faced off in the friendly facial hair competition.
Needless to say, the Canucks are ready to move on … to Decembeard?