Vancouver Canucks

[ridinryan44]

Well... apologies for the lack of updates this off season, but there just hasn't been a lot going on in Vancouver. The two most recent moves include the signing of Manny Legace (as mentioned above) and Steve Begin. Both are thought to be brought in to create more competition. Vancouver has also re-signed Oreskovich.. term and money have not been announced. Camp will start on September 16th and a complete roster of attendees can be found here.

The Canuck's are once again taking part in the Young Stars competition in Penticton starting this Sunday night with Vancouver facing Edmonton to start the tourny. This plays out until the 15th. Teams include Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and San Jose. Some great news is that Rogers Sportsnet will be covering two of the games, Van vs Edm and Van vs Cal the following night. I will update with as much info as possible on standouts from these two games as I won't be able to attend them this year.... stupid work.

[ridinryan44]

Viktor Oreskovich's deal is a two-way contract at $605,000. He'll definitely see at least a little bit of time on the fourth line and has a good shot at winning it out of camp. He will have to simplify and play the game he's good at, though, to take it. His performance during the playoffs was not great.

[ridinryan44]

For those not able to watch Van VS Edm tomorrow at the prospects tourny in Penticton, I will be live updating on this thread with scoring stats and my opinion on standouts and general performance of players from both teams. Focus, of course, will be on Vancouver players but I will have something to say about the Edmonton prospects as well. Probably all bad. Probably will go like this: "Edmonton players suck more than just straws. Booster Juice ain't got nothin' on them. Edmonton's future is dark and fuzzy, like vintage pornography."

[ridinryan44]

Here is the roster for the young stars in Penticton...


71 Anthony, Steven LW 6’2” 205 Halifax, N.S.
49 Archibald, Darren LW 6’3” 209 Newmarket, ON
62 Curtis, Michael* C 5’11” 182 Mississauga, ON
56 Friesen, Alex C 5’10” 190 Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON
67 Grenier, Alexandre RW 6’4” 185 Laval, QC
74 Harrison, Ryan* C 5’10” 190 Kelowna, BC
72 Janes, Steven* RW 6’2” 180 Toronto, ON
46 Jensen, Nicklas W 6’3” 187 Herning, DEN
70 Lessard, Jonathan* RW 6’0” 180 St. Eustache, QC
68 Longpre, Nathan* C 6’0” 185 Peterborough, ON J
53 Rai, Prab LW 6’0” 190 Surrey, BC Nov
43 Rodin, Anton RW 6’0” 176 Stockholm, SWE
73 Roussel, Antoine* LW 5’11” 185 Roubaix, FRA
48 Schneider, Stefan C/RW 6’4 203 Vernon, B.C.
45 Schroeder, Jordan C 5’9” 180 Prior Lake, MN
57 Smith, Andrew* RW 6’5” 210 Corner Brook, NL
42 Sweatt, Bill LW 6’0” 185 Elburn, IL Sep 21
51 Tochkin, Kellan RW 5’9” 179 Abbotsford, BC
61 Connauton, Kevin D 6’2” 200 Edmonton, AB
58 Corrado, Frankie D 6’0” 188 Woodbridge, ON
59 Duininck, Craig* D 6’0” 200 Plymouth, MI
50 Erixon, Sebastian D 5’10” 183 Sundsvall, SWE
65 Hannay, Sawyer D 6’4” 202 Moncton, NB
63 Polasek, Adam D 6’3” 200 Ostrava, CZE J
64 Saab, Ian* D 6’2” 178 Halifax, NS
47 Sauve, Yann D 6’3” 220 Montreal, QC

GOALTENDERS

76 Honzik, David 6’2” 207 Milevsko, CZE
34 Jensen, Brendan* 6’0” 193 El Grenada, CA
75 St. Laurent, Karel* 6’4" 181 Ville Ste-Catherine, QC

[ridinryan44]

My apologies for not having the updates on the prospect tourny up already... I was distracted last night.

I will be updating the two games tonight whence I arrive hometh from hockey, around 10:30 PT.

One thing I can tell you is the recent draft pick David Honzik was horrible in allowing 6 goals in the second period against EDM last night. Oh, and RNH has vision like a hawk.... kid is gonna put up big assists in the NHL with superstars Eberle and Hall.

[ridinryan44]

Game 1 VS Edm was a bit of a shit show... Edmonton managed to squeak out a close 7-2 win in the opener for both teams The game was very sloppy to start, but had really picked up by the third and was as expected/hoped...the RNH show.

This kid can pass the puck. His vision is insane and he doesn't even give players time to muscle him off the puck as his passes seem to always come moments before anyone can touch him. Part of what I saw was his ability to put the puck into a good spot, not always necessarily directly onto a stick or to someone he sees, but to a spot where there is an opening and where one of his teammates should be. He didn't appear to be super shifty like a Tyler Ennis, but this was only one game. Kid is going to be an assist leader in the NHL one day. Also standing out was Anton Lander who had two beautiful PP goals. Edmonton may have a gem in this kid.

It was unfortunate the score was so far apart as it didn't really seem to represent what really happened. Yes, Edmonton deserved the win as they were the better team in the second and third, but a lot of blame lies with David Honzik. He seemed incredibly nervous and his rebound control was atrocious. Rebounds came out directly in front of the net and he played the puck off his chest a lot, allowing it to drop to the ice in front of him where he would cover it. Not a huge deal once in a while but it happened far too often and Edmonton was able to capitalize.

I really liked Sebastian Erixon and Adam Polasek on defense. Polasek was a rock. Very few mistakes, excellent puck protection, good puck movement and was tough to beat. He had one hell of a fight with Colton Teubert, landing a solid right hand that looked as though it could have broken his nose. I really liked his well rounded game. Erixon was excellent with the puck and a good puck mover. He was very slick and really looked to join the offense. Great skater and vision.

Kevin Connauton has an innate ability to get the puck through to the net. He is a big body and didn't stand out as sorely as last year on the defensive side of things. Only time I noticed him, though, was in the offensive zone. His defensive game still needs work if he ever expects to make it in the NHL. I still don't believe he will. Not as a full-time player, anyway. He did score Vancouver's second goal of the night, but it was a simple backhand into an open night off of an Olivier Roy rebound.

Jordan Schroeder had some flashes of brilliance, but his overall game left a lot to be desired from a first round "steal". He had a fantastic end to end rush that almost resulted in a goal, but his teammate (not sure who) couldn't quite finish the goal-mouth cross. Schroeder played with Rodin and Sweatt and they looked OK. I had hoped for a lot from Rodin after almost two full years in the Swedish Elite league but there was nothing special to see. The best line all night was that of Darren Archibald and Nicklas Jensen, centered by Alex Friesen. Archibald was the recipient of a beautiful cross-ice feed from Jensen for Vancouver's first goal.

The downside to the night was the play of 18 year old netminder, David Honzik. He was Vancouver's 3rd round pick in this years draft. He appeared very nervous until he was pulled part way through the six-goal second period. His rebound control was atrocious and one could see his emotions getting the best of him after a weak five-hole goal during the Edmonton run. The pulling of Honzik was a merciful one and he will be looking to improve on his dismal performance. Karel St. Laurent (pronounced Karl), the 6'4, 20 year old, goaltender here on a tryout was very good in relief of Honzik. He earned the start in game number two, even if he was already penciled in. It was a shame that Honzik's game went so poorly as he had some beautiful saves aside from the rest. St. Laurent also came up big on (another) slick pass from RNH to Curtis Hamilton (who had great chemistry btw) right in the slot. Big confidence builder.

The confidence appeared to carry over to tonight's game against Calgary. I missed the first two periods (whatsup with this whole work thing?) but he had stopped 30 shots before the third had even started. I will do a little more digging before I go into detail on tonight's game, but it was a great finish for a team needing a win as Vancouver's Nathan Longpre tied the game with 15 seconds left and added an assist on the game winner after a big faceoff win and single-effort to carry the puck into Calgary's zone. He crossed the puck to Antoine Roussele who simply needed to poke the puck into the net. This all happened after the opening faceoff in OT, 16 seconds in. Longpre ended the night witha two-goal, one-assist performance to lead the team. Karel St. Laurent ended the night with a 44-save performance.

Vancouver's next game is Wednesday at 4:00 against the San Jose Sharks.

[ridinryan44]

Here is a good read on Vancouver prospect Kevin Connauton. My opinion on the kid is that he'll be a great AHL player but fringe NHL'r. He does have NHL size and a cannon of a shot. This article also talks about his ability to get the puck through traffic and onto the net, which I mentioned above. It's incredible watching him play in the offensive zone and finding a way through.

[ridinryan44]

LW - Billy Sweatt may miss the rest of the tournament after leaving the last game early after taking a hit. The injury has not been specified but it sounds as though it's a precautionary measure more than anything.

[ridinryan44]

Here is a good read on Cody Hodgson, thanks to Angus for the link on Twitter.
http://canucksarmy.com/2011/9/9/ca-p...e-cody-hodgson

[ridinryan44]

Here is a short review on Kevin Connauton's game against Calgary, which really mirrored that of the night before and shares my feelings on his play.

"For the wrong reasons:

Kevin Connauton

On any given shift Kevin Connauton will do a couple things I really like, and a couple more that I don't. For the most part, however, he is an epic adventure - and then some - in his own end. He looked particularly weak in the corners, miss-timed a number of body-checks, and had a few bad giveaways. He calmed down a bit after the first period, but he looked miles away from being an NHL player in the first twenty minutes of tonight's game - Sportsnet compiled a particularly ghastly highlight package of his lapses in the period.

At the same time, his positioning without the puck was solid, and he made some smart passing plays in the offensive-end. He has some ability - at least at this level - to skate through traffic, and I was impressed by the way he looks to carry the puck along the blue-line in search of shooting lanes. His puck-movement with Schroeder and Erixon on the power-play made it so that, if you squinted hard enough, the Canucks man-advantage looked like a polished unit in the second period. "

Below is a link to the rest of the article:
http://canucksarmy.com/2011/9/12/pro...-game-2-review

[ridinryan44]

Pretty good article doing a small wrap-up of the prospects tourny. Vancouver ended the tournament with a 2-0 loss to Winnipeg.

http://canucks.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=588562

[ridinryan44]

Here is the latest Hockeysfuture.com analysis of the Vancouver Canuck's prospect pool - very good read.

Here

[ridinryan44]

Here is the latest from Derek Jory at Canucks.com on the latest battles at camp on day two:

Day Two

[ridinryan44]

Starting lineups for tomorrow night's game against the Flamers:

Home game:

Sturm-Ebbett-Nolan
Pinizzotto-Schroeder-Jensen
Volpatti-Schneider-Rodin
Clackson-Roussel-Tochkin

Ballard-Tanev (potential opening day third pairing)
Sauve-Parent
Rome-Polasek
Baumgartner

Schneider/Lack


Away game:

Duco-Hodgson-Oreskovich
Dimatrakos-Longpre-Marancin
Archibald-Begin-Fedoruk
Anthoney-Friesen-Grenier

(my positions may not be 100% accurate)

Connauton-Eriksson
Sulzer-Corrado
Alberts-Erixon
Ellington

Legace/Climie


Quote from Ballard on his off-season:

“I feel good, I feel like I should. I feel good on the ice, I feel comfortable, it’s not a new environment any more, I have a year under my belt and everything with the city and the team and the organization, with everything going on here I feel a lot more comfortable.”

[ridinryan44]

Ugly start for the Manny Legace led Canuck's team against CAL. Two goals within the first 9 minutes sees them down 2-0 on goals by Greg Nemisz and Rene Borque.

Kevin Connauton on the ice for both goals - SURPRISE!!! #Bum.