Russian Five Alive?

**** While You're reading my post click the link and enjoy the podcast including my interview with NHL veteran official Kelly Sutherland, Lions' Lineman Jesse Newman and our Canucks Analyst Brian Wiebe of Q101:  http://soundcloud.com/josh-statham/epi4complete ****

If Scotty Bowman can rip-off the Russian-Five and ride it to Stanley Cup greatness then so can AV, only, without any Russians.

If you’re unfamiliar with it Russian hockey developed a system of deploying a cohesive five man unit rather than a forward line a defense pairing. The system of creating a five man unit became a big story in 1981 when the Soviets defeated Canada in the long anticipated Canada Cup which was twice postponed for political reasons. Wayne Gretzky led team Canada against the Soviet’s famed “Green Unit” and legendary Russian goalkeeper Vladislav Tretiak; it remains one of the greatest international hockey tournaments ever played.

The name for 1981’s Canada Cup Russian Five “Green Unit” was derived from the green pinnies the quintet wore during practice and consisted of Vyacheslav Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov on defense and Vladamir Krutov, Igior Larionov and Sergei Makarov up front. The “Green Unit” operated with the stealth of a covert-ops unit and scored at will.

In the 90’s then Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman joined original Green Unit members Fetisov and Larionov with a trio of new Russian stars, Sergei Federov, Vladamir Konstantinov and Slava Kozlov. The Wings’ own Russian Five were a major contributor to the 1997 Stanley Cup Winning season.

Now, it remains to be seen if the feat could be duplicated without using actual Russians but the idea of keeping consistent five man units together might help bring chemistry to the newly rebuilt Canucks.

Recently acquired winger David Booth plays a game far too similar to his former minor hockey teammate and second line center Ryan Kesler to ever find chemistry, but how do you justify moving one of them to the third line?  Maybe you could give appropriate ice time to Booth on a third unit?

The Sedins and Burr don’t score off the rush but use a puck possession game in the offensive zone so keeping them on the ice with Sami Salo and Alex Edler who are among the slower footed blue liners but probably have the best two shots on the back end makes sense.

When Mason Raymond is healthy he’ll likely rejoin Ryan Kesler and Chris Higgins on the second line; that’s a lot of speed and speed scores off the rush so put these guys together with Dan Hamhuis and Kevin Bieksa who were lauded in last year’s playoffs for shutting down opposition offense by getting the puck up and out of their own zone too quickly to be pestered by any kind of forecheck.

This leaves Booth and his break out speed and heavy shot on a third line unit with playmaking Cody Hodgson and grinder Janik Hansen. Who better to form the Canadian-German-American-Danish five with that forward line than Alex Sulzer and Keith Ballard? I can just see Sulzer feeding Hail Mary passes through the neutral zone to Booth in stride and Cody Hodgson giving him a third man high option or speedy Janik Hansen supporting the forecheck.

The answer to the chemistry between David Booth and Ryan Kesler is to give up and think outside the box finding a way to use both effectively on different units.  This will lead to more success for each and an absolute line-matching nightmare for opposing coaches.

Enjoy the podcast:  http://soundcloud.com/josh-statham/epi4complete

Down on the Farm: Darren Archibald

It’s not exactly the script of the Blindside but the story of Darren Archibald’s journey to pro hockey is pretty inspiring, and far from complete.

As a seventeen-year-old Archibald starred for Stouffville of the Onatrio Junior-A Hockey League playing at nearly a point-per-game pace in his rookie season. The OPJHL is one of the top leagues for producing collegiate talent but Archibald had bigger aspirations. Earlier that year he had cut the collegiate shoot and jumped full bore in to a career in hockey by playing two preseason games with Barrie of the Ontario Hockey League, in so declaring himself ineligible for NCAA scholarships.

The next season Archibald transitioned seamlessly to major junior notching 25 goals and earned a ranking among the top 200 draft eligible North American skaters, but his name was not called to the Bell Centre podium at the 2009 draft. The next season he cracked the top 100 on the strength of a 59 point campaign but still watched as other North American skaters with lower points totals got to live the dream and wear the hat and jersey of a team that felt they would someday become and NHL regular.

“Everybody wants to get drafted but after it didn’t happen I knew it wasn’t the end of world.” Archibald says of his draft status. “There has always been guys who have made it without being drafted. It helps you stay focused.”

And so Darren went back to Barrie for his overage year in hopes of earning a pro contract only to be traded for the first time in his career. Just five days after leaving Barrie for cross-town rival Niagara Darren Archibald, passed over by 30 NHL teams through three drafts all seven rounds deep, signed a contract with the Vancouver Canucks.

Arhibald’s 41 goals helped the Ice Dogs to a lengthy playoff run and he concluded his OHL career having compiled more points in each season he played and joining the soon-to-be President’s Trophy winners.

Archibald spent his offseason working on coming in to his third NHL rookie camp in the best shape he could.

“I still do power skating every summer because there’s always room for improvement.” He states. “You want to be at the rink getting better every day.”

He turned heads at the pre-season rookie tournament as one of the older members of the Canucks frosh squad and received high marks from staff and fellow players.

“He uses his size really well and I really enjoyed playing on a line with him.” Said fellow OHL power forward and Canucks hopeful Nicklas Jensen.

After a very strong camp Archibald was assigned to join a young Chicago Wolves roster where he’s working to find chemistry with prospects Jordan Schroeder and Anton Rodin.

Archibald, a member of the Black Hockey Players Wall of Fame group on facebook wore number 12 in minor hockey as an homage to Jarome Iginla, but he doesn’t concentrate on his minority status.

“There’s always talk that black guys shouldn’t play hockey. White guys play hockey, black guys play basketball; times have changed now, you see more and more kids playing all different kinds of sports.”

To him colour isn’t an obstacle and the fraternity of professional black hockey players has grown exponentially in recent years as more and more ethnic kids get in to Canada’s great frozen game.

When asked what his reaction was to the recent photos circulated on Twitter of Coyote’s winger Raffi Torres’ Jay-Z Halloween costume his reply is mindful of the weightiness of this hot topic and offers levity.

“It’s Halloween. It’s meant to be fun. I’m sure Raffi Torres meant nothing by it.” He dismisses. “I think Dwyane Wade went as Justin Timberlake for Halloween which is no different.”

Darren Archibald, the undrafted power forward with tremendous speed, shot and size never questioned his belief that one day his skill and hard work would culminate in a career in the NHL, not when he threw his NCAA scholarship eligibility out the window, and not when he was passed over in the NHL draft, and it worked out to his advantage. A player taken by any random team in the NHL Entry Draft is property of that team for two years. If in that time the two parties don’t agree to an entry level contract the player re-enters the draft. Instead Darren Archibald was a free agent, able to showcase his skill set to any taker and he must feel vindicated to have been signed by a cup contender in Vancouver.

 

Feaster Famine

*** CANUCKS JR BROADCASTER EXTRORDINAIRE: http://soundcloud.com/josh-statham/nov-1-mcdonalds-junior-1 Donny Taylor, eat your heart out ****

Not the best night to make a case for staying the course in Calgary so please bare in mind it was just a couple weeks ago the Canucks looked as bad as the Flames do tonight at home against a "soft" team no less.

I was listening to B-Mac and Taylor on Team1040 talking about how it would be a good idea to blow-up the Flames and rebuild because Canadian fans are tired of watching second-tier hockey markets dog-it for years and get handed the fruits of the draft to assemble a cup winner.  The argument was Canadian fans are smart and would tolerate a few bad years for one good one rather than enjoy another 9th place season.

Calgary GM Jay Feaster inherited a few bad contracts in Calgary but for the most part doesn't have the worst set of circumstances to build a contender.  He's also come out in a radio interview criticizing crosstwon rival Edmonton for performing the blow-up/rebuild act. The cupboards are on the bare side in Abbotsford but when Mikael Backlund is back they should finally have their top forward and the unheralded Roman Horak is looking like quite the find, along with Sven Bartchsi this team is slowly restocking the farm system.

Last year the face of the franchise had his name dragged through the trade rumor mud after a mediocre 2009-10 campaign and a slow start last year.  He promptly lit up the league for 43 goals cementing his rightful place among the games elite power forwards. He's got a lot of game left in him at 34 and Calgary would be remiss to cash him out now.  Where would they have been without his 43 goals last season?  Sadly enough many in the Sea of Red think the return for Iginla is what might resurrect the franchise but the reality is no Calgary GM has ever brought in a top tier centre to play with Iggy and there's still time to give him the pivot he deserves and finally bring Calgary back to respectability.

And what would a team be willing to give for Iginla and his multi-million dollar contract?  Any package of prospects or picks would take years to materialize.  Yes, I know this is the point of rebuilding but all the teams that have been bad enough to attempt this have been really, really bad and had a lot more to lose than the Flames.  The Red Mile is loyal, sure, but even a modest dip in interest in the team spills the gravy for ownership and they're not going to let that happen.  Worst-to-first stories like Pittsburgh and Chicago were so far gone it didn't matter if they fell off the map for a decade because they were on the Luxury tax teet anyway.

If I were in Feaster's seat I would be looking at ways to improve my team and that does mean making some moves but not tearing the thing down.  Rene Bourque and Jay Buowmeester have both been heavily rumored to be inquired about by other GMs.  If the Flames could use those two bartering chips to acquire another legitimate top six forward and a puck moving d-man they might just get over the hump.  They would be looking at a top six that includes Horak and Tanguay on the left wing, Backlund and Jokinen at Centre and Iginla and Winger-X.  The bottom six is amazingly deep rolling out Curtis Glencross, Tom Kostopolous, Matt Stajan, David Moss, Brendan Morrison, Nik Hagman, Tim Jackman or Lee Stempniak at any given time.

The surprising weakness of the team is on defense, formerly the backbone of the organization.  Gone are Phaneuf and Regher and by my design Buowmeester too.  That would leave:

Giordano    Babchuck
Sarich        Hannan
Butler        D-Man X

Between the pipes Mikka Kiprusoff is still getting the job done.  There's a lot of talk about lowering his games played in the course of the year and back up Henrik Karlsson seems to be able to handle the workload.  On the farm Leyland Irving is finally showing the kind of play that made him a first round selection oh so many years ago.  With Irving, Bartschi, Backlund and Horak the majority of the answers are going to be coming from within.  I would kill to be Jay Feaster sitting on a couple easy trades to address all the teams needs.  This is not a blow up, it's just a re-fit.

Nux Trade Talk

Hockeybuzz is reporting that Cory Schneider was discussed in the David Booth deal.  The way the deal shaked out if Schneider was involved you would have to think the proposed swap would've been for a lot more than Booth since his big contract was acquired for spare parts.  Now Florida is reportedly trying to shed Stephen Weiss' salary from the books; can the Canucks go back to the well one more time?  Were they trying to get both Booth and Weiss in one deal?

Weiss is on the hook for 4 million this year and 4.1 next, not exactly as binding as Booth's pact and thusly he would come at a higher price, could it have been Schneider, Sturm, Samuelson and a pick for Booth, Weiss and a pick?  Weiss has 10 points in 11 games to start the season for the surprising Panthers.  Even though they added a ton of offensive help in the offseason they would be remiss to replace a legit top six forward when they're in the middle of a playoff push; remember, this is the same team that played chicken with UFA Jay Buowmeester and lost both the player and a shot at the post season.

In my opinion Weiss would be a great fit on the second line and second power play unit.  I think he has untapped potential that could explode on a team like the Canucks, but at what cost?

The main point of the hockeybuzz posting wasn't that Schneider was inquired about by Florida, and apparently by Tampa and a host of other interested suitors.  It was in respect to a fresh start for Roberto Luongo and how Florida would make sense.  I agree Lou might just need a new start and I hate any contract that binds a player to a team in to retirement but does a return to Florida for Luongo really make sense for the Panthers?  I don't think so.  Jakob Markstrom is going to be a great goalie and you can't bury him behind 11 more years of Luongo.  This trade will not happen if Markstrom is in Florida and a deal that sees Markstrom traded is going to require more than the massive contract of a fickle Vezina calibre goaltender.

I don't see any way that Lou makes a return to Flordia without Markstrom being a part of the deal and I don't see that happening either.  If Lou is indeed moved then I would expect the Canucks to ink Cory Schneider long term putting Markstrom in the same place he would be in Florida behind Lou. 

At any rate I agree that Lou might need a fresh start and that trading Cory Schneider might be a massive mistake.  It is becoming clear that the current situation isn't healthy and that a move either way is a possibility.

Ballard on borrowed time

The writing is on the wall for Keith Ballard.  All signs are pointing towards a return to AV's doghouse, and this time there's no excuses: no hip surgery, no head injury, no new scenery - just disappointment.

Ballard burst out of the gates with a highlight reel goal in the season opener against Gino and the Pens, since then he hasn't scored or even assisted on a goal and is a team worst minus-9.  He's been given near 20:00 in ice some games and is typically on the third pairing.  Kevin Bieksa was minu-9 but went up two points after the Caps game, only he's on the top pairing and draws the harder match-ups, Ballard, again, is sadly out of excuses, and probably out of time.

Aaron Rome is practicing with the team.  He hasn't played an NHL game since his infamous hit in game three of the Stanley Cup Finals last season. When he returns it will be difficult to replace Alex Sulzer and so it seems Ballard will once again be banished to the press boxes early.

Sulzer has demonstrated a natural flair for break-out passes and showcased his powerful point shot in the pre-season.  He might even work his way on to the second powerplay unit at the rate he's going. Chris Tanev was sent down to Chicago of the AHL to clear space in the Nux press box.  As a young d-man he could benefit from more minutes and his contract wouldn't see him going through re-entry waivers, but it is only a matter of time before he is up again.

Trading Marco Sturm only a handful of games in to the season wasn't much better than dumping his salary in the minors but the Canucks might not get so lucky with Ballard as his contract is 4.2 million/season for this and three more years, eerily similar to David Booths; coincidence?  I think not.

Canucks Trivia with a Twist and Prizes

Last month I was listening to an interview with an Indie film director on the CBC about the making of his most recent documentary, a journey to find his Native Name.  When I got home I Googled ‘Find my First Nation’s Name’ and came up with a website that gives it to you after entering your full name and sex.  This became a pretty fun party game and so on Halloween’s Eve I thought I would try it with some of the current members of the Canucks, with a twist.  I’ll write the name and a brief description, you try to guess the player – the first person to tweet, text, email or facebook me the 100% correct answer key wins a terrific prize from thecanucksblog.

Melkedoodum Heskovizenako or Conceited Porcupine Bear – While his play at times makes you feel like you’ve been sitting on a porcupine he has been called many things but I don’t think conceited is fair; definitely generous on the rebounds but not conceited.

Appenimon Viponnah or Trusted Slim Face – His face hasn’t received as much attention lately as the rest of him, but he was recently rewarded for being trusted in his own end.

Kesegowaase Kotori or Swift Screech Owl Spirit – He must’ve earned the first part in his early playing days but when he loads up his trademark shot it still makes opponents (and sometimes Canucks trainers) screech.

Ezhno Howahkah or Solitary One of the Mysterious Voice – Sometimes his on-ice behavior keeps him in solitary for 2:00 or less.  His mysterious voice was a big point of contention when he joined the team but it seems to have been tamed.

Makkapitew Adahy or Large Toothed one who Lives in the Woods – I know what you’re thinking but no it’s not newly acquired David Booth and although he looks to have found his way out of the forests the Canucks haven’t traded for Ilya Bryzgalov.  This Canuck was once a high draft pick who cut his apparently large teeth alongside the Great One himself, but quickly found himself reinventing his game and becoming one of the league’s most dependable defensive forwards.

Send along your own suggestions for an appropriate First Nations Canuck name and the best one will win a consolation prize.  You can tweet ‘em to me @thecanucksblog or email thecanucksblog@gmail.com .

Eating Crow and Enjoying it

~~~  CANUCKS and LIONS Podcast: http://soundcloud.com/you/tracks ~~~

Always exciting to get to watch the Penguins in the early game, even without Sid and Jordan Staal, and if both teams are starting their back-up goalies, and the rich tradition of the Montreal/Boston rivalry is in full force on CBC in other areas of this country.  Seriously, as much as I’d love to watch Boston continue to meltdown, I am loving watching both of these teams this year, even if I took MAF in the third round of my hockey pool and he’s riding the pine tonight.  This is already an exciting game between two teams that in execution and game plan are ahead of the pace.

I was already going to sit down and write about how impressive I felt the Leafs’ power play was against the Rangers Thursday and by the time I did a little research we see a great power play punctuated by a goal from the point by the Buds and a breakaway at both ends of the ice.

I was shocked to see the Leafs’ PP managed only two shots on four opportunities in a 4 -2 win over King Henrik and the Rangers.  They were fluid, inverting the stick on the point, winning puck battles, making smart pinches, generating traffic in the tough areas and executing tape-to-tape passes with laser like accuracy. 

For the past few seasons I have thought Ron Wilson has underachieved as head coach of the Leafs – I’m supposed to hate them because I live west of the Rockies, but I enjoy a team for the game they play and not the arena they play 42 regular season games in and the Leafs team is firing on all cylinders.

I’ve also really questioned Brian Burke.  I’m usually one of his detractors.  This polarizing hockey personality is both loved and loathed but for years I felt he squandered the Canucks’ system, inherited somebody elses cup team in Anaheim and then dumped them to take a high profile job in Tronna and promptly make a giant mess of things with bad signings and trades – maybe I’m wrong.

I still wouldn’t trade two first round picks and a second for Phil Kessel, even if he wins the Richard trophy this year and parades the Stanley Cup down Yonge St. for the first time since 1967 but the Leafs are a team I really respect and would greatly fear in the playoffs.  They have the Brian Burke stamp of pugnacity and truculence, very solid goaltending and offensive depth, and to Burkie’s credit he has really restocked the cabinet in Leaf Land.

Wilson and Burkie deserve a ton of credit for creating an on-ice product finally worth the ticket price.