The Vancouver Canucks' Radim Vrbata didn't exactly set the Skills Competition on fire yesterday in Columbus.
He was chosen to participate in the accuracy contest, where the players try to hit the four targets in the corners of the net. He won his head-to-head matchup against John Tavares, earning a point for the hometown Team Foligno, which dominated the competition, but took more than 21 seconds to hit all four targets. As we were reminded, Daniel Sedin nailed that drill in just over eight seconds back at the 2011 All-Star Game.
Opposition captain Jonathan Toews has been in good humour all weekend, prompting some to wonder whether "Captain Serious" has turned over a new leaf—especially when he said during the fantasy draft that he picked Phil Kessel because he "heard he was coachable."
Toews started to sound more like his usual self on Saturday. When quizzed about losing to teammate Patrick Kane in the accuracy competition, he said "It sure doesn't feel good," and when asked about losing the competition to Team Foligno, he sounded determined to get revenge during Sunday's game.
If any of you are still dreaming about local boy Ryan Johansen joining the Canucks after his acrimonious contract holdout with the Blue Jackets last summer, you can probably put that idea to bed. In addition to the fact that he's having another solid season—even on a bad team—and has found good chemistry with Nick Foligno, Johansen was clearly a crowd favourite in Columbus on Saturday. He won the fan-voted breakaway challenge going away, donning an Ohio State football jersey for his first shot attempt, then bringing out the seven-year-old son of one of he trainers to help him take his second shot.
The stunt with the kid went over so well that Jakub Voracek of Team Toews used a variation on his next attempt—subbing in Johnny Gaudreau of the Calgary Flames as the child-pawn. Very funny stuff "and I think they're almost the same age," quipped mic-ed up Foligno.
The weekend has been pretty good entertainment so far. I'm interested to see if a guy like Dustin Byfuglien breaks protocol and actually throws a bodycheck or two during today's game!
Junior Prospect Watch
Yesterday, I took a look at the latest news from the farm in Utica. Today, we'll check in on the Canucks' junior prospects.
Jake Virtanen was the subject of a
Yahoo! Sports profile this weekend after he scored a spectacular coast-to-coast goal against the Swift Current Broncos on Friday night.
Click here for better video of the goal that the Vine embedded in the Yahoo! story—from a couple of different angles. (And thanks to BeatStriker for the original link.)
Since joining the Hitmen after his shoulder surgery, Virtanen has put up 11 goals and 17 assists in 26 games—a respectable point-a-game rate of production. As Nate Seager points out, his assists-per-game have nearly doubled from last season—an unspectacular stat, but one that infers that he's learning to make better use of his linemates.
Over in the OHL, Cole Cassels remains in the league's top 20 in scoring despite having missed 10 games due to suspension. With just 34 games played, Cassels is 16th overall with 17 goals and 54 points. That ties him for second on the Oshawa Generals with Tobias Lindberg, who has appeared in all 44 games. Michael Dal Colle leads the team with 64 points.
For reasons I cannot begin to understand, the Soo Greyhounds don't seem to have team or player statistics available on their website. Weren't they the "team of analytics" under their old GM, Kyle Dubas?
I found their player stats over on
HockeyDB, where I can see that Jared McCann is second in team scoring with 18 goals and 30 assists in 37 games. The Greyhounds are currently leading the OHL's Western Conference, three points ahead of Connor McDavid's Erie Otters.
Meanwhile, Jordan Subban's Belleville Bulls are a middle-of-the-pack team in the Eastern Conference, currently sitting fifth. Subban has dropped to sixth in league scoring among defensemen with 17 goals and 19 assists for 36 points in 43 games—but he leads his Bulls team in offense.
Subban turns 20 in March, so he'll likely get a chance to join the Utica Comets next season and see if he can show enough talent and two-way presence to overcome the challenges presented by his smaller stature.
Gino Comes to Town
After many months without news on his health, I'm excited to see that Gino Odjick has been selected as this year's recipient of the
Jack Diamond Sports Award. The ceremony will be on February 4 at the Hyatt Regency and it's my understanding that Gino will be in town and is expected to be at the Canucks games next week.
I'm hearing that the Canucks have decided *not* to induct Odjick into the Ring of Honour, which seems a shame under the circumstances. I'm sure he'll get a *very* warm round of "Gino! Gino!" chants when they show him on the Jumbotron at the game. Perhaps that'll sway the brass and make them decide to honour him.
What do you think?
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»