The Vancouver Canucks have been displaced from Rogers Arena by Friday night's Justin Bieber concert, so they're practicing out at UBC again today.
Sounds like the team's young guns will be out in full force for the show:
Bo's thinking about bringing the new guy along.
I hope somebody gets a pic of Tryamkin side-by-side with Bieber!
Before the big concert, Tryamkin is participating in his first formal practice today.
Even though Tryamkin said on Wednesday that, despite the lack of sleep from traveling over from Russia, he's ready to go, Willie Desjardins said it was unlikely that he'll play on Saturday against Nashville.
I'm crossing my fingers that he'll make his playing debut on Monday night against Winnipeg.
If you'd like to hear from Tryamkin himself, via his interpreter, here's the video of his chat with the media at Thursday's practice:
It's clear in the video that he has some grasp of English. He answers for himself when asked if he knows Andrey Pedan. I really like what we're seeing of his personality so farāhis enthusiasm, his work ethic and his high expectations for himself.
Interest is running extra high for Tryamkin for a bunch of reasonsāhis stature, his exotic Russian-ness, and the fact that if it turns out that he can play, he'll fill a big hole in the Canucks' lineup.
The in-season arrival has a whiff of Pavel Bure to it, too, which adds an extra level of spice to the whole situation.
Plenty of people are urging caution when it comes to early expectations for the kid. After all, he's only 21, has never played a North American game, and he was a third-round draft pick originally.
I certainly hope that he's allowed to develop his game, but shows enough that he'll get a good chance to make the big club next season.
Ed Willes takes the big-picture view in
this article from
The Province, talking about how the Canucks have been weak on the blue line for almost their entire franchise history and how the team hasn't drafted a defenceman in the first round since they took the late Luc Bourdon back in 2005.
He brings this up, in part, to set the stage for the idea that if the Canucks aren't picking in the top three at this year's draft, they're looking to end that drought.
āAll things being equal, weāll take a defenceman (with their first-round draft pick in 2016),ā Benning said. āThe three players at the top of the draft (Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine, Jesse Puljujarvi) have a chance to be special but after that, if the defenceman and forward are equal, weāll take the defenceman.ā
Say it with me. With their first-round draft pick, the Vancouver Canucks are proud to select Jakob Chychrun.
By the way, did you notice that Henrik Sedin is quoted above? Lost in all the Tryamkin drama is the fact that Henrik was back at practice on Thursday. Nothing definite yet, but he might be ready to get back into the lineup this weekend after that weird incident that took him out of last Saturday's game in San Jose.
College Playoffs Begin
Brock Boeser and his University of North Dakota team will begin their NCAA postseason with a best-of-three quarterfinal matchup against eighth-seed Colorado College this weekend. The winner will advance to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff next weekend in Minneapolis.
Boeser has been named a finalist for the NCHC's rookie of the year award, as well as the new NCHC three stars award.
Meanwhile, Thatcher Demko and his Boston College crew are facing off against Vermont in their best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinal this weekend. Though Boston College is the top-seeded team in their conference, the Eagles have fallen in the quarterfinal round for the last two seasonsāand were beaten last year by Vermont.
BC finished the season with a 24-5-5 record, with Demko starting 32 of those 34 games. He went 23-5-4 with a .938 save percentage, 1.77 goals-against average and nine shutouts, and finished strong, allowing just one goal in three of his last four games.
Per the
Hobey Baker Award website, Demko led all players in Phase 1 of the online voting for the award. The next phase of voting will begin next week, on March 17.
While Jim Benning has stated that he expects Boeser to return to school for his sophomore season next year, he's ready for 20-year-old Demko to make the jump to the pros.
Good luck to both players this weekend!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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