Entries from November 2007
Calgary Herald: It was one thing when Mike Keenan chucked ace defenceman Dion Phaneuf up front for a couple of power plays during Thursday’s game against Chicago.
But it’s something else for Keenan to be considering — or least threatening — to give Phaneuf a regular shift as a winger. That’s the way it looked at Friday’s practice before the team jumped a plane for Denver, with Phaneuf working the left side on a line with Jarome Iginla and Craig Conroy.
Phaneuf certainly has the tools to be an effective forward, but the gesture is also a damning reflection on the recent play of left-wingers Alex Tanguay and Kristian Huselius. It’s a message form the boss to them, too. While Phaneuf does everything with purpose and a lot of anger, Huelius and Tanguay tend to be far more subtle and timid.
Matt’s Two Cents: While Dion Phaneuf combines both speed, skill and offensive prowess, it would be unwise to put him on forward. With Calgary’s defense comprising of Adrian Aucoin, Anders Eriksson, Cory Sarich, Robyn Regehr and Rhett Warrener, the Flames would be forced to call up a defenceman or put a forward on the blueline. And with Miikka Kiprusoff already struggling to regain the form of his 2004 Vezina winning season, the Flames cannot afford to put one of their biggest and best defenceman as a forward. It would be a ridiculous move.
In essence, this is Mike Keenan sending a message to some of his underperforming forwards, mainly Kristian Huselius and Alex Tanguay. Huselius has a mere two assists in his last six contests while forward Tanguay has been held pointless in his last five games. “Iron Mike” has high expectations for the two forwards who make a combined 8M, so it’s no wonder that the grizzled coach has a problem with two of his “star” players.
However, don’t be surprised if we do see Dion Phaneuf line up with Craig Conroy and Jarome Iginla in a game; he was seen practicing with the two in a Sunday morning skate. Putting a blueliner on as a forward would certainly light a flame under Huselius and Tanguay. (No pun intended)
Tags: Uncategorized
So three weeks ago at MTS Centre, when a marginal hit from Rockford defenceman Jerramie Domish caused severe damage to the anterior cruciate ligament in Balej’s right knee, there was initial talk that his season might be lost and that surgery was imminent.
“I cannot take another season off. That would kill me,” Balej said after finishing a 94-minute workout on Blue Cross Arena ice here on Monday.
“I think it’s 90 per cent mental. If you want to get better, you will. If you want to be thinking about the bad things and the wrong things that can happen, it’s going to go badly. I learned that and I try to use that to my advantage here.”
A few days after his knee injury, despite grim reports, Balej returned to light workouts. He progressed to wearing a brace and skating with the team’s Focus Fitness consultants and then to sessions with team doctors about the mechanics of his damaged ACL.
And now knowing that the damaged ligament cannot be made any worse, Balej joined his teammates on Sunday and appeared on the ice on Monday.
Good news for Jozef Balej. To be quite honest, a lot of people write off Balej as both an NHLer and more recently as a hockey player because of this injury. Balej has already sustained season-ending injuries two years ago and had a surgery been performed on his ACL it most likely would’ve killed his career.
Balej, who signed on to play in Fribourg of the Swiss League last year, came back to the Vancouver Canucks this season and looked poise to make the team before being cut in the final week of training camp. However, the injury came suddenly and his career was looking as bleak as ever. After being drafted by Montreal back in 2000 in the third round, he had a load of potential but that potential has never materialized. He bounced around from Montreal to New York before coming to the Canucks for Fedor Fedorov.
It’ll be a great story if Balej can overcome this recent hurdle and somehow find a way to play in the NHL again.
Tags: Uncategorized
What a difference two weeks makes.
Two weeks ago, the Vancouver Canucks were bottom feeders in the Western Conference. Now, they’re a mere three points out of a share for the division lead with a game in hand on the Minnesota Wild who have 24 points.
A shellacking of the Nashville Predators and losing Kevin Bieksa and Sami Salo ironically was what the doctor ordered. All of a sudden, Markus Naslund is clicking on all cylinders with the Sedins, the trio of Ryan Kesler, Brad Isbister and Taylor Pyatt are making magic and Willie Mitchell of all people is scoring goals. How could this happen in such a short period of time? Two weeks ago, fans were talking rebuild and trade Naslund. Now, they worship Naslund.
Such is life in the new NHL.
Look closely at the standings and you’ll see that while the Canucks are three points out of the division lead, they’re only six back of last place in the West. Five points separate teams #2 through #11 and, while it’s still only a quarter way through the season, the Canucks still have plenty of work to do with 63 games left in the 82-game schedule. As the month of October has showed, the Canucks are a slide away from reverting back to a poor team but a winning roll away from being Conference leaders.
And as the eight game Northwest series comes to a close this week, the Canucks have their work cut out for them with some serious tests against the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks, two teams who have substantially improved over last season. After that they’ll square off against the defending champs in Anaheim and the troublesome Blue Jackets two nights later. The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Canucks and it’s up to them to keep up this pace against non-NW foes.
Just pretend like they’re from Calgary and they’ll do fine.
Tags: Uncategorized
