“Hey Ref! Read between the lines, will ya?” — John Tortorella. Photo scrubbed from the interweb.
John Tortorella just can’t catch a break.
After Ryan Kesler & Co. played the United States out of medal contention this weekend, Torts publicly cheered for Team Sweden. He said he “doesn’t give a shit about Team Canada” because Mike Babcock benched Roberto Luongo and sat Dan Hamhuis for all but token minutes through the knockout games. He hoped Daniel Sedin would score a brace, Alex Edler would gather three assists, and the two of them would come back to Rogers Arena with gold around their necks and fire in their bellies.
Of course, it’s Hammer and @strombone1 bringing home the shiniest of shiny baubles, as the Swedes went without two of their three important Henriks — they even went without the equally viktig Nicklas Backstrom, as his migraine medication was found to be in violation of the IOC anti-doping policies. Even with those three in the lineup, they likely wouldn’t have touched this particular iteration of Team Canada, which was built not for sexy offensive flair, but rather for defensive tautness. But I digress. These are problems for Peter Forsberg and Tre Kronar, not for Torts.
Canadian bobsledder extraordinaire Heather Moyse flashes her inhumanly perfect chicklets with her 2010 gold medal. Photo borrowed from www.heathermoyse.com
Obligatory shout out to Canadian athletes in Sochi this month, all of whom are representing Canada with style and grace. A special set of props go to our Canadian women, who have in the past few days tipped the hardware scales in favour of the women during the 2014 Winter Games. Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse joined an elite group in defending Olympic gold this week, taking first overall in the four-heat, two-(wo)man bobsleigh competition. In related news, Moyse may just have the most perfect teeth in the history of, well, teeth.
Dentistry aside, she and Humphries had an uphill battle in the third and fourth runs of the bobsleigh, as first-time American competitor Lauryn Williams and her partner Elana Williams pushed the Canadians to the final run before relinquishing the top spot. All of this despite undergoing hip surgery and taking nearly two and a half years away from sliding after the Vancouver Games. On the US side, Williams only started bobsledding in 2012 after taking a break from a career as an Olympic-level track star. She previously won gold at the Summer Games with the American 4x100m sprint relay.
Twice more, women took centre stage. Jennifer Jones skipped her rink to the first-ever perfect Games in curling history, going undefeated through the round robin and playoff matches. Team Jones beat a jittery Swedish rink, who made Canada sweat for eight ends before coming apart in the ninth. It’s the first Olympic medal for Jones & Co, and the first Canadian gold in women’s curling since Sandra Schmirler won the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan.
On bigger ice down the road, Marie-Philip Poulin provided the heroics to bring Canada its fourth consecutive women’s hockey gold this morning. The United States was this close to wresting hockey supremacy away from Canada, up 2-0 with less than five minutes to play. Then goals by Brianne Jenner and Poulin sent the game to sudden death overtime. Poulin capitalised upon a rare 4-on-3 power play, as British referee Joy Tottman called a flurry of penalties — sending the Americans packing and the Canadians into a celebratory frenzy.
I’ve yet to see any stats on CBC viewership, but apparently NBC’s online feed was live-streamed on more than 1.2 million computers in the United States alone. That number is higher than any other piece of programming in the network’s history with the exception of this year’s SuperBowl.
Now it’s up to the men. Brad Jacobs skips the men in the curling final, and Sidney Crosby looks to lead the hockey squad past the Americans in the semi-final on Friday morning. The only advice one can give them is, “Boys, play like girls.”
There hasn’t been much to cheer for when it comes to NHL hockey this year, so it was a treat to see more than six thousand people make some noise for Brendan Gallagher at the Pacific Coliseum tonight. The Montreal Canadiens forward of course spent four seasons with the Vancouver Giants, and finished his junior career as the franchise’s leading scorer (with 136 goals) and point getter (280).
Brendan Gallagher is honoured prior to a WHL game between the Portland Winterhawks and his former team the Vancouver Giants. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
He played for the G-Men from 2008-09 until the 2011-12 season, then spent a year in Hamilton of the AHL before being nominated for the Calder Trophy as the Rookie of the Year with the Montreal Canadiens last year. He is currently the Habs’ fourth-leading scorer, with 32 points in 58 games.
All this while being frickin’ wee. He’s listed at 5’9″ on the NHL website, but if this guy is five-nine, I’m Zdeno Chara. I just stood beside the guy, and I could clearly see the top of his head — and I’m barely 5’8″ my bad self.
The Vancouver Giants dominated most of Wednesday night against the Kamloops Blazers, but the visitors put home all three of their chances to make the game interesting. The G-Men walked away with a 5-3 victory thanks to Dalton Sward’s two-goal, one-assist performance.
Thar be pictures, matey:
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Arrrrrrgh, and if that not be enough for ye, check out the highlights, why don’tcha:
The Utica Comets took consecutive overtime wins off the Abbotsford Heat this past weekend. Sadly I don’t have time to write anything pithy about the Heat’s current scoring woes (16 goals during three wins and seven losses in 2014), or Utica’s recent dominance in head-to-head matchups (six losses in a row and counting).
Dean Arsene rocks a wicked beard. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
If there were time, it would be easy to point to Heat goaltender Joey MacDonald’s comical giveaway behind his own net on the tying goal late in the game, or to defenseman Chris Breen’s stick snapping in half at the opposition blueline, directly leading to Benn Ferriero’s game-winning goal.
But there isn’t. So after the jump, I’ll just share my Heat – Comets photo gallery.
The Vancouver Giants put the boots to the visiting Lethbridge Hurricanes with an impressive 10–0 Friday night win on home ice. Payton Lee’s first shutout of the season was lost next to the offensive explosion at the other end of the ice — the Giants dominated, holding a huge edge in puck possession and putting 40 shots on the poor bastards between the Hurricanes pipes.
Payton Lee stopped 18 shots for his second career WHL shutout as the Vancouver Giants spanked the Lethbridge Hurricanes 10–0 at the Pacific Coliseum. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
The Vancouver Giants came within a hair of beating the Portland Winterhawks for the first time since February 2012, but settled for a single point in a 5–4 shootout loss on Sunday night. It was a hollow victory for the Giants, who led 4–3 late in the third period but gave up a shorthanded goal to take the game into extra time.
Taylor Leier nearly won the game for the Portland Winterhawks with under a minute left in regulation when he chipped a bouncing puck off the crossbar behind Payton Lee. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Vancouver held the edge in the first period, punishing a tired Winterhawks team playing their third game in three nights. After 20 minutes, the G-Men led 3–2 and looked in pretty good shape.
As the night wore on, however, Portland’s snipers seemed to gain their legs. Leading scorer Nicolas Petan started cutting in and out of traffic, giving nifty short passes to linemates and trailing defenders alike. The also dangerous Oliver Bjorkstrand dominated on the boards, making Vancouver goaltender look over his shoulder several times in the third period. And in the final ten minutes, Portland generated a seemingly endless string of breakaways and odd-man rushes.
More, including pics and highlights, after the jump.
Day one of the 2014 Great Northwest Showcase saw the UBC Thunderbirds earn a dramatic come-from-behind win over the seven-time NCAA Division 1 champions from the U of North Datoka. The Team Formerly Known as the Fighting Sioux, which features a dozen NHL draft picks, including World Junior Gold Medalist Rocco Grimaldi, is the first NCAA varsity team to play in BC since 1999*.
Zane Gothberg made 22 saves for the University of North Dakota, but it wasn’t enough. The UBC Thunderbirds tied the game with 52 seconds left in regulation, then salted it away in overtime at Bill Copeland Arena. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
The game offered up solid goaltending at both ends of the ice. Sophomore Zane Gothberg, a 2010 draft pick of the Boston Bruins, made 22 saves on 25 shots for UND, while keepers Matt Hewitt and Steven Stanford teamed up to make 26 saves for UBC.
At the beginning of the season, a lot of WHL players look at the calendar to see where the three-in-threes are. John Tortorella might wax poetic about his Canucks being a tired team after five games in nine nights, but when was the last time an NHLer hit the ice on three consecutive nights?
Thomas Foster scored once and added an assist as his Vancouver Giants beat the Prince George Cougars 5–2. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
The Vancouver Giants ended 2013 with a threefer, taking four of a possible six points despite travelling on the bus between each game. Sunday was the final game of the calendar year for the G-Men, and they made it count with a 5–2 win over the visiting Prince George Cougars. Jared Rathjen made 27 stops for his eighth win of the season, while both Carter Popoff and Thomas Foster had a goal and an assist at the other end of the rink.
It’s a game they should have won, but on that third night in a row, you never know which of the legs or the heart will show up. Sometimes you get both. Sometimes you get neither.
With the win, the Giants go into 2014 at five games over .500 and sit seventh place in the Western Conference. Their 45 points are one more than they had all last year, when they finished in the league basement. Making it all the more remarkable is the fact that the Giants started this year with a dismal 1–9 stretch to start the season. Since then, they’ve played solid two-way hockey, and gone 18–5–7.
