Mitchell Moves Down South

Josh Martin, Sports Editor

HL defensemen, Willie

Mitchell will be playing in

the Canucks season opener
at Rogers Arena; however he will
dawn a different jersey than the one
he has been wearing for the past four
years. Mitchell has left the Canucks
and signed a two year $7 million deal
with the Los Angeles Kings.

The hulking defenseman doesn’t
put up big numbers on the backend
but when it comes to the defensive
aspects of the game he is one of
the best. Known for shutting the
opposition down, the 33-year old
veteran will bring his experience to
the Kings young defensive corps,
giving Drew Doughty and Jack
Johnson a chance to relish off this
opportunity and focus on their
offensive side rather than defensive.
Mitchell is expected to play as
the number one defensive pairing
alongside Doughty.

Last January, Mitchell sustained
a major concussion that ended his
season early against the Pittsburgh
Penguins. He was slammed into the
end boards from behind by a check
from Pens’ star Evgeni Malkin whom
only received a minor penalty on
the play, and did not receive any
further punishment from the league
afterwards. Mitchell hit the back of
his head into the boards and just like
that he missed the rest of the season
including the playoffs where he was
clearly missed.

The Port McNeill native of
Vancouver Island will be sad to leave
his hometown team but on the other
hand L.A. isn’t that far away, and
with the beautiful beaches it’s hard to
not go, along with the nice contract.
The 673’, 208 lbs defensemen was
drafted in the eighth round of the
1996 NHL entry draft and was picked
199th overall by the New Jersey
Devils. In his 12 season career, the
veteran has played with (besides

the Devils) the Minnesota Wild,
Dallas Stars, and Vancouver. He

has accumulated 19 goals and 100
assists in 586 games, and averages 22
minutes on ice per game.

Hopefully Mitchell will be able
to prove that he is healthy coming
off such a serious injury that shocked
him last season, and be the strong
force that he is on and off the ice.
The LA Kings finished sixth in

 

the western conference last season
with 101 points and made their first
playoff appearance since the ‘01-02
season. Once in the post-season they
didn’t go much further as they were
knocked out in the first round by the
Canucks in game six. The Kings are
looking to start the season off with a
big win against the team that ended
their dreams early last April.

 

Nadal wants it real bad

Josh Martin, Sports Editor

As the US Open hits full gear coming
into September tennis superstar Rafael
Nadal is making his eighth appearance
at the Open as he hopes to finally get a
crack at the lone major championship
that he has not yet captured. America’s
Grand Slam is the only major crown
that the 24 year old Spaniard hasn’t
won in his career. That’s the one title
that Nadal is itching to get his hands
on, as he is, after all, the number one
tennis player in the world, and with
that sort of recognition he has got to
get the job done.

Nadal has a great sense of his own
style to the game and in the first round
of the US Open he was up against

the powerful Russian Teymuraz
Gabashvilli. Nadal came out strong
with a couple of insane 131 mph
serves that were not only leaving the
fans in awe but also his opponent
whom he beat in a hard fought win
7-6, 7-6, 6-3. Nadal advanced to the
second round to face Denis Istomin
from Uzbekistan (a country that I
honestly have never heard of). Nadal
is quite a guy as he has 453 career
winning matches under his belt along

with 41 career Singles titles and six
career Doubles titles.

When it comes to the Grand
Slam singles results, Nadal has won
the Australian Open once, the Roland
Garros five times, Wimbledon twice
(which is the hardest tournament in the
game to win) and has gone as far as
the semi-finals a total of two times at
the US Open in the past. He is looking
to go further than he ever has before
right here, right now.

The US Open is taking place
in the luxurious New York, New
York at Arthur Ashe stadium where
professional tennis stars are “hitting”
it up competing against one another
for fun and games. Among Nadal
are arch-rivals who sit just below his
number one ranking, Roger Federer
of Switzerland, Novak Djokovic
of Serbia, and Andy Murray of the
United States. All three players are
advancing nicely, with Federer moving
onto the third round and Djokovic and
Murray into the second. Federer has
held the number one ranking to his
name for several years in the past until
Nadal took it from him in August of
2008 and has held the title ever since.
Federer is making his 11" appearance

at the US Open and has won the

championship five times in his career.

To see these top two guys battling it

out later on in the tournament would
be a classic, let alone the final. That
would be one heck of an experience.