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Canucks retool the right way

By Garth McLennan

Imost lost in the shuffle of
A« Canuck’s major off-

season acquisitions that so
famously bolstered the team’s blue
line, we speak here of course about
Keith Ballard and Dan Hamhuis, is
the heavy renovating general manager
Mike Gillis has been doing on his
bottom six forwards.

There were a lot of brutally
apparent holes in the Canuck
gameplan and roster when they were
trounced by the Chicago Blackhawks
last season, but one of the most
glaring, with the obvious exception
of the back end, was the lack of any
real, substantial depth beyond the
team’s top two lines. Heading into
Vancouver’s main training camp this
week, Gillis has substantially and
emphatically addressed the problem.

Out are the erratic Kyle
Wellwood, the constantly snake-

bitten Steve Bernier and the injury
plagued Ryan Johnson. In are

Manny Malholtra, Joel Perrault, Jeff
Tambellini, Victor Oreskovich and
possibly Peter Schaefer. That isn’t
even to mention the host of prospects
and lesser name forwards attempting
to crack the roster as well.

Returning players such as Rick
Rypien, Darcy Hordichuk, Jannik
Hansen and Tanner Glass will all be
pushed hard to maintain their spots
with the new additions to the squad.
Malholtra is one of the top faceoff
men in the NHL, an area the Canucks
desperately need to improve on from
last year, and an excellent defensive
center. At this point he seems stapled
to the team’s third line as a suitable
upgrade on the departing Wellwood.

Meanwhile, Perrault and
Tambellini both signed one-year
contracts with the club (Tambellini’s
includes an option to demote him
to the minors) and are two former

very promising prospects whose
careers have fallen off the rails a bit.
Perrault is a former Quebec junior
league scoring champion with a
strong defensive upside at center.
The problem is that after sustaining
a serious concussion two years ago,
he’s played just nine NHL games
since and has had trouble staying out
of the minors during his stay with the
Phoenix Coyotes.

Tambellini meanwhile, was
once a highly touted first round draft
pick whose career stalled during
several painful years on Long Island
with the Islanders. He was cast adrift
by the Isles this summer and signed
a deal in hopes of resurrecting what
was once a promising career.

Then there’s Oreskovich and
Schaefer, both of whom have spent
significant periods of time out of
hockey entirely. Schaefer didn’t play
last season after being bought out by
the Boston Bruins while Oreskovich

took a full two seasons off prior to
last year to return to university. Now
however, both are striving for those
coveted third and fourth line positions
with the team.

Then there’s the prospects. For
the first time in years, the Canucks
actually have several bright young
forward prospects in their cupboard.
Cody Hodgson, Jordan Schroeder and
Sergei Shirokov all have very real
shots at making the big club this year.

All this competition for a limited
number of spots is a great thing for
the Canucks. One adage that applies
at every level of hockey is that you
can never have too much depth,
regardless of position. It’s a model
the Detroit Red Wings, for over a
decade now the class of the league,
have been adhering to for years.
Hopefully, that’s a route Gillis and the
rest of Vancouver’s management team
choose to stick to.

 

Nadal Grabs It

By Josh Martin, Sports Editor

ell, who would have thought...
He did it. Professional tennis
superstar Rafael Nadal finally

got what he wanted Monday, winning
the US Open championship to complete
a career Grand Slam and becoming the
seventh professional tennis player to do
so.

The US Open was the only major
title that Nadal hadn’t won in his career
which makes this accomplishment huge
for the Spaniard. Nadal faced the number
two ranked Novak Djokovic in the final
and took care of business beating him in
four sets, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, and 6-2 at Arthur
Ashe Stadium. Nadal hit 67% of his first
serves in and had eight aces. He also hit
49 winners and clocked in a serve that
was 132 miles per hour.

The match was postponed from
Sunday to Monday and then was
interrupted after the first set due to a rain
storm for nearly two hours. The number
one ranked Spaniard took the first set
and was on a roll heading into the rain
storm but when the match resumed
Djokovic came back on fire tying it up
1-1. Nadal then decided that he would
answer the call and went on to take the
next two sets and of course, the US

20

Open title. Djokovic was left in awe
of his opponent and knew that he lost
to one heck of a tennis player. “He has
the capabilities already now to become
the best player ever,” Djokovic said.
“He took it away, and never gave me a
chance to go back.”

The crazy thing is that the one loss
to Djokovic in the second set of the
tennis match was Nadal’s only set loss in
the whole tournament. Nadal-now stands
at an overall record of 15-7 against the
Serbian, Djokovic. The great thing about
Nadal is that he’s still in his prime. At
the age of 24 he has many years to come
and with where he’s at right now in his
career he’s only going to get better and
stronger. It looks as though Nadal wiil
sit at the top of the pyramid with the
number one rank to his name for some
time now, with no major competition
knocking at his door.

A Grand Slam consists of four major
tournament titles; Wimbledon, US Open,
French Open and the Australian Open.
To win a Grand Slam, one must have at
least achieved a title from each major
tournament. Nadal now joins the elite
club with Don Budge, Fred Perry, Rod
Laver, Roy Emerson, Andre Agassi, and
Roger Federer as the only men to win
the four majors.

 

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