Sports

Garth McLennan
sports @theotherpress.ca

 

 

Jovo’s new glory days

By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

 

2. his first season with the Phoenix Coyotes,
after six and a half years in a Vancouver Canucks
uniform, Ed Jovanovski, 31, didn’t exactly get what he
expected. The Coyotes finished dead last in the Western
Conference, second last in the NHL, and ‘Jovo-Cop’
missed 28 games due to injury. Needless to say, he didn’t
exactly earn his $7.5 million salary for the season.

This year, however,
Jovanovski and the Coyotes
are back on track. Jovo is
having a career season with
49 points, which is good
enough to place him seventh
in the NHL among defenseman. Meanwhile the Coyotes
are in the thick of a tight playoff race where, if they’re
successful, they will make the post-season for the first
time in five years.

After the 2005-2006 campaign, where Jovanovski
was limited to just 44 games with the Canucks, Wayne
Gretzky tendered a five-year, $32.5 million contract
offer to him, one that the cap-strapped Canucks weren’t
in a position to match.

Now, Jovanovski is one of the few veterans on a very
young team. While the Coyotes may not make the
playoffs this season, they have all the markings of a
contender in the coming years. With young stars and

“Team Canada could use
Jovo’s style of play.”

prospects such as New Westminster’s Kyle Turris,
Czech Martin Hanzel, and whiz kid Peter Mueller, the
future is bright, and Jovanovski will play a big part in
that future.

Outside of Phoenix, Jovo has stated publicly that he
would love to suit up for Team Canada at the 2010
Olympics in Vancouver. He played for the Canadian
side in 2002 at Salt Lake and in 2006 in Turin.

After the disastrous Canadian entry in 2006,
Team Canada could use
Jovanovski’s style of play.
It was his high risk, high
reward style that made him
one of the Canucks’ best ever
blueliners. His ability to quarterback the power play,
his wonderful offensive instincts, his crunching hits
and his team leadership are all things that any team
would welcome. Vancouver would have loved to retain
Jovanovski’s services, but with the hefty salaries of
Markus Naslund, Todd Bertuzzi, Brendan Morrison,
and Dan Cloutier on the books, there was simply no
room to accommodate the a contract due to a player of
his caliber.

Now that he is settled down and established himself in
Arizona, Jovanovski has been able to focus completely
on hockey. His play this season has more than
exemplified that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

V V hile the city’s take on the Canucks
seems to change from day to day, today it
appears that the Canucks are the hot pick
for the Northwest division crown.

Both the Flames and Avalanche have
cooled off, and while the Wild are hot
and cold, only Vancouver has been
consistently good over the last little
while.

It all started with the huge win over
Dallas, 4-3 in overtime. They followed
that up with a pivotal victory over Wayne
Gretzky’s Phoenix Coyotes and then
continued the hot streak with a 4-1 win
over the Edmonton Oilers.

The recent surge has come as a result of
everyone contributing. With Henrik and
Daniel Sedin experiencing prolonged
scoring slumps lately, others have more
than stepped up to keep the march towards
the division championship alive. Alex
Burrows has come on in a way that no
one expected. He’s scored goals, showed
blazing speed, checked like a demon, and
been the one of the team’s best two-way

Gunning for a Division Championship

By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

forwards.

Ryan Kesler’s play of late has had
people forgetting how much they
complained when he received the big
bucks at contract time in the summer.
He’s been the perfect complement to
Burrows; he’s fast, excellent defensively
and has finally developed good offensive
instincts. While he most likely won’t be
a Rocket Richard winner any time soon,
Kesler has become the type of player
that every team needs in order to win a

Stanley Cup.

After not playing for the majority of the
season due to the coaching tendencies
of Alain Vigneault, Trevor Linden has
looked truly reinvigorated as of late.
He has been one of the NHL’s best in
the shootout, and is a key player for the
Vancouver penalty kill. While he doesn’t
play much _ during
five-on-five play and
barely at all on the
power play, Linden

 

Linden in the lineup for the rest of the
regular season and the playoffs.

After virtually disappearing for a long

period of time, Taylor

Pyatt has shown more

and more the type of

“Barring a complete power forward _ that

has been nothing meltdown, the playoffs he should be - te
Acct ee bgt ce tag = time. His combination
oie are a lock. of size speed
the face-off circle. ;

His shorthanded goal
against the Edmonton
Oilers on March 20 was a game breaker

that sealed the deal for the Canucks. If

Vigneault has any brains, he'll keep

(sometimes), and soft
hands has potted him

goals over the last few games.
With the absence of Matthias Ohlund,
Willie Mitchell has become the team’s
best defenseman. His shift against

a puck to the face and another one off
the ankle just a few seconds apart really
represented how valuable he is to the
team. While he has battled the puck at
times, there is no other guy the Canucks
want on the ice during a pivotal moment
in the game.

Barring a complete meltdown, the
playoffs are a lock. Phoenix, Nashville
and Edmonton have struggled lately as
Vancouver has surged. Should they keep
on playing like they are right now, there
shouldn’t be anything that can block
their road to Northwest Division glory.

 

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