“When (Blackhawks General Manager Stan Bowman) called me about getting traded to Toronto, I said if there’s ever a chance, I would love to come back. It obviously happened,” Versteeg told Comcast Sportsnet Chicago after his first return practice at Johnny’s Icehouse in Chicago.
He said the trade was a pleasant surprise during dinner late Thursday night.
“I didn’t really know what was going to happen,” he said. “Florida, we were struggling a little bit and you heard that there might be something going on. But obviously when Dale (Tallon, Panthers’ General Manager) called me last night and told me I was coming back here, it obviously put a smile on my face.”
Versteeg has been skating with Bryan Bickell and Andrew Shaw in practice and is expected to play with them tonight in Nashville.
“Me and Shaw and (Versteeg’s) skill, hopefully we can get some good chemistry early,” Bickell, who played with Versteeg at the AHL level in Norfolk, said. “He has a lot of different things he can bring to the table. He can do penalty kill, power play, and he can do what it takes to help the team win. His skill level is up there.”
Tallon (a former Blackhawks GM) said the move was based on Versteeg’s inconsistent performance–the player who has scored 20 goals three times has had only two goals and five assists in 18 games with the Panthers. He said Versteeg, who’s coming off an ACL surgery, was “trying to do too much, trying to carry the burden of the big contract.”
Coach Quenneville, however, hasn’t forgotten Versteeg’s 42 goals and 55 assists from 2008-2010 in Chicago.
And, it seems, Versteeg, has the incentive of playing where he wants to play.
Versteeg, who has 06-09-10, the date of his Stanley Cup win with the Blackhawks tattooed on his arm, told Bowman when he was traded shortly after the championship that if there were ever an opportunity to come back, he wanted it.
He got it, and the Panthers are footing half of the bill — a $4.4 million contract over the next two years.
“Nice acquisition for us,” Quenneville said. “Steeg is very versatile in what he brings to our team. He can play all positions up front. You can play him in all situations — PP, PK regular shift. Pretty handy guy and very useful. We like what he brings to the team.”
Versteeg fans… he’ll be wearing a 23 now, instead of 32. And he’ll hopefully bring some dominance to the Power Play and Penalty Kill that we can’t seem to keep our grasp on.
Jimmy Hayes and Dylan Olsen were dealt to Florida in the deal.
In other parts of line-juggling, Michal Handzus and Michael Kostka are on long-term injured reserve.
The Blackhawks take on the Predators in Nashville at 7 p.m. CT tonight (Saturday.) Nikolai Khabibulin, after a considerable hiatus and being pulled in his last outing, will start in net.
The new era in Sabreland has started out on a positive note tonight with the win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-1. New head coach Ted Nolan has made many remarks over the last few days regarding the work ethic of the Sabres and how they need to be better. Apparently, within the two days under Nolan, they have started receiving the message. They were still out shot, but only by 6 shots and they skated with and at times, outworked the Leafs in one of the best games they have played all season.
The first period, the Sabres were able to out shot the Leafs 10-5 and showed why this rivalry always makes for great games. It was all defensive work for both teams with the shots on goal being low for each side and the goalies not having to do too much work.
The second period saw Toronto out shoot Buffalo 15-9 but Buffalo was able to score two goals to Toronto’s one. Toronto started the scoring, a typical sign for Buffalo opponents this year, 6 minutes into the period. A slapshot from Trevor Smith, only his second of the season, saw Toronto go up 1-0. Buffalo was able to respond 3 minutes later with a power play goal by Steve Ott, his third of the season. With 5 minutes left in the period, Marcus Foligno, coming out of the penalty box, teamed up with Ott to score his third of the season and break the tie.
The third period again saw Toronto out shoot Buffalo 13-8. This period was pretty quiet as well until, with a minute left, Toronto pulled their goaltender to make it 6 on 5. An amazing save by defenseman Christan Ehrhoff saved the game for Buffalo and Ehrhoff was then able to shoot the puck the length of the ice to get an empty net goal and secure the victory for Buffalo.
Buffalo and Toronto will meet again tomorrow evening in Toronto to finish off the home and home series. Will Buffalo be able to win a third straight or will Toronto get revenge at home?
Sure it has nothing to do with hockey, but today was one for the emotional record books — San Francisco became Gotham City for one 5-year-old boy and his Make-a-Wish dream to be Bat Kid. The story has engulfed the country as everyone stopped to watch the live video stream on the days events. A good resource for photos and everything Bat Kid can be found here.
If you need a hockey tie-in, quite a few players across the leagues got in on the #BatKid action today, following the young super hero’s day saving Gotham City.
While we all love training on the ice, it’s how you train off of it that can drastically improve your game. In the first episode of Pink Puck TV we headed out to Impact Functional and Sports Training in Sudbury, Massachusetts to learn how to up our training regime. We had so much fun that we went back for more, we bring you off-ice training and the benefits of warming up and cooling down!
There are two ways to lose a hockey game: you get outplayed, or you get out-lucked. The former is easier to swallow. Whether you’re outplayed because the other team is better or because you didn’t show up, there’s fault to be found. If your team had done X, they could have made Y happen. Losses like that are the kind sports reporters love, because they can jump up and down screaming, “We need a better powerplay!!!” and “You miss 100% of the shots you never take!!!” which sound like good advice until you realize that the first is not necessarily true (see: Chicago Blackhawks, 2012-2013) and the second is just a proverb your fifth grade basketball coach had hung up in his office.
You can be mad at a game where one of the teams underwhelmed with their play. You can feel self-righteous about athletes not working hard enough from where you’re sitting on your couch, one hand in a bag of Tostitos and one hand wrapped around the remote.
There’s not really anything to be angry about in a game where the other team had a lucky bounce or a series of lucky bounces. Statistically, luck accounts for far more of the course of a hockey game than we’d like to admit. Shootouts, for example, are essentially just an exercise in tempting fate, not proof of individual player skill.
The Columbus Blue Jackets fell in OT to the Washington Capitals early this week, and again tonight to the Boston Bruins. Ovechkin scored the game winner in Tuesday’s game; Lucic won it for Boston tonight. It’s been a rough season for away games for the Blue Jackets, whose first road trip resulted in loss after loss after loss. But most of those were losses that had points of fracture. Moments that could point to and say: that’s where it slipped out of our hands.
In this week’s games, there weren’t any such moments. Or at least, not ones that you could point to with the intent of finding fault. Obviously there are always mistakes made in games, but it’s easy to forget that way more of sports is alchemy than we allow for. Fault will certainly be found–by the media, by poor Todd Richards, by many fans. But it’s going to be that generic, objectless kind of blame. You know what I’m talking about: “Lucic had that rebound off Atkinson’s stick and slipped it in passed Bob; we’ve got to be able to exert the kind of control that keeps that from happening.”
Control over what? Physics? Atkinson took a shot, Lucic went for the block and got lucky with the clean rebound. The only way to avoid that play was for Atkinson not to shoot the puck, and let’s be honest, shooting less is not really a strategy that CBJ can afford to execute right now.
There are a lot of issues with CBJ’s game. We do have problems with consistency, Bobrovsky hasn’t been having the season we all wanted him to have, and there is that teeny-tiny-itty-bitty issue of repeatedly getting outshot in the first and second periods, but that wasn’t the case in either of these games. No team ever does everything right, but even if CBJ somehow, magically, did, they’re still register losses on their record. Because sometimes the rebounds go your way, and sometimes they don’t.
Do your best to fix the problems that you can, be better every game, and for God’s sake, can we at least beat Montreal?
Dean Ouellet in the San Francisco Bulls Home Opener
The San Francisco Bulls are headed into a three game weekend, having won their last two games after a grueling road trip (4-5-1-0). They will play two games Friday and Saturday against the Idaho Steelheads before taking on the Ontario Reign for a Sunday matinee. Their recent success can be attributed in part to playing a more disciplined hockey game and hard work on the power play. They scored two power play goals against one of the top penalty killing units in the Western Conference, the Stockton Thunder this past week. Dean Ouellet, who hadn’t scored a goal on the road, opened the gates at the home opener with one goal at home and another one on the power play in Stockton. The team as a whole is beginning to find out who they are and to believe in their abilities to score goals. Mindset and confidence are keys to success on the ice and an aggressive forecheck can get pucks in the back of the net according to Head Coach Pat Curcio.
“If you look at our goals that we’ve scored, most of them have been off a good forecheck and I think that we could be better. I think we have got speed and tenacious players that should be able to get in on the forecheck and get in behind their defence.”
This week’s practice has highlighted his feelings about the importance of a strong forecheck particularly since the Cow Palace ice is a slightly smaller sheet than other rinks in the ECHL. The smaller ice means things happen faster so the idea is that if you get the pucks in the zone and forecheck hard it gives the team some opportunity in front of the net to score goals.
Curcio also stressed the importance of being disciplined and not taking too many penalties during their weekend series against both the Idaho Steelheads and the Ontario Reign, who played against one another on Wednesday night, the Reign winning in overtime.
“For us at home, we have to be disciplined. We can’t give them power play opportunities. Last night they(Idaho Steelheads) scored 3 power play goals, so the least amount of power play opportunity for them, the better off we will be.”
Staying out of the box was a key component to the close game against Ontario in which they lost 2-0 but held the Reign off the scoreboard till the tail end of the first period. They did not allow another goal until the empty netter scored by Dan DeSIlva with just 18 seconds left on the clock. Their home opener against the Bakersfield Condors showed the same tightly disciplined game.
In addition to good discipline, chemistry and timing are crucial for a team to generate a buzz around the net. The Bulls have a deep pool of forward talent in returnees Jordan Morrison, Dean Ouellet and Kris Belan,, Sharks imports Chris Craneand Riley Brace, and in the recent influx of Mark Lee, Dale Mitchell and Ryan McDonough, all who spent last season overseas.
Chris Crane, a San Jose Sharks product recorded his first multipoint game versus Stockton and seems to be in all the right places to make things happen around the net. He said it was difficult to start the season out on an 18-day road trip and that it is not the easiest time to be on top of your game but now that they are home things are different.
“Everyone is just starting to gel. We are ten games into the season now so the chemistry is starting, you get a little bit better, and you are working hard every day in practice and it’s working out.”
For Crane, he is still making the adjustment from college to pro and the difference in the number of games and the schedule takes some getting used to.He ended last season with the Worcester Sharks, playing 8 games after spending three seasons with Ohio State. He says he is still trying to figure out how to adjust, but his main focus has been keeping his body healthy and maintaining it so that he is prepared every night.
The Bulls points leader can be found in Mark Lee, who spent the last five seasons playing overseas. He said it’s been an adjustment, especially since he had been away for so long.“In the smaller arena things happen a little quicker and it seems that they are more on top of you right away as with Europe it’s a little bit more of a thinking game. You strategize a little bit more and pick your spots, when to forecheck and when to stay back, there is a little more patience. “ Playing in Finland meant that he was still playing the North American Style hockey, which helped him with the adjustment here.
Mark Lee tangled up with the Alaska Aces photo: Rocky Barbanica
When asked about his hot start, he chuckled and said, “As a matter of fact to be honest with you I don’t think I’ve produced enough yet. I’ve always been known as a point guy and had some success in this league years ago, before I moved on to Europe. I was successful in this league, I’ve always been a point-a-game guy.”
It is clear that Dale Mitchell and him click on the ice. They move as a unit and complement one another’s playing style. When asked about sharing the ice with Mitchell, Lee said, “Dale is one of those players, he works so hard. He’s an emotional guy like myself. He’s got great speed and a touch around the net and I’m known to be more of a passer and to think the game pretty well and see the ice so we complement each other pretty well. At first it took a little time to get used to each other and as of late it was starting to get real fun.” Injury to Mitchell during the home opener has sidelined their budding on-ice relationship for now, but the early signs show a goal powerhouse in the duo that Bulls fans can look forward to once Dale is back in the lineup.
For now, Mark Lee is finding success around the net and hopes to contribute even more for his team. He thinks his team as a whole is finding their peak, both in terms of physical shape and their chemistry with one another. He realizes that the game is about confidence and he knows that “when you got it you have to roll with it and when you don’t you just got to keep fighting till you get it back.” Could be a motto for the Bulls.
Notes:
In the span of a week the Bulls lost three forwards to injury and call-ups. Ryan McDonough was the first to go, taking a check to the head in the last game against the Reign. He was just placed on the 21 day IR, dealing with concussion symptoms. Dale Mitchell, second in points for the team, injured his back as he crashed the Bakersfield net during the home opener, and has now been moved to the 21 day IR list. Riley Brace returned to Worcester after playing two games with the Bulls and recording one assist. The Bulls have just picked up Forward Kyle Bodie from the Cincinnati Cyclones in exchange for future considerations.
On Thursday night’s game against the Pacific leading Anaheim Ducks, Valtteri Filppula scored two goals in Tampa’s 5-1 win.
The general consensus among the Lightning is ‘Win For Stamkos’ and that they have been doing. In their two games without the scoring leader they are 2-0, not including the Boston game. The team has stepped up and sent the Ducks to the Hurricanes with two losses against the Florida teams. The Ducks had lost 2-3 on Tuesday night in Sunrise.
Filppula and Martin St. Louis led the charge with a combined three goals and six points in a 5-1 rout of the Anaheim Ducks Thursday night at the Tampa Bay Times Forum.
“We’re forced to play well without him [Stamkos],” Filppula said. “I think we have the confidence that we can do it.”
Filppula continued his hot streak and it didn’t hurt that Team Finland’s general manager and head coach were giving No. 51 a watchful Olympic eye from their booth in the press box.
The Lightning had two power-play goals on the night from Filppula and St. Louis, while the Harvard man, Alex Killorn, and Victor Hedman had goals as well. The lone Ducks goal was scored by Emerson Etem with assists from Cam Fowler and Francois Beauchemin.
The Lightning hit the road for four games against the Western Conference starting Saturday with contests against the Phoenix Coyotes, Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks and the Ducks. It is also the second half of a stretch where the Bolts play seven out of eight games on the road. Tampa Bay will return home to play three games during Thanksgiving week.
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