Sedin hoping to break slump with Swedes Ed Willes The Province

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1 Sedin hoping to break slump with Swedes Ed Willes The Province SOCHI, Russia He s without his twin brother, who happens to be his career-long centre, he hasn t scored a goal in 18 games and his NHL team has lost seven straight in regulation to fall out of playoff position. If ever anyone was in need of a group hug, it s Daniel Sedin. On Tuesday, the Swedish national team gathered around their teammate, embraced him and said, It s going to be all right. You re going to go through stretches where things aren t going your way, said Henrik Zetterberg, the Swedish captain. Sometimes it s nice to get away from the normal atmosphere and play some different hockey. To me, he looks pretty good out there and I m pretty sure he s going to have a good tournament. I think the change of scenery comes at a great time, added Daniel Alfredsson. New players, a new atmosphere. We know how valuable he can be scoring goals and making plays. He s been fantastic for us. The Swedes held their second workout Tuesday before they open their Olympic tournament Wednesday night against the Czech Republic. As of this writing, Daniel is skating with Nicklas Backstrom and Loui Eriksson on one of the Swedes top two lines. The Swedes have gold-medal aspirations in Sochi and Daniel is an integral part of their team matrix. While all the pre-tournament attention is focused on the host Russians, the U.S., and Canada, the Swedes fly blissfully under the radar, much the way they did in 2006 when they won the gold in Torino. We know we re one of the teams that can win the gold here, but there are other teams who can win, said Zetterberg, who centred a line with Gabriel Landeskog and Alex Steen. You have to play well when it matters

2 the most, you have to be a little lucky and you have to be healthy. And they were both eight years ago. We were up and down and we didn t play great early on, Sedin said. But we played better as the tournament went on and played our best game in the final. I think that s what you need as a team. It s almost better to struggle at first and turn it on later. Luongo revels in Olympic atmosphere Ed Willes The Province MORE TO SOCHI EXPERIENCE THAN JUST HOCKEY, CANUCKS GOALIE SAYS Four years ago, Jonathan Toews watched Roberto Luongo step into a hornets nest in the middle of the Olympic Games in Vancouver and was struck by the goalie s composure. Here he was, taking over from Martin Brodeur with Team Canada off to a shaky start and the entire country suffering from a case of the vapours, and it was like Luongo was playing a Tuesday night game against the Calgary Flames. Toews, one of the new leaders of the current edition of Team Canada, was asked about this on Tuesday and he said, essentially, when you play goal in a big Canadian market, taking the net for your national team in the Olympics isn t that big of a deal. That s what Luongo does. And that s what Montreal s Carey Price does. If you were wondering why they re in Sochi, there s part of your answer. It s a tough thing to explain, Toews said. For me it s almost like any pressure or any sort of negative attention, he just absorbed it. There s a lot of pressure on the goaltender in a big Canadian city. I think he was just able to tune everything out and just play. That s what you need when you re the goaltender for Canada trying to win a gold medal at home. That s his biggest attribute. And it could be Team Canada will call on it again. Luongo, like his Vancouver Canucks teammates, doesn t come into the Olympics tournament riding the crest of a wave. He s lost his last five starts. He s allowed 17 goals on 159 shots over that stretch.

3 It s good for myself and the team to have a break, he said Tuesday. But something strange and powerful also happens to Luongo when he pulls on the Team Canada jersey and that part of his story is more important to head coach Mike Babcock than Luongo s current struggles. Sochi will be Luongo s 10th appearance for Team Canada and his third Olympics. Only Rick Nash can make the same claim. And Luongo s numbers have been off the charts when he wears the Maple Leaf. In his gold-medal turn in Vancouver his save percentage was.927 and goals-against average was In four world championships, his save percentage has been a gaudy.934. At the 1999 World Juniors in Winnipeg, he almost stole a gold medal for a so-so Canadian team before they dropped a 3-2 overtime decision to the Russians in the final. Luongo was asked what happens to him when he plays for his country. We have good teams, he said. It s not more complicated than that. We re one of countries trying to compete for a gold medal. It makes the goaltender s job a lot easier. But there s more to it. Luongo was clearly jazzed when he met with a small group of Canadian reporters on Tuesday. He talked about the atmosphere in the Olympic Village, the cramped quarters the millionaire hockey players share with their poor cousins from other sports. That s what I enjoy the most, just being part of the Olympics and the Olympic experience, he said. Obviously, hockey s there but if you can t enjoy the whole experience, you re not here for the right reasons. Luongo, in fact, took umbrage with the notion that NHLers aren t impressed with their accommodation. That s totally false, he said. Guys enjoy the experience. I ve been talking to (Canucks defenceman Dan Hamhuis) and this is his first time. You can see he s got a permanent smile on his face. Guys don t care about that stuff. We know what it s all about. Guys are excited. Luongo would also be excited to start for Team Canada, but Babcock has yet to announce his goaltending rotation. Canada opens Thursday against Norway, then plays Austria on Friday. The prevailing wisdom is both Luongo

4 and Price will get a start in the first two games and the net will go to the goalie who performs best. Does he have an edge? It s hard to say. Luongo is one of 11 returnees from the 2010 Games who are now in Sochi. There s a familiarity among that group and they ve had success together. That, in turn, creates chemistry and Babcock is very much aware of Luongo s contribution in that regard. I ve been with him twice when he s won gold medals, in 04 at the world championship and in 2010, the Team Canada coach said. Winning, to me, leads to winning. That s where you get confidence. As for Luongo, he didn t say he s just happy to be here. But, really, he is. I don t carry baggage, he said. I m good at turning the page. If I remember right I was struggling before Vancouver (in 2010). I got pulled in a game against (the Minnesota Wild). But it doesn t really matter. Once you re here, you think about playing for Team Canada and things are different. I ve been around, as they say, but this is always fun. There s always a special feel when you put on this jersey. And, one more time, he has that feeling. Backers of UBC hockey buoy hopes for program The Province Howard Tsumura When you already have a century of tradition behind you, it s tough to say conclusively just how big a week this one is in the history of UBC Thunderbirds men s hockey. But just based on the emotion in the voice of longtime head coach Milan Dragicevic, it s hard to think that there have been moments much bigger than the one the program faces beginning Wednesday morning. At 8:30 a.m., the embattled ice Birds will present their case for survival to an athletic review board as part of the second and final stage of a controversial process that began in the fall with the end goal of streamlining Canada s largest and most decorated CIS athletics department.

5 By Friday, the team will be in Winnipeg, set to play a pair of regularseason-ending Canada West conference games that will determine whether the team qualifies for the postseason. In the three weeks that have passed since men s hockey was put on the endangered species list at UBC, following a roundone announcement of 16 survivors and 13 second-chancers, amazing things have happened, things that have virtually overwhelmed Dragicevic. The passion that people have shown in fundraising, begins Dragicevic, now in his 12th season as UBC head coach, to raise almost three-quarters of a million dollars in two weeks, is amazing. When you take a step back and you analyze all of this right from the start, this is going to make our program bigger and better, a program to be reckoned with in the future, and a trendsetter for all of CIS hockey. Stage two of the school s sports review has asked UBC hockey to provide evidence of its ability to provide sustainable revenue streams for seasons to come. While Dragicevic was not at liberty to provide precise details, it is known the program has received from alumni commitments for at least $690,000 over the next five years. The support we have gotten from our alumni has not come from just one or two wealthy people, adds Matt Reid, president of the T-Birds Hockey Alumni Society, and a former UBC hockey player ( ). It s come from over 90 alumni, and that has been nice, that this has really been a community endeavour. The Vancouver Canucks will help us with revenue-generating ideas, and we ve had great support from some of the B.C. teams in the Western Hockey League. It s great to know that so many people care. The efforts of UBC s endangered sports programs, in fact, have been so impressive that Dr. Derek Swain, chair of the alumni group saveubcvarsitysports.com, wonders what the actual agenda of the review group is. With the ample demonstration of alumni support over the last few months, there should be no financial crisis, Swain said. So we wonder what the agenda really is. And that is the larger issue because they have never

6 really articulated this. I think it s very clear that there can be no justification for cuts. Dragicevic believes in the team s plan every bit as much as he believes in his players ability to get the job done on the ice this weekend against the Bisons. We have put a plan in place to make sure we are sustainable for many years to come, he said of a program whose operating budget sits just shy of $500,000 per season. I think the plan is bulletproof and I think the committee members will be totally impressed. The date on which UBC will announce the fate of the 13 varsity sports under review is not yet final, although Feb. 26 is much rumoured as T-Birds D-Day. That would be one day after the school s annual fundraising Millennium Scholarship Breakfast. The Province NICK OLYNYK Nick Olynyk is a Canadian junior hockey expert. He is also author of the Junior Hockey Truth, and a second book will be published in the fall. His website, juniorhockeytruth.com, is for parents of bantam and midget hockey players who want to SPECIAL TO THE PROVINCE A vote for putting Carey Price in net BACKUP GOALIE LEARNED TOTAL TRUST WATCHING FROM WHL TEAM S BENCH As Carey Price s former backup, I d like to offer some goaltending advice to Roberto Luongo as he enters the Olympics. No, it s not the on-ice kind, Roberto. I m talking about how you should prepare for when Carey takes your spot in net. I m qualified to share my wisdom I watched Carey for a whole season, from his team s bench, with my freezing hand swinging the door. That year, 2005, Carey burst from prospect status to Canada s top junior goalie, winning a world junior championship gold medal for Canada in 2007 unlike your WJC silver, Roberto.

7 I caddied for Pricey, as was his nickname on our team, on the Western Hockey League s Tri-City Americans. This was before his world junior heroics, before the hype really began. My first week on (off?) the job, I saw Carey get three straight shutouts, including a 48-save performance to cap off the trifecta. During that game we slipped up a lot. Carey covered us every time. Until that night, I never saw a goalie stand up and cradle a top-corner shot on a 3-on-0. Most guys would have been tied in a knot after that play. Not Carey. After the first period, I nestled back into my spot on the bench and got comfortable for the rest of the year. By playoff time, the seat of my hockey pants had faded, literally, from where my butt met the bench. Roberto, you ll want to cover your curly locks with a tuque in Sochi. It gets cold on the bench. Olaf Kolzig joined us during the NHL lockout that year. Not far removed from his Vezina Trophy season, I was in the presence of the one-time best goalie in the world and the then-best junior goalie in the world. But let me tell you, Roberto, it s kind of disheartening when a guy like Kolzig says, That kid is something special. He s 17 and he could already play in the NHL. Kolzig does have more Vezinas than you, just saying. Carey also had an aura with fans. People were drawn to him as a person, not because he was a great hockey player. Never in my career did I see a player who openly hugged fans he met, instead of shaking hands. Both the daughters and their mothers alike were just as eager to meet him. He d chat with kids who idolized him after games, while we all watched from the bus. I suggest you don t wait around for Carey to finish signing autographs, Roberto. He ll pose for pictures with every person. Backing up Carey was the highlight of my junior career. I trained and played among some of the best goalies in the world: Kolzig, Josh Harding, Braden Holtby, Cam Ward, Ben Scrivens, Devan Dubnyk, Darcy Kuemper, Team Canada s Shannon Szabados and at least a dozen others in the college

8 and pro ranks. Great goalies, but none compare to Carey s raw talent. I m telling you, Roberto, things will change when he steps on the ice. I have no doubt Canada will do well if I see a Luongo name bar above the crossbar this Olympics. You ve done it for us before, Roberto. However, when I m sitting on a wooden bar stool watching the game, I ll put my bets on Carey Price. If he gets the net, he s not leaving. Trust me, Roberto, I know how you ll feel. FANTASTIC ROCKETS THEY WERE Steve Ewen The Province FANTASTIC ROCKETS THEY WERE Somewhere in Dubai this week, there s a man sitting on a bar stool watching the Olympics and wondering how the fella next to him has such insight into the hockey tournament. That guy with those goods is Tyler Spurgeon. He s a former Kelowna Rockets centre who s playing pro in Austria these days. He s using the Olympic break for some time off in the United Arab Emirates. In a Facebook conversation Tuesday, he wrote that he had just finished watching the snowboarding in Sochi and he was excited for men s hockey to kick off. Spurgeon, 27, was part of a fouryear Rockets run, starting in , that included three straight Memorial Cup national championship appearances, highlighted by winning the Canadian title out of the host berth in His teammates included Team Canada defencemen Duncan Keith ( ) and Shea Weber (200205), as well Swedish rearguard Alexander Edler ( ). That s $212 million of defencemen when you combine their NHL contracts. The best guy I played with in Kelowna? That s impossible, said Spurgeon. I loved my time there. And, like I said, I was so fortunate to play with a lot of great players. A lot are in the NHL or pro hockey or successful in other walks of life. I have a lot of respect for all of them. The success of those three guys definitely doesn t surprise me. We were lucky to be in an organization at a young age that taught us how to be great

9 pros. Obviously, those three guys had a special skill set and they worked hard every day to develop it. Keith, 30, and Edler, 27, both came to Kelowna with cachet as 19-yearolds. Keith, a 2002 second-round draft pick of the Chicago Blackhawks, joined the Rockets at Christmastime after leaving Michigan State University. He strengthened a Kelowna defence that already included future Montreal Canadiens stalwart Josh Gorges as well as Weber, then a 17-year-old rookie. Bruce Hamilton, who doubles as the Rockets owner and general manager, says the addition of Keith had a ripple effect, in that it let people know that this was a good place for players to play. Edler was a 2004 Vancouver Canucks third rounder, and he struggled early in Kelowna. He was homesick; he wasn t playing particularly well. There was even talk between the Canucks and Rockets about him possibly coming back the following year to play his 20-year-old season in Kelowna. His game picked up in the second half, though, and he ended up splitting the next season between the minors and the Canucks. On the flip side of all this, Weber, 28, arrived with the Rockets with limited accolades. According to Hamilton, he was 170 pounds when he started out as a regular in Kelowna, which is a far cry from the 230 pounds he carries on his 6-foot-4 frame these days with the Nashville Predators. Still, people around him then swear they could tell there was something special. Webs was a guy who flew under the radar a bit my first season but we all knew what kind of player he was, Spurgeon wrote of the 2003 Predators second rounder. He was the total package and, as his confidence grew, he took off. He was fun to play with. He was a guy who always had that burning desire to win. Spurgeon, a 2004 eighth-round Edmonton Oilers pick, will see his Austrian league start up again later this month. The older brother of Minnesota Wild defenceman Jared Spurgeon has been with Klagenfurt AC since , and the team has been in the finals the past three years.

10 He has nine goals and 10 assists in 30 games with the squad, which also features former NHLer Jamie Lundmark, among others. It s been a great place for me to develop more as a player, wrote Spurgeon, an Edmonton native. I think the speed of the game on the big ice would surprise some people, and so would the ability of pretty well every guy to make skilled plays. It makes for entertaining hockey. Canada s goalie controversy not done yet Chris Johnston Sportsnet.ca SOCHI, Russia Carey Price, this is your moment. You best enjoy it. If there s anything we ve learned about Team Canada s goaltending job at the Olympics, it s that it often becomes a moving target. Mike Babcock didn t provide much insight into why he s decided to start Price against Norway on Thursday and Roberto Luongo against Austria on Friday, so we re left to read the tea leaves about what it means in the big picture. The last two times Canada won gold at the Olympics it swapped No. 1 goalies mid-tournament with Luongo edging out Martin Brodeur in Vancouver four years ago after Brodeur had bumped Curtis Joseph from the role in Salt Lake City in What makes Babcock s decision here particularly interesting is the fact that Canada s goalies aren t likely to be tested too much in round-robin play against Norway, Austria and a banged-up Finnish team. That means the coaching staff s preconceived opinions of the men could play a large role in deciding who is between the pipes for the must-win games. Price is attending his first Olympics and was thrilled to get the news he was starting the opener before Wednesday s practice. He was excellent for the Montreal Canadiens just prior to the Olympic break and is relieved that the tournament has finally arrived. I m just excited, said Price. Obviously, it s been a lingering thought, but this whole season I ve been preparing one game at a time. That doesn t change once I get here. I ve been preparing these last two days for this game tomorrow and I ll just continue to do the same. Goaltending promises to be a hot storyline for Team Canada throughout this event. Heck, people were fretting about it more than a year ago. Luongo seems completely unfazed by all of the talk he s been part of a few goaltending debates in his time. The 34-year-old also referenced the Vancouver experience, where he was thrust into the net after Brodeur played in Canada s 5-2 loss to the Americans in the round robin. His advice for Price? Simply enjoy getting a chance to be on the biggest stage in the world.

11 For me, I just want to be ready for whenever I m called upon, said Luongo. As we saw last time, things change quickly. Whoever is playing doesn t matter as long as all three guys are ready to play. The Canadian team has held three practices since arriving in Russia more than previous Olympics but the goaltenders haven t played a big role in them with most of the focus being on systems work. On Wednesday, Price, Luongo and Mike Smith came on the ice early to get in some extra work. Even though they re all competing for the chance to play, the vibe among them seems to be positive. They re even staying in rooms at the athletes village that share a common area. We all knew coming into this that anything could happen, anybody could be starting, said Price. We all were mentally prepared for that. Coming into practices we just continued to do the same things that we ve been doing all year. Everyone involved with Team Canada seems anxious for the tournament to finally start. Let s get playing, said Babcock. Let s find out if we re any good. Price to start for Canada in opener vs Norway The Canadian Press SOCHI, Russia Carey Price will be in goal when Team Canada plays its first game at the Sochi Olympics. Head coach Mike Babcock says the Montreal Canadiens netminder will start against Norway on Thursday. Roberto Luongo of the Vancouver Canucks will start Canada s second game against Austria. Babcock did not give a rationale for the decision. "I was going to play one of them in (each of) the first two games," Babcock said. "If I had put Luongo in, you d be asking me the same question." It will be Price s Olympic debut, while Luongo was in goal when Canada won the gold medal in Vancouver four years ago. Luongo said he everyone s "here to play for Team Canada," in accepting Babcock s decision.

Bieksa s Buddies to play UBC Thunderbirds

Bieksa s Buddies to play UBC Thunderbirds By Jason Botchford, The Province October 3, 2012 Kevin Bieksa may not always be your favourite player. But in October he should be player of the month. His compassion