Not quite Bionic Ham, but Jan 2015 The Vancouver Sun Iain MacIntyre

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1 Not quite Bionic Ham, but... The Vancouver Sun Iain MacIntyre Rebuilt rearguard: Canuck veteran expects to suit up this week We were going to lead with an unexplained reference to the Six Million Dollar Man. But this being a sports column in the 21st century, that would only confuse readers who would think, naturally, of such National Hockey League luminaries as Brooks Orpik or Matt Carle, or maybe any left-handed middle reliever in baseball. The Six Million Dollar Man was Steve Austin. No, not the Stone Cold wrestler, but the television astronaut from the 1970s whose test plane crashed and burned into a million tiny fragments, although miraculously most of the pilot and all his vital organs survived intact. Script writers had the power to rebuild him better, stronger, faster than he was before with bionic limbs that allowed Austin to run 60 m.p.h., mostly in slow motion and with awesome hair. And had Dan Hamhuis been born a few years earlier than 1982, he might have felt Monday like the Six Million Dollar Man, even if his Vancouver Canuck salary is an extremely reasonable $4.25 million. He ll see about faster, but Hamhuis is pretty sure he is better and stronger than he was before tearing his right groin muscle in a game on Nov. 20. Austin had the top-secret bionics program. Hamhuis has renowned physiotherapist Rick Celebrini and the Canucks Human Performance team. With this injury, we actually see it as an opportunity to build up everything around it, Hamhuis said before flying Monday to Nashville, where the Canucks open a five-game trip tonight. With the two months I ve had here to rehab this, I m feeling stronger than at any point in my career my body, skating, all that. I ve taken the time with some very high-end people getting me back to where I need to be and maybe even better. The summer hiring of Celebrini, the former Vancouver Whitecap who has worked with Canada s national alpine ski and soccer teams and was chief therapist for the 2010 Olympic team, was overshadowed by the hiring of a couple of other guys: general manager Jim Benning and coach Willie Desjardins. The founder and director of sports medicine of the Fortius Institute in Burnaby, Celebrini was a great recruit by Canuck president Trevor Linden. Hamhuis probably won t play in Nashville, but could return to the lineup either Thursday in Philadelphia or Friday in Carolina. If he does, his absence will be weeks shorter than initially feared by the Canucks, who have increasingly missed their No. 2 defenceman. Hamhuis sat out two NHL games with a sore groin last February, shortly before winning an Olympic gold medal with Team Canada. Hamhuis also suffered a groin injury, among other damage, on a hip check he made on Boston Bruin Milan Lucic during the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. The Canuck, who turned 32 in December, said it is an area that has always been susceptible to injury for him, which is why he is excited to feel not only recovered from his groin tear two months ago but stronger and more sound structurally than he has ever been. Over my career, it s something I ve had a few issues with, Hamhuis said. This was a really good opportunity to look at it and strengthen the whole area.

2 Rick has a very special skill set in dealing with this type of injury. He s one of the best in the world at it. He has taken the lead on the rehab portion. The whole process has been huge, and it s a big reason why I m ahead of schedule. Besides Celebrini, Hamhuis praised the work of Canuck strength coaches Roger Takahashi and Eric Renaghan, assistant medical trainer Dave Zarn and skills coach Glenn Carnegie. The defenceman has also worked with skating coach Barb Aidelbaum. He has been practising with the Canucks since Thursday. Despite Hamhuis uneven form early in the season as he experimented with various face shields after suffering a badly broken nose in Game 3, the Canucks were with the Smithers native in their lineup. They are without him, and the Canucks have struggled for consistency and continuity on defence beyond the top pairing of Alex Edler and Chris Tanev. I think we ve really missed him, Desjardins said after Monday morning s practice at Rogers Arena. Maybe early, we got away with some stuff... and we were winning some games. I think lately (his absence has) shown a little bit. We just miss his presence back there as a guy that can play against any type of player. I m hoping he ll play on this trip. Like I said before, that s still way faster than we thought. So if he doesn t play on this trip, there s no alarm to it. But I m hoping he plays on this trip. Hamhuis said there was a discussion about staying out until after the NHL All-Star break, which follows this road trip. But unless there is a setback, he should play later this week. If it s ready, it s ready, Hamhuis said. Everything we ve done has been thought out. He feels like six million bucks. CANUCKS AT PREDATORS The Vancouver Sun Elliott Pap, Vancouver Sun RECENT FORM The Canucks have lost two straight and are since returning from their Christmas break. On the road, they are in their last five, the lone victory a 3-1 decision on Dec. 30 in San Jose. The Predators above, are enjoying a tremendous season and are tied for first overall with 60 points. They have won three straight and are in their last eight. They are a dominant on home ice and have won five straight at Bridgestone Arena. WHO S HOT? The Canucks have killed 10 straight opposition power plays and 47 of 50 in their last 16 games, an excellent efficiency rating of 94 per cent Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne, above, is having a Vezina Trophy-type season and leads the league in wins (28) and, before Monday s game, stood second in GAA (1.98) and third in save percentage (. 930) Preds forward Filip Forsberg is the league s top scoring rookie with 38 points. He is also the Preds leading pointgetter. WHO S NOT? The entire Canuck roster, which has scored one goal in the last seven periods (Daniel Sedin on Roberto Luongo) RW Zack Kassian has no points in six games and no goals in 16 games

3 C Nick Bonino has one goal in 10 games LW Shawn Matthias has one goal in 12 games... LW Chris Higgins, above, has one goal in 16 games RW Jannik Hansen has one goal in 18 games D Luca Sbisa has no points in 17 games. HEAD-TO-HEAD The Canucks and Predators have met once this season, on Nov. 2 at Rogers Arena, with Nashville prevailing 3-1. The Canucks led the game 1-0 after 20 minutes and it was tied 1-1 after two periods. The Preds outshot the Canucks with Rinne besting Eddie Lack in the goalie matchup. Forsberg, above, scored twice, his second standing up as the winner. The Canucks were 1-for-3 on the power play while Nashville went 1 for 4. QUOTABLE I think Pekka Rinne has made a difference for a number of years there. He wasn t healthy last year, I don t think, so this year they have more consistency (in goal). I think their defence has always been good. It s really, really solid and they ve got some new guys in. I think Mike Ribeiro, above, has helped them. He s motivated, he s playing hard and he s a key guy offensively. He can create for you. Canuck head coach Willie Desjardins on the Predators. Miller set for Preds following illness The Vancouver Sun ELLIOTT PAP VANCOUVER SUN Vancouver Canuck goalie Ryan Miller did something Saturday he was always loath to do: he surrendered a start to backup Eddie Lack because he was feeling lousy. Lack was feeling lousy, too, but apparently he was less lousy than Miller. Lack went on to face the Calgary Flames, gave up an early goal and the Canucks lost 1-0. Miller is scheduled to regain the net tonight when the Canucks face the Predators in Nashville. It s not like me to give up a start, Miller said Monday before the team left for Music City and the start of a fivegame U.S. road swing. I told myself I d never do that when I went to college, that I was never going to give up a start. (But) I thought Eddie gave the team a better chance energywise. So I was just trying to get back into it today with a good practice and go from there. Miller wasn t quite sure what exact ailment invaded his body, but his voice was still scratchy Monday and he sounded somewhat like he was under water. It s not terrible but it is pretty annoying, said the 34-year-old netminder. You go through these things during the season and we usually don t talk about them. It just came up because we had to change the start. It normally wouldn t be an issue and we wouldn t talk about it. I ve been sick plenty of times and you just do the best you can. You hydrate, you find your rest and don t try to over-extend yourself.

4 Corrado skated with Luca Sbisa at Monday s practice while Yannick Weber was paired with the rehabbing Dan Hamhuis. Since the latter is not playing, it s seems logical to assume neither is Weber. And that Corrado is. The 21-year-old Corrado received 17:30 of ice time in Saturday s loss, had three shots on goal, six attempts, one hit and one blocked shot. It was his first appearance of the season on his third call-up from the American Hockey League s Utica Comets. Frank played well and I thought he defended well, commented Desjardins. I thought he had good size. I thought he moved the puck really well up ice. As I said before that game, we have to find out where he s at. One game doesn t tell you where he s at, good or bad. So we ll probably try to get him in somewhere on this trip. Corrado, the Canucks fifthround pick in 2011, played 15 NHL games last season and seven in , so the league is not a mystery to him. He felt he was well prepared. The speed on Saturday was fine, I thought it was a pretty fast game, Corrado said. I liked the pace of it. It s nice to get right in the mix rather than kind of ease your way in. I thought it was a good transition. I ve put in some good work in the minors, and up here when I wasn t playing, so I think that stuff is starting to show. According to Corrado, he has matured to the point where he no longer swings for the fences his metaphor every time he steps on the ice. I think before I used to try to do a little too much and I think now I try to keep things simple, he said. I think I ve said it before: just play a game where you hit singles and doubles. You don t need to hit a home run every shift. SICK BAY WATCH: Illness in the last week has taken Radim Vrbata, Chris Higgins and Miller out of the lineup, so it seemed an educated guess when rookie Bo Horvat was absent from Monday s practice. He was the only player missing. Alas, the spidey senses were wrong on this occasion, at least according to Desjardins. It was just a maintenance day for Bo a little bit, said the coach, who expected Horvat to be available for tonight s game. Linden Vey, a healthy scratch Saturday, skated between Derek Dorsett and Jannik Hansen in Monday s workout. QUOTABLE: I think we re probably where I thought we d be but I thought it would be kind of reversed. I thought maybe we go out a little bit slow and then be trending upward. Now we ve kind of flattened off again. Desjardins on his team s mark after 40 games. (Note: The Canucks were after 40 last season under John Tortorella.) Canucks prospect s knockout punch raises fighting questions The Province CHRISTOPHER CURTIS POSTMEDIA NEWS

5 MONTREAL When the Canadiens sent defenceman Jarred Tinordi back to their farm club last fall, he carried an aura of invincibility with him. This reputation was, in a sense, the natural byproduct of Tinordi s six-foot-six, 225-pound frame. But it was also built on a handful of National Hockey League fights that came to define how Canadiens fans see Tinordi. After all, this was the man who broke Carter Ashton s nose in his ninth NHL game. Before he was sent to the AHL s Hamilton Bulldogs last October, Tinordi mauled the much smaller Cody McLeod in a game against the Colorado Avalanche. Just a few weeks ago, Tinordi delivered an open-ice hit on a St. John s IceCaps player that projected his legs toward the arena s rafters. The IceCaps Mike Cornell immediately jumped Tinordi hoping to avenge his teammate, but instead he was savagely beaten in front of thousands of screaming fans. This aura no doubt served Tinordi well. But you cannot live off an aura of invincibility or cloak yourself in it for very long, because an aura is just a feeling an impression, an illusion. And that illusion was shattered last Friday night when Andrey Pedan s fist connected with Tinordi s chin during a game against the Vancouver Canucks farm team, the Utica Comets. Pedan s right hook hit Tinordi with such impact that it briefly disconnected the big defenceman from reality and sent him plummeting face-first to the ice. Tinordi s head bounced off the hard surface and he lay motionless for a few seconds. Eventually, he began moving his legs, but just barely. Medical staff had to help Tinordi off the ice and a concussion was diagnosed. The injury has elicited the usual line of questioning that such violent occurrences do. Why was Tinordi, a first-round draft pick in 2010 (22nd overall), engaging an expert brawler in a farmleague game? Will the injury change Tinordi? Should fighting even still be allowed in the game? From the outside looking in, this looks bad. It looks like the kind of thing that could break a player, said Chris Nilan, a former Canadien and veteran of more than 250 NHL fights. But only he knows how it ll be, how his psyche is affected the next time he steps on the ice and then, all of a sudden, someone challenges him. Fighting it s not an easy thing to do and you don t want to leave yourself vulnerable, but how could it not make you think, you know, the next time you fight someone. And when you do, believe me, if you have that fear in the back of your mind, it s not a good thing. Corrado trying to keep it simple on blue-line The Province Ben Kuzma bkuzma@theprovince.com twitter.com/benkuzma Defenceman, who made season debut Saturday, is not trying to hit a homer each shift The return of Dan Hamhuis can t come fast enough for the Vancouver Canucks. You can say the same about the arrival of Frank Corrado. GERRY KAHRMANN PNG FILES Vancouver defenceman Frank Corrado played his first NHL game of the season Saturday against the Calgary Flames and will likely see more action in the Canucks five-game road trip, which starts Tuesday in Nashville.

6 Hamhuis, who suffered a groin tear Nov. 20, expects to play during the five-game road trip but it won t be Tuesday in Nashville. Corrado, who was recalled for the third time this season on Wednesday and didn t look out of place Saturday against Calgary, should pair again with Luca Sbisa. His ongoing maturation is vital as the Canucks try to balance winning with inserting younger players into their aging lineup. And it s time for the tough love Corrado has endured from Utica Comets coach Travis Green to pay dividends and translate into more than just the occasional cup of NHL-recall coffee. I hate to call him this but he s a nitpicker, the 21-year-old Corrado said of Green. If I make a wobbly pass or something, he ll let me know about it. Those are the little things that have helped my game, and he obviously has helped me a lot. I ve put in some good work in the minors and here and it s starting to show. Before, I tried to do a little too much. Now, I try to keep things simple and play a game where I hit singles and doubles and not homers every shift. This is where I want to be and it s up to me to show I can play here. Luca is a solid player and very physical. That kind of rubs off on my game a bit and I think we can be a physical pairing and get the puck out of our zone. But Willie (Desjardins) hasn t seen me too much and you have to build that trust. Corrado had good pace and positioning against the Flames. The 6-foot-1, 191-pound blue-liner logged 17:30 while collecting three shots in his first NHL game of the season. Part of the seamless transition was ample ice time in 21 games this AHL season with the Comets and the realization that the fifth-round 2011 draft pick knows he s ready to build on 19 career NHL regular-season games and four playoff outings. We have to find out where he s at, said Desjardins, who lauded Corrado s puck-moving and defending. One game doesn t tell you good or bad and we ll probably try to get him in somewhere more on this trip. Meanwhile, Hamhuis was cautiously optimistic after practice Monday. He s well ahead of schedule from an injury that normally requires four to six weeks of recovery time and often results in surgery. Hamhuis cited the Canucks training, medical and performance team including noted physiotherapist Rick Celebrini and power-skating instructor Barb Aidelbaum for providing strength, stride, stamina and the confidence to engage in battle drills. We re not changing anything, said Hamhuis. We re complementing what we ve already been working on and some of the strength training has actually made me feel better out there than before. It s good mentally to know things are moving along because the shorter time I can be out, the less rust I ll have in my game. With Barb, it s translating the movement patterns that we ve been doing off the ice to position the injury in the best spot and translating it on the ice. I m really close (to returning) and just want to make sure it s 100 per cent. It s one of those injuries that it s not about battling through pain, it s got to be right. We don t want to rush it, back off and have a setback. Aidelbaum s goal, in consultation with the performance group, was to take the biomechanics exercises that Hamhuis was doing in the gym and apply them to on-ice sessions. And because the 32-year-old Smithers native has had a long working relationship with Aidelbaum and constantly works on his skating, he s been diligent, not doubtful. We started slowly to make sure he was in the right position and then moved the program along, said Aidelbaum. Dan is very conscientious and a very patient person who s very keen to

7 get back in the lineup. He s had a few injuries and was able to tell the group, I m ready to do that or not quite ready to do that. His stride and recovery will be better because Celebrini has spent hours and hours with Dan and put together a safe program, and had him on the ice early. The Canucks have gone without Hamhuis, but his return should help stabilize the pairings beyond the top grouping of Chris Tanev and Alex Edler. Before he was injured, Hamhuis was paired with Sbisa and there was a greater sense of calm in the defensive zone. We ve really missed him, said Desjardins. Maybe we got away with some stuff and were winning games early in the year, but lately it s shown a bit that we just miss his presence back there. He can play against any type of player. OF NOTE Bo Horvat missed practice Monday with a maintenance day and is expected to play Tuesday.... Ryan Miller, who still sounded ill, gets the start against the Predators. Canucks ready to hit the road after disappointing homestand JOSHUA CLIPPERTON VANCOUVER The Canadian Press Published Monday, Jan , 9:38 PM EST The Vancouver Canucks are about where Willie Desjardins expected them to be 40 games into his first season as an NHL head coach. How they got to this point is another matter entirely. We started quicker than I thought we would but then we ve had some tough games lately, Desjardins said after Monday s practice at Rogers Arena. I think we re probably where I thought, but I thought it would kind of be reversed. I thought we d go out a little bit slower and then be trending upwards. Now we ve kind of flattened off again. The Canucks briefly led the NHL standings with a mark back in late November, but are just since, including back-to-back losses to the Florida Panthers and Calgary Flames that closed out a disappointing homestand. Vancouver ( ) sat second in the Pacific Division heading into Monday s action, but were just two points up on Calgary for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference, albeit with three games in hand. I think we realize how close it is to miss the playoffs, Canucks defenceman Kevin Bieksa said. We ve done a good job of staying in moment and taking care of the points, especially in the middle half, the dog days of the season. The Canucks will have to be up for Tuesday s opener of a five-game road trip against the leagueleading Nashville Predators, who have just three losses on home ice this season. We ve got real tough games, Desjardins said. It s going to be a battle. Every point s going to be a battle, [but] hopefully teams are saying the same things about us. Speaking of battle, Desjardins was asked Monday what he wants more of in the second half of the season, and that was what came to mind. If you re battling hard, then other teams get frustrated, [and] when they get frustrated they take penalties, he said. We re pushing them, but we re not pushing them to the point where they get frustrated and [are] taking penalties on us. We have to get to that point.

8 The good news for the Canucks as they prepare to meet the Predators is that Vancouver has played much better away from home this season, sporting a mark with victories in Pittsburgh, Washington and St. Louis. Desjardins was at a loss to explain the discrepancy with the Canucks home record, but offered a few ideas. Maybe it s a factor that the guys are a little more focused [on the road], he said. Maybe they think on the road it s going to be a real tough game and so they are really prepared, and maybe we relax a little bit at home. I don t know. There s a couple games at home that it wouldn t have taken much [more effort] to get wins. Canucks captain Henrik Sedin couldn t explain the road success either, adding the team tries to approach each game the same. I think we try to keep it simple, he said. It s not a big difference that way. I don t know why our home record isn t as good as on the road. We ve gone into some tough buildings and we ve shown before this year that we can win in those buildings. Lack of scoring was a consistent theme last season when Vancouver missed the playoffs for the first time in six years. The Canucks scored just once in the losses to Florida (3-1) and Calgary (1-0) despite directing a combined 69 shots on target they had 77 shots attempts against the Flames but Desjardins suggested more can be done to make life difficult on the opposition. We ve got to be harder, he said. Overall we do need more. I don t think we re creating as much as we need to. We have to get better and we have to create more. Teams across the league are in an almost constant search for consistency and the Canucks are no different as they approach the midway point of this campaign. But Sedin said if someone had told him back in training camp that Vancouver would have 49 points through 40 games, he would have taken it. I think if you ask anyone, it s a good spot to be in for us, he said. We ve got a lot of games in hand on a lot of different teams. But we know we need to win games. It s going to be tough all the way down to the final game, but it s a great spot to be in. It s fun to be a part of. We re happy, but we re not satisfied.