Former Canucks join concussion suit

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1 Former Canucks join concussion suit AP The Province HEAD-INJURY CLAIMS: Vaive and Leeman among 10 retired players to launch class action against NHL WASHINGTON, D.C., Ten former NHLers, including two one-time Vancouver Canucks, are claiming in a class-action lawsuit that the league hasn t done enough to protect players from concussions. Rick Vaive, drafted fifth overall by the Canucks in 1979, and one-time 51-goal scorer Gary Leeman, are two of the plaintiffs. Players were kept in the dark about the risks of concussions and many of the former NHL players are now suffering from debilitating head injuries from their time in the league, Vaive said in a statement. Hopefully this lawsuit will shine a light on the problem and the players will get the help they deserve. Vaive played just 47 games for the Canucks in before being traded to Toronto as part of a deal that brought Tiger Williams to Vancouver. Vaive went on to record three 50-goal seasons with the Maple Leafs. MORE CONCUSSION, Pages A45, 47 Leeman played 10 games and had two goals before being cut by the Canucks in The lawsuit seeks damages and court-approved, NHL-sponsored medical monitoring for the players brain trauma and/or injuries, which they blame on their NHL careers. It was filed in U.S. federal court in Washington on behalf of players who retired on or before Feb. 14 of this year and have suffered such injuries. The suit comes just three months after the NFL agreed to pay $765 million US to settle lawsuits from thousands of ex-players who developed dementia or other concussion-related health problems and in an era when more attention is being paid to the damages of head injuries sustained in sports. Among other things, the suit claims that:

2 The NHL knew or should have known about scientific evidence that players who sustain repeated head injuries are at greater risk for illnesses and disabilities both during their hockey careers and later in life. Even after the NHL created a concussion program to study brain injuries affecting NHL players in 1997, the league took no action to reduce the number and severity of concussions during a study period from 1997 to Plaintiffs relied on the NHL s silence to their detriment, the suit says. The league didn t do anything to protect players from unnecessary harm until 2010, when it made it a penalty to target a player s head. The NHL s active and purposeful concealment of the severe risks of brain injuries exposed players to unnecessary dangers they could have avoided had the NHL provided them with truthful and accurate information and taken appropriate action to prevent needless harm, the lawsuit says. Booth seeks skating coach Jim Jamieson The Province Former 31-goal scorer needs to find a way to get his game in order David Booth got another chance on Monday night. He was back in the Canucks lineup against the Los Angeles Kings, after being a healthy scratch the last three games, and responded with arguably his best effort of the season in a 3-2 overtime loss. The Canucks are desperately hoping he can finally get some traction toward salvaging a career that has so dramatically skidded off the road since coming to Vancouver just over two years ago. Booth is a player who s lost his way a former 31-goal scorer who has just one goal and two assists this season but he also carries a cap hit of $4.25 million through next season. That contract makes him virtually untradeable and is eating up an inordinate portion of the team s cap hit. Even waiving him and burying his contract in the minors will only give the Canucks $925,000 of relief. So Booth is looking at taking the rather unusual step of using a third-party skating coach to help him recover the step he says he feels he s lost. Booth says he s found this beneficial when he s at home in Michigan, but said he hasn t done this yet in Vancouver.

3 I ve worked with (a skating coach) in Michigan, but I couldn t do it (last summer, because of injury rehab), said Booth, 29, before the game. I think I learn well. I haven t worked with anyone (locally) yet, we re still trying to figure that out. Booth s size (6-feet, 215 pounds) is made for an opponent such as the big and aggressive Kings. That s if he can get there, which has been a problem since Booth underwent ankle surgery last March and the rehab took up a large portion of the summer, denying him crucial training time. Groin issues that seem to surface with regularity flared up in September and caused him to miss all but the final pre-season game. You get an opportunity, you ve got to do something with it, said Booth, who s also tried a conditioning stint in the minors but was scratched three games after his return. It s just my skating. I need to get back. I d been off the ice for such a long time. It s feeling balanced and explosive on the ice. It takes a while to get comfortable out there. I m working on that right now and I think it s coming around. Booth was limited by injuries last season and played just 12 games. A player who once scored 31 goals in a full season ( ), managed to scored just once and that was into an empty net while adding two assists. The season before his first in Vancouver he scored 16 goals, but missed a month with a knee injury. Booth said he s been skating on his own, trying to catch up. I played 12 games last year and 12 more this year (13 actually). You go out, you break your knee, your ankle, you tweak your groin. Those things are tough. All my injuries have been lower body. I don t want to make excuses, but that s the reality. It s not like I took the summer off and was sitting at a pool all day. I ve worked as hard as I could but those things add up. Head coach John Tortorella called Booth a project. We have some projects, he said. Getting David Booth on track is a project. It s an everyday thing with me and it s getting David back to having confidence in his game. New life after hit on Henrik Sedin

4 Tony Gallagher The Province Team shows a healthy dose of backbone against Kings that it has seldom displayed in the past It was almost certainly pure coincidence that a group of largely lesser-known NHL players launched a copycat suit against the league along the same lines NFL players were successful with their concussion action on the same day that the Forbes Magazine estimation on the quickly rising worth of NHL franchises was announced. As long as a league has money there will be people with lawyers after it, although these guys and anyone else that joins the action will have a more difficult job proving the NHL withheld any information they had on the concussion issue given the league didn t establish its committee on the subject until 1996 after most of the players in question retired. Further, the strength of the NFL thrust was the repeated blows suffered in practice, as well as the withholding of information, and NHL teams don t have contact of any real consequence at practice, which is why NHL second-in-command Bill Daly suggested a spirited defence Monday night. And there may have been a little head trauma at Rogers Arena in the evening when the Vancouver Canucks finally responded in a significant way to a big hit on Henrik Sedin and the ensuing emotion led to the game of the season in this building. Until Jordan Nolan took a run at the Vancouver captain in the latter stages of the second period, it was shaping up to be another indifferent, slovenly performance from the Canucks, whose pathetic 0-7 power play was leading them to another night of bagels. But then after Nolan turned down an offer to fight from Zack Kassian, a milling session began when the Vancouver forward hit Willie Mitchell instead and at that point Ryan Stanton jumped in and fought Nolan. Something that never happened under coach Alain Vigneault finally came about with coach John Tortorella behind the bench and the festivities seemed to breathe life into the Canucks, who scored to tie the game before the end of the period. And then Henrik himself scored on their eighth power play of the evening seven minutes into the third and these guys muscled themselves into the lead. Of course they coughed up that edge with three minutes left and then lost in overtime, that s a given. But at least they gave their fans a different script before heading out on the road on a four-game trip, even if it had the same, predictable ending. The game featured all kinds of things fans were not accustomed to seeing from their team. As well as a healthy dose of backbone showed, which surely must have surprised the Kings who are used to bullying Vancouver, there were prominent roles played by Kassian and David Booth. Kassian got the whole fight-back push started and the latter actually had a couple of excellent scoring opportunities, which were gobbled up by Kings goalie Ben Scrivens. No goals of course, that would be expecting a little too much after all. But in the end, it was up to the coach to sound the only positives in the Vancouver room.

5 I m not a big fan of you played well but didn t win, said Roberto Luongo, who again played well but couldn t come up with the big saves the team requires all to often. Yeah, we did a lot of good things tonight, but when you have the kind of breakdowns we did... you just can t have them said Vancouver defenceman Dan Hamhuis. I thought we took the game over after the hit on Henrik, did all the right things but didn t finish the game, said Tortorella. We re going to keep on trying to chip the mistakes out. But I m very excited about some of the things that happened tonight. You might think I m crazy, but I am. L.A. is a big team, a strong team and I thought we hung in there and took the game right over. I m not down. You get frustrated, but I m not down because there were so many good things that happened to individuals and the team. In our division we re going to have to play that way. Kings get rough with Canucks Ben Kuzma The Province But Vancouver shows it has some teeth in last game of homestand Daniel Sedin lost a tooth to a targeted high stick from Jake Muzzin. Henrik Sedin nearly lost a body part in becoming the meat in a sandwich when targeted by Jordan Nolan and Jarret Stoll in a heavy blue-line collision. And when the Vancouver Canucks didn t initially respond to their captain being treated like a pinata and saw him slowly rise from the ice after being winded, they could have lost more than a game Monday at Rogers Arena. They could have totally lost their way. On a night where the Los Angeles Kings looked like they were in prime playoff form a stick here, a whack there, a fight and enough penalty box jawing for a reality show the Canucks did what they had to do before doing what they ve done too much. This wasn t as much about the pathetic power play and the points as about getting a point across in a 3-2 overtime loss. The encouraging line will show that Henrik Sedin snapped a 1-1 tie in the third period with a powerplay goal to end an 0-for-7 special-teams horror show Monday before an unchecked Mike Richards made it 2-2 with 2:56 left in regulation time. However, when an untouched Anze Kopitar scored 48 seconds into the extra segment when fed from behind the net by Slava Voynov, it was like a lump of coal on Christmas morning. Still, not getting run out of their own rink is going to do as much as adhering to the new systems when the Canucks embark on a four-game road trip. They ended the homestand with a record, but may have started something more important. They may have found their backbone.

6 We re really sticking together as a group and that s all you can ask, said Henrik Sedin. But again, we re standing here and talking about a loss. That s why it s tougher to lose these games because they re there for us. In the Pacific Division where the Canucks don t supposedly physically match up well against the San Jose Sharks or the Kings, they sent the right kind of message Monday when more than the game could have slipped away. In a bizarre sequence of second-period events with the Kings up 1-0, it all started with Daniel Sedin showing the referees his dislodged tooth to draw a penalty the hard way. It continued with a frustrated Stoll taking two-handed whack at former teammate Brad Richardson to take the Kings off the power play. But when the Canucks couldn t convert ensuing 4-on-3 and 5-on-3 power plays before Alec Martinez rang a power-play shot off the post, it looked like they would go quietly into the night. The emotional jolt the Canucks needed eventually came five minutes after Henrik Sedin picked himself off the ice after being drilled by Nolan and Stoll. Zack Kassian hit Willie Mitchell to spark a sideboards melee in which Ryan Stanton gamely took on Nolan. The Canucks defenceman absorbed more punches than he landed, but at least he was willing to do what had to be done. Tom Sestito didn t. Neither did Kassian. They jawed with Daniel Carcillo and Nolan and the result was a Kings power play. We answered the bell when Nolan takes a pretty good run at Hank, said winger Dale Weise. We get a big goal and then a second one. We just have to find a way to hang on. That goes a long way for a team when you re not being pushed around, but we ve got to get some wins. However, when Weise did the spade work on the tying goal winning a battle to start the cycle that got the puck to the point he then set the screen for Chris Tanev s half-slapper to beat Ben Scrivens. It erased the memory of another odd-man rush goal when the Kings opened scoring. Stanton was in on the pinch and Kyle Clifford finished off a 2-on-1 break by beating Roberto Luongo with a backhand deke. The willingness to push back overshadowed the expected storylines. David Booth was back from a threegame exile on a second line and impressed with Kesler and Jannik Hansen while Kassian was dropped to the fourth line with Richardson and Sestito. The Canucks outshot the Kings but couldn t outscore them. Obviously, there are mistakes. I m very excited about some of the things that happened tonight and you can call me crazy, said Canucks coach John Tortorella. We have to address some situational play, but we stood up to them and took the game over. It s a step we need to continue to grow at. I m not down because there were so many good things happened individually and as a team. The approach is the proper approach. Torts insists he s not a crazy man, but team may make him that way

7 Iain MacIntyre The Vancouver Sun Keeping his cool: Head coach stands by his players despite pundits suggestions his present lineup might be lousy, not just unlucky This was the game. This was the potential turning point of the Vancouver Canucks autumn. It was right there: a late 2-1 lead, earned the hard way, in a physical, edgy game against a Pacific Division rival. The night had turned when Los Angeles King Jordan Nolan launched himself at Canuck captain Henrik Sedin, and Vancouver responded with something more potent than their usual hard work: raw emotion. By will, Vancouver seized the game, had taken the lead when Sedin scored on a power play at 6: 59 of the third period and pumped his fists and yelled, although no one in Rogers Arena could hear him above the roar. The Canucks had the two points in their hands, and a life raft big and beautiful enough to float them from this storm threatening to imperil their National Hockey League season. The Canucks were dominant, inspired. And then, out of nothing, they surrendered a weak tying goal to Mike Richards with 2: 54 remaining in the third period and an equally sloppy winner to Anze Kopitar 48 seconds into overtime, and the Canucks lost again and fell further behind the Kings. It isn t quite like that Robert Redford film All Is Lost. It only seems that way. Instead of an encouraging win, something to build hope and confidence, the 3-2 loss extended the Canucks slump to And instead of being the game that lifts the Canucks, it is the one so far this season that will test them the most, challenge their nerve and confidence and their coach. John Tortorella has been remarkably supportive of his players. From the day he was hired, Tortorella s news conferences were going to be can t- miss theatre for hockey writers the same way NASCAR races on super speedways are can t- miss viewing for gear- heads: Because a big, fiery wreck is possible at every turn or question. And so it has become with Tortorella s press scrums, but not for the reasons envisioned by anyone who witnessed his often churlish, ill- tempered contempt for the media when he worked in New York. With the Canucks, Tortorella has been more compassionate than combustible when talking about his team. He has been mostly honest, thoughtful and patient, and always compelling.

8 The Canucks haven t won enough games, of course. And, as Tortorella said, people will kick the crap out of him if they miss the playoffs. But there was Tortorella Monday morning, his team about to end its worst homestand since the great, ninegame losing streak at Rogers Arena in 2008, still not blowing up. He was the calm one, the confident one. His earnestness and insight are even more impressive because of the Canucks struggles. Who knew he would be their Little Miss Sunshine? You re not going to talk me into saying that this is a lousy hockey club that s played lousy because it hasn t, Tortorella vowed. We have not gotten the results we wanted. But as I ve said all along, I m going to coach the team the way it s playing. If we re playing like crap, we re going to handle it like we re playing like crap. But if we re playing well, we re going to stay with them. And I am staying with the team. I am going to support them, and we re going to get through this. He added: I can t sit here and tell you: OK, this is what we re going to do to score goals. We need someone to score some goals. We need to continue to create the offence, and something good has to happen for us offensively. I think it s a confidence thing. I am not giving up on the team and making all these hinky adjustments ( because) then what happens if that doesn t work? Do I make another adjustment? I believe the way we re playing is the proper way to play and we re going to stay with it and work through it together. And then, against the Kings, the Canucks managed to get past one on the scoreboard for just the third time in eight games. But they lost anyway, surrendering easy goals. Defenceman Alex Edler, who had played wonderfully, came across the ice to hit Dwight King, leaving the puck and Jeff Carter alone to set up Mike Richards unchecked at the top of the crease. In overtime, it was Kevin Bieksa who fanned on the puck and turned away from it, allowing Slava Voynov to feed Anze Kopitar alone in front of Roberto Luongo, who went 0- for- 2 on the most critical shots he faced. Richards tying goal came soon after Kings goalie Ben Scrivens made stunning point- blank saves on David Booth and Ryan Kesler. Vancouver outshot Los Angeles 39-22, including 28-9 in the final 41 minutes. It s a crazy game when it comes to results, Tortorella said in the morning.

9 You ve got to be really careful coaching the results. I m going to coach the team on how we re playing. Our team has played well, but we haven t gotten the results. We ve got to find a way to try to get those now. Against the Kings, they thought they had found the way. Maybe they have but we just don t know it yet. I m very excited about some of things that happened tonight, Tortorella said after the game. You may call me crazy, but I am. We just have to keep banging away... and keep working at this. Royally frustrated after late collapse Elliott Pap The Vancouver Sun Luongo not a fan of moral victories as Canucks come up short yet again Before the puck dropped Monday, Vancouver Canucks head coach John Tortorella insisted he really did that his team was playing OK. Sure they weren t winning and had lost four of five on their homestand but the process would eventually get them there. Maybe next time. A nudge from the L. A. Kings pushed the Canucks into the game emotionally but it couldn t get them all the way through it as they again squandered a third- period lead, allowed Mike Richards to tie it 2-2 with 2: 54 remaining in the third period, and then blew it completely, losing 3-2 on Anze Kopitar s winner at 48 seconds into overtime. The demoralizing defeat ended a wretched homestand in which the Canucks won only once in six games, finishing with a record. They held leads in four of the five losses. Goalie Roberto Luongo could barely contain his emotions at the latest collapse. That s the way it s going, I don t have much to say, he muttered. I mean, I m not a big fan of we re playing well but we re losing. I m not a big believer in that kind of stuff. We re doing some things right, we re working hard but we re not winning. So we all could be better as a group, myself included. With L. A. up 1-0, Kings fourth- liner Jordan Nolan put some high octane gas into the Canucks emotional engines with a heavy hit on Henrik Sedin midway through the second period.

10 Henrik went to one knee and slowly made his way to the bench but he didn t miss a shift. Five minutes later, a near line brawl broke out when Zack Kassian hit Willie Mitchell high along the boards, a scrum ensued and Ryan Stanton, of all people, wound up throwin down with Nolan. Stanton gave away 25 pounds but held his own and it seemed to ignite the Canucks. Less than three minutes later, Chris Tanev tied the score 1-1 when his half- slapper from the blue- line found the net behind L. A. starter Ben Scrivens. I thought we stood right in there after that situation and took over the game, said Tortorella. I m not down because there are so many good things happening. The Canucks outshot the Kings 28-8 in the second and third periods and had ample opportunity to score a third goal. Naturally, it came back to haunt them when Richards was left uncovered in front of Luongo and slotted home Jeff Carter s pass. I am standing here every game saying the same thing, noted Henrik Sedin. Everyone sees the same things. We re battling. We re playing well defensively, we re getting shots, we re getting chances and the puck is not going in. The Nolan hit on Henrik wasn t the only indignity suffered by a Sedin. On the first shift of the second, Daniel was high- sticked in the mouth by Jake Muzzin, the whack dislodging one of Daniel s teeth, which he presented to the officials for evidence. With their OT loss and the Phoenix Coyotes regulation loss, the ninth- place Canucks moved to within three points of the eighth- place Yotes. The good new is they are heading to one of their favourite places on the planet, the Eastern Conference, where they have enjoyed much success on their October road trip. Tortorella went to the blender again Monday and his new lines almost worked as David Booth was in, Jeremy Welsh was out, Ryan Kesler back at centre, Mike Santorelli was on the third line and Kassian on the fourth. All it produced was a sloppy first period with numerous odd- man rushes against six by one count and a 1-0 firstperiod deficit when Kyle Clifford completed a perfectly executed 2- on- 1 with Linden Vey. After that, it was all Canucks until the final three minutes. Henrik shrugs off slack shot from Kings Doughty Brad Ziemer The Vancouver Sun

11 Henrik Sedin isn t about to lose much sleep over comments by Kings defenceman Drew Doughty suggesting that he and brother Daniel are slack defensively. I don t care at all, Henrik said before Monday s game against Los Angeles at Rogers Arena. Zero per cent. Doughty wasn t around Monday afternoon to defend his comments, which were posted by the Kings- affiliated website lakings-insider. com. We saw the last time they came here when they re not creating offence, they kind of slack on the defensive end ( and) we took advantage of that, Doughty was quoted as saying after Sunday s practice in Los Angeles. I think they were minus- two or three. Daniel and Henrik were both minus- two in that 5-1 loss to the Kings on Nov. 9 at the Staples Center. Several Vancouver reporters waited for Doughty in the Los Angeles dressing room after the Kings game- day skate Monday, but were told by a team official that he was on the team bus. Doughty must have used the back door to the visitors dressing room to get to the bus. Henrik Sedin said he wasn t interested in responding to Doughty s comments, but defended his and Daniel s defensive play. I am not going to comment, Henrik said. We focus a lot on our defensive game. We always have, we take pride in that. From Day 1 in this league we have never, I think, cheated to create offence. The last couple of years we have mainly been put in a position to score goals, didn t play PK, we didn t take a lot of faceoffs in our own end because our team was built that way. But like I said, we have never cheated, we take a lot of pride in playing well defensively, we want to be complete players, so that is my only comment. I think our plus- minus shows that we are not cheating. You look around the league and there are a lot of players who are putting a lot of points up on the board and they are still minus players. Henrik was plus- six heading into Monday s game, while Daniel was plus- five. THEY RE NO. 4: The Canucks are ranked as the fourth- most valuable National Hockey League team by Forbes magazine. The magazine put the enterprise value ( equity plus net debt) of the Canucks at $ 700 million US, behind only Toronto ($ 1.15 billion), the New York Rangers ($ 850 million) and Montreal Canadiens ($ 775 million). The Chicago Blackhawks ($ 625 million) rounded out the top five.

12 Forbes indicated this is the first time since it began tracking NHL team values in 1998 that three Canadian teams have made the top five. The magazine said the average NHL team now has a value of $ 413 million, 46 per cent more than one year ago. Forbes said the Canucks operating income ( earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) was $ 15.8 million in the lockoutshortened season. RIGHT AT HOME: The Kings have their fathers on their two- game road trip that also stops in San Jose on Wednesday. The father of backup goaltender Martin Jones didn t have far to travel to join the team in Vancouver. Jones dad is Harvey Jones, the vice- president of construction with Canucks Sports & Entertainment. Kopitar s OT winner lifts Kings past Canucks Associated Press Sportsnet VANCOUVER The Vancouver Canucks season-long six-game homestand started with a gut-punching overtime loss. It ended the exact same way. Mike Richards scored late in regulation before Anze Kopitar buried the winner 48 seconds into the extra period Monday as the Los Angeles Kings came back to stun the Vancouver Canucks 3-2. The Canucks gave up a late goal in regulation in losing to 2-1 to the San Jose Sharks to kick off their homestand on Nov. 17, and a similar script played out against Los Angeles (16-6-3), with Richards scoring with 2:56 left to force OT. "A couple mistakes are costing us," said Canucks captain Henrik Sedin, who gave his team a 2-1 lead in the third period before the wheels fell off. "We re playing so well defensively throughout the game and it seems like every time something late in games is costing us goals. It s extremely tough to take."

13 The Canucks have lost seven of their last eight, scoring just nine goals total in those defeats. They finished their homestand with an ugly record, with the only victory coming in a 6-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets. "We re really sticking together as a group and that s all you can ask for," said Sedin. "We should have had two points, but again we re standing here talking about a loss." Vancouver (12-9-5) is now when scoring two goals or less and fell to versus Pacific Division rivals this season. After Richards took a feed from Jeff Carter to tie the score with his sixth of the season, Kopitar beat Luongo upstairs for his seventh of the campaign as the Kings picked up at least a point for a 10th straight game (7-0-3). "We ve just gotta scrape and claw for points, and that s what we did tonight," said Richards. "It wasn t the prettiest on our part. We took too many penalties, and we turned some pucks over, but two points is what we wanted." Kyle Clifford also scored for Los Angeles, which got 37 saves from Ben Scrivens. "It s a big goal to force it to overtime, and any time you can take it to overtime you give yourself a chance," said Scrivens. "We ll take the two points." Chris Tanev had the other goal for Vancouver, which dominated the Northwest Division for years but is finding re-aligment to be a much tougher test. "It s a 60-minute game," said Luongo, who finished with 19 saves. "We did some good things, especially in the second half of that game, but obviously we fell short again." Despite the loss, Canucks head coach John Tortorella continued to stress the positives as his team continues to struggle to get results under his new puck-pressure system. "I m very excited about some of the things that happened tonight. You may call me crazy, but I am," said Tortorella. "We ve just got to keep banging away and work on some details of the game, understand situational play and keep working at this." Vancouver s 28th-ranked power play was a miserable 0 for 7 on the night before Sedin beat Scrivens with a quick shot on the Canucks eighth man advantage to snap a 1-1 tie at 6:59. Down 1-0 after the first period, Vancouver found some life after Sedin took a big hit from Jordan Nolan midway through the second. Sedin stayed down for a moment but didn t miss a shift. The play woke the Canucks up and they started to take the body more, with Ryan Stanton eventually dropping the gloves with Nolan.

14 "I thought we took the game over after the hit with Henrik," said Tortorella. "I thought we were acting properly as a team and took the game over, scored on a power play, did all the right things. "We didn t finish the game. Need to finish the game." After Vancouver killed off a penalty from the scrum that accompanied that fight, Tanev fired a harmless looking shot from the point that Scrivens could only get a piece of to tie the score with his first of the season at 17:04. The Canucks had plenty of opportunities with the man advantage earlier in the period including a 5-on-3 and two short 4-on-3s but the disjointed unit continued to struggle. Another Kings penalty late in the period gave the Canucks another chance. But Scrivens, who has been stellar in place of injured Kings starter Jonathan Quick, was there to shut the door when called upon as Vancouver outshot L.A After the Canucks gave up a number of odd-man rushes in Saturday s 2-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, including Marcus Kruger s winner in the third period, the Kings opened the scoring Monday on their third 2-on-1 of the night at 13:50 of the first period. With both fourth lines on the ice, feathered a pass to Clifford, who made a nice backhand move to beat a sprawling Luongo for his second goal of the season. The Canucks now hit the road for four games, starting with a game against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night. "Part of my job is to make sure that the psyche of the hockey club, in these types situations, stays solid," said Tortorella. "I trust the group. I do. I think the players understand how we want to play, our concept. "We ve gone through a lot crap here, as far as things going wrong at certain times but I think they ve handled themselves well and we re just going to stay with them and keep on working at it." Notes: Vancouver s Daniel Sedin lost a tooth to a high stick early in the second period. Tanev now has three goals in 118 career games. Quick injured his groin on Nov. 12 and is expected to be out until late December. Carter returned to the lineup after missing 10 games with a foot injury. Canucks forward David Booth returned to the lineup after sitting out the last three games as a healthy scratch. Monday was the second of five meetings between the two teams this season. The Kings down the Canucks 5-1 at Staples Center on Nov. 9. The Kings visit the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday. Anze Kopitar scores in overtime as Kings top Canucks

15 David Ebner The Globe and Mail Daniel Sedin did his own dentistry. Smashed in the face by the stick of Los Angeles King Jake Muzzin early in the second period on Monday night, Sedin pulled out a tooth that had been loosened by the blow, and showed the evidence to the referee. There was no blood, so it was only two minutes for high-sticking rather than four. And as is the usual case with the Vancouver Canucks power play, no goal ensued. It was a chirping testy tilt at Rogers Arena, as the Canucks and Kings fought their way through a heated affair, a game whose middle period especially was filled with fists, general ire, and penalty minutes. The scrapping including Vancouver rookie defenceman Ryan Stanton taking on the Kings Jordan Nolan, Stanton 25 pounds lighter and an inch shorter, and holding his own. The home team was desperate for a confidence-buoying victory, having lost six of the past seven games, staggering to the end of an extended home stand, piling up losses despite solid play. Against the Kings, through the first two periods, it was tied at one. Vancouver yielded the opening marker in the first on a two-on-one and L.A. gave up a goal late in the second, a long and lucky Chris Tanev slapshot from the point, the defenceman s first of the year. The Kings were the better team early on Monday but the Canucks took control in the second period and pushed through the third, taking the lead near the start of the final period on a Henrik Sedin power play goal but ceding it late, when Mike Richards scored with three minutes to go. The finale was another disheartening blow for Vancouver. In overtime, Anze Kopitar smacked a puck in before a minute had passed and it was 3-2 Kings, a gutting end to a hard home stand, a single win in six games, more defeats than victories even as the Canucks outplayed most of their visitors. Against L.A., the Canucks outshot the Kings Goalie Roberto Luongo was downcast after the loss. How many times has this happened? he said. Henrik Sedin said much the same: We should have had two points but again we re talking about a loss. Vancouver falls to and is stuck in ninth place in the Western Conference. The team falls to in games in which they score two or more goals and are in games in which they score one. The game was exactly the type the Canucks have to win, a tight and narrow scrap against a strong division rival. It s only late November but it is not looking good for Vancouver. The Kings game concluded Vancouver s longest home stand of the year, nearly two weeks. The Canucks were scheduled to leave Tuesday morning for the nation s capital, a four-game road trip starting on Thursday against Ottawa. A Saturday matinee in New York follows, against John Tortorella s old team, the Rangers, now coached by former Canucks boss Alain Vigneault. Despite the loss, Tortorella said he was very excited about many aspects of the Monday game the bite and tenacity his team showed. You may call me crazy but I am [excited], said Tortorella. He went on to say his job is to keep the psyche of the Canucks strong, playing well but not seeing the results. We ve gone through a lot of crap here, said Tortorella, adding that there s a lot of hockey to play.

16 Amid the topsy-turvy play on Monday, Tortorella threw a bit of everything on the ice in almost-wild line combinations, the oddest of which had to be Ryan Kesler with Jannik Hansen and fourth-line plugger Tom Sestito midway through the second period. David Booth, back on the ice after three games missed as a healthy scratch, put up a pretty good performance and did so as he saw a kaleidoscope of linemates, playing at various points with Hansen and Kesler, as well as combinations of Brad Richardson and Zack Kassian, Richardson and Hansen, and Mike Santorelli and Alex Burrows. In the third, Booth was out with the Sedin twins. Beyond hockey, the Canucks were already winners on Monday, financial winners, starting with the team owners, the Aquilini family. Earlier in the day, Forbes Magazine, in its annual valuations of National Hockey League teams, pegged the Canucks value at $700-million, more than double what Forbes previously figured the value of the team and Rogers Arena to be, the highest gain of any franchise in the National Hockey League. Forbes s new number ranks the Canucks at No. 4 in the NHL, behind Toronto, New York, and Montreal and far higher than No. 10 in the tally, the L.A. Kings worth $450-million, whose value was up nearly two-thirds amid large gains for many teams. The figures may be ballpark estimates and the new numbers for the Canucks use figures cited by sources based on the recent divorce of Francesco Aquilini. Regardless of the precision, the team and building and the new towers going up around the arena in downtown Vancouver have been a boon for the Aquilinis, under whom every single regular and postseason game has been sold out, since the family bought half the enterprise nine years ago this month, and the rest seven years ago this month. So even if the business of winning on the ice is much more difficult these days for the hockey team, the business of hockey on Canada s West Coast is a profitable one.