Canucks' Sami Salo fights his way back to game Bruin Brad Marchand s five-game suspension little consolation for suffering concussion

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1 Canucks' Sami Salo fights his way back to game Bruin Brad Marchand s five-game suspension little consolation for suffering concussion By Iain MacIntyre, Vancouver Sun VANCOUVER The two least surprising things in the postscript to the Brad Marchand-Sami Salo incident is that Marchand never apologized for causing the injury and that Salo will overcome it as he has so much else. Salo, the 37-year-old who has beaten an arm s-length list of injuries to keep his National Hockey League career going, practised Friday with the Vancouver Canucks for the first time since suffering a concussion on Jan. 7 when Marchand submarined the defenceman. Even with the hostility of the Canucks-Bruins rivalry, Vancouver defenceman Aaron Rome texted Nathan Horton after injuring the Boston winger with a late hit last June, while Bruin blueliner Johnny Boychuk sent a note to forward Mason Raymond after the Canuck suffered fractured vertebrae in the same Stanley Cup Final. But Salo never heard from Marchand, who even after a precedent-setting five-game suspension for ducking into the Canuck s knees maintained his innocence and argued that black was white. I m lucky I didn t break my neck, Salo said Friday, answering questions for the first time since landing heavily on the back of his head and neck when upended by Marchand during the Canucks 4-3 win in Boston two weeks ago. You can t play the game thinking about what other guys might do. You can t play the game... thinking this guy might elbow me or something. It happened pretty quickly and I couldn t react. That s why I was angry. It wasn t a hockey play and I was angry. But that s in the past and my focus is to get better. I m feeling better every day, so we ll see how it goes the next few days. Salo said it was little consolation that NHL vice-president Brendan Shanahan suspended Marchand for five games and blew apart the Bruin s claim that he was merely protecting himself. Vancouver s game today against the San Jose Sharks will be the sixth missed by Salo, who hopes to play Tuesday against the Edmonton Oilers if his recovery continues. Salo noted that in his second NHL season, with the Ottawa Senators in , he suffered a compound fracture of his wrist when slashed on a breakaway by ex-canuck Bret Hedican. Hedican was suspended for four games, severe punishment back then. But Salo missed 44 games. So, one game for Marchand or five, it doesn t matter to Salo. Like he said, the Finn could have broken his neck had he landed even slightly more awkwardly. Or he could have had a concussion like Sidney Crosby s. Salo hasn t the luxury of time. His career could have been over. You re always concerned with any concussion to any player, but I had so much faith that Sami would overcome this, too, Canuck associate coach Rick Bowness, who runs the defence, said.

2 This is a wonderful man, a true professional and a quality human being. He is so committed to his profession and overcoming these obstacles. To overcome everything he has been through tells you the strength of character and commitment this man has for the game. He is one of the smartest people I have ever coached and he s one of the most humble. Even everything doesn t seem to adequately describe the injury challenges Salo has faced. Before last season, about a month before his 36th birthday, Salo ruptured an Achilles tendon playing floor hockey in Finland. He resumed his NHL career seven months later. His has missed an average of 24 games annually since the lockout, and Salo s career injuries number in the 30s. Including the four games Salo missed earlier this season due to groin problems, the Canucks are without him. For the first time, the Canucks clearly miss departed free agent Christian Ehrhoff, who gave Vancouver five defenceman who could play minutes. That enabled the Canucks to sustain one key injury without losing anything from the blueline s top four. Salo missed the entire first half of last season and top defenceman Alex Edler most of the second, yet Vancouver still amassed 117 points and won the Presidents Trophy. But with Ehrhoff in Buffalo and Salo out, Canuck coach Alain Vigneault has been unable to plug the hole in his top four, which is why minor-league call-up Chris Tanev gets the chance to play there this afternoon. If Salo sits out Tuesday against the Edmonton Oilers, he ll get the benefit of the Canucks sixday all-star break and should be able to play Jan. 31 against the Chicago Blackhawks. Vigneault sees the wisdom in sitting Salo as long as possible, but also said there could be a psychological benefit to the veteran if he plays Tuesday. Salo said he wants to play as soon as possible, and he knew by the end of the last road trip that he d probably play again because his post-concussion symptoms began to abate. His laundry list of injuries had never included a concussion. The only frustrating part is the injuries you can t control... like somebody taking your feet out, Salo said. I d never had any headaches. It was new to me... bad headaches, pressure [in your head], nausea. It was frightening for sure. I wouldn t want anyone to go through that. CBC not short for Canucks Broadcasting Corporation For second time in two weeks, Hockey Night In Canada passes on marquee Vancouver game; but the team chose the 1 p.m. start time By Brad Ziemer, Vancouver Sun VANCOUVER The CBC insists it loves the Vancouver Canucks in prime time. For the second time in two weeks, the Canucks meet a high-profile opponent Saturday in a game that will not be shown on Hockey Night in Canada.

3 Back on Jan. 7, eyebrows were raised when the Canucks and Boston Bruins, last year's Stanley Cup finalists, met for the only time this season and CBC decided not to show the game. Saturday afternoon, when the Canucks play host to the San Jose Sharks in a rematch of last season's Western Conference finalists the CBC is again taking a pass. The CBC insists it's all about timing. "Given that we have a limited number of Saturday nights when the Canucks play, our objective for Canucks fans, wherever they live, is to put them in prime time with a view to garnering the biggest possible audience," said CBC Sports spokesman Chuck Thompson. "It's good for them and candidly, it's good for us. When Vancouver plays in the afternoon, as they did on Jan. 7 and they will again (Saturday), sometimes we have to make difficult decisions. "As hard as we try to appease hockey fans across the country each and every week when we set the schedule for the year, we know going into it it's never going to make everyone happy every Saturday. What I should also add is that there are contractual limitations to how many games we have." The CBC is contractually allowed to show 14 Canucks games this season and has the option to purchase one additional game. The Jan. 7 game against the Bruins was shown in B.C. and the Yukon by Sportsnet Pacific and garnered huge ratings, the biggest number for one of its Canuck games, despite its 10 a.m. PST start. Sportsnet will also televise Saturday s game against San Jose on its regional network (1 p.m. faceoff, also on Team 1040). Coach Alain Vigneault was among those in the Canucks organization who expressed surprise that the Boston game did not warrant a national CBC audience. But general manager Mike Gillis, who has had his share of differences with the CBC in recent years, insists he doesn't really care. "They choose them at the beginning of the season and I don't know what motivates them to choose one game over another," Gillis said of the CBC. Gillis said he was "not annoyed one bit" by the CBC's decision not to show the Boston game. "We had one of the highest ratings on Sportsnet that we've ever had that morning." Gillis said he's also not concerned about a lack of national exposure for the Canucks when the CBC elects to pass on games like the Vancouver-Boston one or Saturday s game against the Sharks. "So what, we've got a good partner in Sportsnet and they get the benefit of having a fantastic hockey game," he said. "I don't think in those terms (national exposure). They (the CBC) make their decisions on the criteria that they have, we don't have a say in it and I don't want to have a say in it. I don't particularly care. If they make that decision and regret it after the fact, it's up to them." Before the NHL schedule was released last summer, the CBC did in fact try to convince the Bruins to change the 1 p.m. EST start time of the Jan. 7 game. But the Bruins knew there were NFL playoff games scheduled for that day and refused, not wanting to gamble on possibly going up against the New England Patriots. "We work closely with the NHL but at the end of the day it's the league's schedule." Thompson said. "Ultimately, we are looking to put every Vancouver Canucks game that falls on a Saturday and there's a limited number of them in prime time. I'm not saying that the Boston-

4 Vancouver game isn't a sweet matchup. Of course it is, but that's where I go back to sometimes we have to make difficult decisions. That was a tough one." The CBC would not make Hockey Night in Canada executives Joel Darling or Trevor Pilling available for interviews for this story. But John Shannon, a former executive producer of Hockey Night in Canada and current Sportsnet analyst, said in an interview Friday that the CBC's explanation for passing on the Boston game makes sense. "In my time at the corporation, even if it was the best matchup, afternoon games sell at half the price," Shannon said. "So in order to generate revenue, and everyone is responsible for generating revenue, the (ratings) number you would have to do, particularly with a 10 a.m. Pacific start, probably would have had to be close to three million people. "And you are just not going to generate ratings like that in the morning. The fact that the Bruin game could not be moved to 4 o'clock Eastern, 1 o'clock Pacific, probably was the deciding factor." Saturday s 1 p.m. start was a Canucks decision and one industry insider who did not want to be identified suggested the Canucks did that knowing the CBC would likely pass on the game and they could then sell it to Sportsnet. The Hockey Night in Canada revenue pie is divided among all 30 NHL teams and the source noted that the Canucks likely make more money from a regional broadcast. Gillis suggested the Canucks wanted to experiment with an afternoon start on a Saturday. "We wanted to have a couple of afternoon games because young families sometimes don't get the opportunity to come to games," he said. "I kind of like the idea of having stuff like that go on during the season. A 1 o'clock game is a different crowd, a young crowd, so it is a unique opportunity. We'll evaluate it for what it is and see what the outcome is." Thompson noted that the Hockey Night in Canada schedule is Canuck-heavy for the remainder of the regular season. "After the all-star break we have 10 Saturdays left in regular-season play and eight of those will feature the Canucks," he said. Canucks Sami Salo back at practice By Iain MacIntyre VANCOUVER Vancouver Canucks defenceman Sami Salo, who hasn't played since suffering a concussion Jan. 7 on an illegal check by Boston Bruin Brad Marchand, is back practising with the National Hockey League team. Salo is wearing a white jersey a non-contact colour but is skating this morning in regular practice drills. He won't play Saturday's matinee against the San Jose Sharks (1 p.m., Sportsnet Pacific, Team 1040) but it's possible he could play Tuesday against the Edmonton Oilers. But with the six-day all-star break looming for the Canucks and the importance of Salo the team is expected to keep him out until Vancouver's game Jan. 31 against the Chicago Blackhawks.

5 And that assumes, of course, the 37-year-old doesn't suffer a setback in his recovery. Marchand has served his five-game suspension for ducking into Salo's knees, upending the Canuck who landed on the back of his head and neck in Boston. No time for Tony Tanti to worry about falling records By Jim Jamieson Tony Tanti doesn't mind that his Canucks scoring marks have been surpassed and he actually gets a kick out of Daniel Sedin being poised to gobble up another one. Tanti, who scored 250 goals and 470 points in 531 games with the Canucks, has led several of the team's goal-scoring categories since he was traded away in January of He was the franchise's first true sniper and averaged 38 goals through his six full seasons in Vancouver and two partial ones in the mid-1980s. Tanti scored 40 or more goals three times and hit 39 two other seasons. His 45 goals in was a club record until broken by Pavel Bure in the season. Sedin passed Tanti's 250 Canuck goals ealier this season to take over fifth spot in franchise history. Heading into Saturday's game with San Jose, Sedin was one power play goal behind Tanti (102) for second in team history (led by Markus Naslund's 114). Tanti still holds the record for most hat-tricks, tied with Naslund at 10 and unlikely to be caught for a while, as Sedin is still at four. His mark of registering points in the first 11 games of the season still stands. All records are made to be broken and the Canucks have had such a good team in the last five or six years, so you know it was just a matter of time before those records were going to go down, said Tanti, now 48 and a long-time West Vancouver resident. I benefited from playing with good players and getting the opportunity to play the minutes where you're on the power play at important times of the game. The coaches have to have confidence in you, no matter what your role. Tanti was traded to Pittsburgh in January of 1990, played three more NHL seasons there and in Buffalo before finishing his career over five seasons in the German League. Since the late 1990s, when he retired and returned to live permanently on Vancouver's North Shore where his wife Christina is from Tanti has worked in his burgeoning flooring business. He's never had any regrets about not getting close to a Stanley Cup ring and didn't entertain any thoughts about looking for work in the game. I never look back at anything and that's something I've never done, said Tanti. I had a great living, a great job, I had a lot of fun, saw a lot of the world. I lived my dream and some people ask me if I wish I was playing today for the money they get now and I say absolutely not. Money had nothing to with me playing. When I retired I didn't want to go back into hockey. I had some opportunities, but I wanted to move on. Tanti had become friends with Bosa Development Corporation founder Nat Bosa when he first came to Vancouver as a player and that relationship grew into a business relationship after he retired. Tanti's company supplies the huge builder among others with floor coverings in projects here and in the U.S. Currently his company is working with Bosa on a 320-unit development in San Francisco.

6 Yeah, you could say I'm pretty busy, laughed Tanti. That's why he doesn't get much involved in the alumni hockey shinny he simply doesn't have the time and travels frequently. But Tanti does get out to some Canucks functions and said rubbing elbows with the current players just reminds him how much the game has changed. The new rules have made it better, especially for the skilled player, he said. I would have loved to have been in my prime with these rules. It's just a different game. The players today train differently. I was with the Canucks in September and (Alex) Burrows and (Alexander) Edler were there. Their bodies are just different than when we played. They're taller, thinner, they train differently. They train now for speed and that's the way the game is now and I think it's better. Tanti, who's 5-foot-9 and played at 185 pounds, made his living going into the dirty areas around the crease area and paid the price for it. It was brutal, he said of the days when mayhem occurred regularly in the slot area. You couldn't stand in front of the net without getting cross-checked on the back of the head or the goalie slashing the back of your legs. Every game I would have probably 10 stick marks on my ribs and stomach just from the hooks. That was just part of the job back then. You wouldn't heal till the summer. Athough he was a terrific player in his prime, Tanti's career timing wasn't so good. He came to the Canucks the year after they made it to the Stanley Cup final, but was gone before the team started getting better again in the early 1990s. He went to Pittsburgh in a trade in 1990 but was moved out of there a few months before the Penguins won their first Stanley Cup in That's just the way it worked out, he said. We got to do a lot of things. We lived in Berlin, a big city that's like New York. That's probably why we stayed so long. Tanti has two children son Taylor, 18, who's playing major midget hockey, and daughter Tessa, 22. Life's good, said Tanti. It's busy, but good. Sami Salo on brink of return after Marchand hit Jim Jamieson The Province Sami Salo is inching closer to a return from a concussion, but he says he's moved on from the dirty lowbridge by Boston's Brad Marchand on Jan. 7 that sent him cartwheeling and resulted in the back of his head smacking the ice. Salo was furious after he was able to get up and angrily and uncharacteristically threw his stick at the boards before skating off the ice. Marchand was heavily chastised by NHL vice-president of player safety Brendan Shanahan for his actions and was handed a five-game suspension.

7 It wasn't a hockey play so I was obviously angry, but that's in the past now and the focus is on getting back in the lineup, said Salo, who took his first practice with the team on Friday at Rogers Arena. He had skated lightly on his own the two days previous. Salo, 37, said the suspension to Marchand didn't soften the blow of being injured on a reckless play. It's doesn't make me feel any better if it's one game or five games, said Salo. My second year I got slashed on the wrist and missed 44 games and the other guy got a four-game suspension, so it doesn't really matter to me. The main thing was the league would take a look at it and make a decision it wasn't part of a hockey play. It doesn't matter what the length is. Salo said he's feeling better every day and wants to get back in the lineup as soon as possible. Head coach Alain Vigneault confirmed the obvious following practice, ruling out Salo for the San Jose game on Saturday, but interestingly wouldn't rule out him playing on Tuesday against Edmonton, the final game before the Canucks' seven-day NHL All-Star break. We don't have a definite day for his return, but everything is looking real good, said Vigneault. He's skated three straight days, he's worked out hard off the ice. Today he took full practice and contact, so it's looking promising. We're going to continue to follow the protocol and see where it is the next couple of days. Wouldn't it be prudent to keep Salo out for Oilers game, just to give him that extra week? That is one way to look at it, said Vigneault. But the other way would be to give him three more days until the Tuesday game. If he feels that he's 100 per cent, getting a game under his belt so mentally he feels he's overcome the concussion and he can go on the break and he's back and he can contribute. I don't think we're at either stage. He's had three real good days and we'll see how he comes in tomorrow. Vigneault confirmed that Andrew Alberts and Alexander Sulzer will be the healthy scratches on defence for the Sharks game. Chris Tanev, just recalled from the minors, will play alongside Alex Edler in his first top-four assigment. Vigneault also said it was a message to members of the defensive corps who failed to step up in Salo's absence. Nobody else that's here has taken the bull by the horns in Sami's absence, and said his play should keep him in that spot with Eddie, he said. We've tried a number of guys not that they've played bad, but they haven't played to that [amount] of ice time, more minutes. We're going to try Chris and see what he can do. CANUCKS HOST SHARKS MEET IN WEST COAST MATINEE TSN.ca Neither the Sharks nor Canucks were overly impressive in their last trip to the ice. The two clubs will look for a better effort this afternoon when Vancouver tries to extend a seven-game point streak over San Jose.

8 Today marks the fourth and final meeting of the regular season between these firstplace clubs. The Northwest Division-leading Canucks won the first two encounters before dropping a 3-2 shootout contest at home on Jan. 2, the Sharks' second straight shootout victory in Vancouver. Vancouver, though, is still in its past seven against San Jose, which is fronting the Pacific Division. The Sharks are just a point up on the Kings in the standings, though, following a 4-1 loss to the visiting Senators on Thursday. It was Ottawa's first win at San Jose since Oct. 18, Brad Winchester scored 3:10 into the game for the Sharks, but Antti Niemi yielded four goals on 21 shots. San Jose has split six contests following a four-game win streak. "I was disappointed in critical moments of the game," said San Jose head coach Todd McLellan. "I didn't think we had a lot of polish in our passes that were errant, and when they were on tape nothing happened off of it." San Jose was without Ryane Clowe for a second straight game due to a head injury, while center Tommy Wingels left Thursday's game with an undisclosed injury. Defenseman Dan Boyle logged an assist to give him nine in his past nine games for the Sharks, who begin a three-game road trip through Western Canada that takes them into the All-Star break. They have won four of their past six on the road. "Three games before our break," said Sharks captain Joe Thornton. "We've got some tough games ahead of us... so it should be a good test for us before the break." The Canucks, meanwhile, have dropped two in a row following wins in four of five, kicking off a six-game homestand with a four-goal loss versus the Ducks prior to Tuesday's 3-2 shootout defeat at the hands of the Kings. Vancouver, though, still has an eight-point lead on second-place Colorado in the division and trails Chicago by four points for the most in the NHL. Daniel Sedin and David Booth found the back of the net for the Canucks, while Roberto Luongo made 39 saves before getting beat in the third round of the shootout for the deciding goal.

9 "We were not good in the first period, except for our goaltender," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said. "It's tough to explain why, especially after the way we had played the game prior to that. This group has gotten me used to being real sharp come game time and for whatever reason in the first period we weren't." Vancouver will host Edmonton on Tuesday in its final game before the All-Star break, then welcomes Chicago and Detroit to town to close out the homestand. San Jose Sharks coach Todd McLellan seeks cure for ailing power play By David Pollak Posted: 01/20/ :26:42 PM PST The Sharks power play is in a downward spiral that has dropped it to 19th in the NHL, and a significant drop in production by captain Joe Thornton is a big part of the reason. Thornton scored 33 points on nine goals and 24 assists when San Jose had the man advantage last season. This year, he has one goal and seven points in 44 games -- a pace that would have him finishing with 20 fewer points than in "I think Jumbo would like to have more production there, and he's the focal point. It's his power play," coach Todd McLellan said Friday. "It runs through him, but there are other pieces in the mix, and they have to be productive." A San Jose power play that finished second in the NHL with a 23.5 percent success rate last season is currently putting the puck in the net only 16.9 percent of the time. And since Dec. 23, that number is a more troubling 11.4 percent as the Sharks have gone 5 for 44. McLellan and his staff have been tinkering along the way, hoping for improvement. But before the Sharks headed to Vancouver for the start of three-game tour of Western Canada before the NHL All-Star break, the coach said he was ready to try something new to spark Thornton and the special teams unit: Breathing room. "We've tried personnel shuffling around, we've tried to reposition him, we've tried different offensive strategies," McLellan said. "We want desperately for them to succeed, and we might be overcooking it and slowing them down. For the next little bit, we'll turn the power play over to them a little bit." Thornton, of course, isn't the only Shark showing a drop in power play productivity. Joe Pavelski and Patrick Marleau aren't keeping pace with the previous year, either, but their decline isn't as steep. Thornton points out that power play production goes in cycles. "Sometimes it goes really good and sometimes it doesn't," he said. "Right now for whatever reason, it's just not going to the back of the net. We've still got a lot of time."

10 And what will it take to get his game going? "Just shoot more," he said. "Get in front of the net." For Thornton, the bottom line is that the Sharks have been winning games despite the drop-off in production. Ask about recent problems on the power play and he'll point to the team's record in its last 10 games. "We've gone when the power play was the only good thing about the hockey team," Thornton said. "Would you rather your five-on-five be great? If you could have it all, great. But that's not the reality of it. That's not hockey." Add another Shark to the injured list as rookie Tommy Wingels won't be in the lineup Saturday when the Sharks face Vancouver. McLellan said Wingels suffered an upper body injury in Thursday night's 4-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators and will miss at least the next three games before the break. The injury occurred when Wingels, Pavelski and Ottawa forward Chris Neill all came together along the side boards near the San Jose bench at 4:26 of the third period. "It looked pretty innocent," McLellan said. Wingels was elevated to San Jose's top line with two of the team's top six forwards -- Ryane Clowe and Marty Havlat -- already on injured reserve. In practice Friday, Andrew Desjardins skated in what had been Wingels' slot alongside Pavelski and Thornton. McLellan said that could be how things line up against the Canucks, but "we'll try to audition a bunch of people." The Sharks have reassigned forward Frazer McLaren to Worcester, but he will have to clear waivers before he gets there. The NHL announced that McLellan and John Tortorella of the New York Rangers will share coaching duties for Team Alfredsson at the Jan. 29 All-Star game -- essentially the home team as Daniel Alfredsson is captain of host Ottawa. Sharks recall McCarthy, Niittymaki takes AHL loss January 20, 2012, 7:03 pm The Worcester Sharks played Providence Friday night, and there were two noteworthy items of news from the game. The first bit of news came prior to puck-drop, when left wing John McCarthy was recalled to the San Jose Sharks. He leads Worcester in points. He was sent to the minors on Oct. 3, McCarthy, 25, has four points in 41 games with the San Jose Sharks over the past two seasons. The other news surrounds the Worcester goalie; Antero Niittymaki made his first start on his second conditioning assignment with San Jose's AHL affiliate. Niittymaki took the loss as Worcester fell 3-2. He made 23 saves in the chippy match. Thornton's power play numbers tumble

11 January 20, 2012, 1:56 pm SAN JOSE The success or failure of a team s power play unit is not one man s responsibility. Let s get that out of the way first. But a closer look at team captain Joe Thornton s production, or lack thereof this season, provides a window into that Sharks recent trouble with a man advantage. The Sharks are now just 10-for-82 on the power play since Nov. 26 (12.2 percent), a span of 25 games. To put that in perspective, the Montreal Canadiens own the league s worst power play at 12.3 percent. Thornton has just one power play goal and two power play assists over that same time frame. Thornton has thrived in his career on the power play, as the chart below shows. This year it s been the opposite. He has just seven points (1g, 6a), placing him in a tie for 137th in the league in power play points after he finished in the Top 10 in four of his previous six seasons in San Jose (including , when he came over mid-season from Boston). What s wrong? We ve put him in a different position on the breakout, which is one, and we ve talked about returning him back there, Todd McLellan said on Thursday. Secondly, that group, or that fivesome, just hasn t produced as much. You can look at some of the opportunities, and Jumbo in particular, where he s had open nets. We can refer back to a few games, and he either hasn t beared down or the goaltender has made one heck of a save." Sometimes it goes really good and sometimes it just doesn t, Thornton said. I think right now, for whatever reason, it s just not going in the back of the net. We ve still got a lot of time, and there s always parts of your game that you guys (the media) are asking like how come your 5- on-5 is not good, or your penalty kill? It s one of those things where hopefully it can get going. The Sharks power play has dropped to 19th in the NHL (16.9 percent), after finishing second last season (23.5 percent). I m still concerned with our power play, McLellan said, before his team went 0-for-3 in Thursday night s loss to Ottawa. I think it can be much better. Is that number 19 s responsibility? Partly, but there s four other players that are on the ice at that given time. The band only works when it s all playing in unison. It s not one guy strumming away, it s all five guys playing at the same time. Even so, if the power play is going to start producing, Thornton is certainly going to have to play a major role. I think Jumbo would like to have more production there, and he s the focal point. It s his power play; it runs through him, McLellan said. There s other pieces in the mix, and they have to be productive, and when we re short staffed or lose some key offensive players, that s the time to make hay is the power play. On this three game road trip, we ll need a productive power play to have success. McLellan to coach 'Team Alfredsson' January 20, 2012, 1:32 pm

12 Sharks head coach Todd McLellan will join the New York Rangers John Tortorella behind the bench to coach Team Alfredsson for the All-Star game on Jan. 29 in Ottawa, the NHL revealed on Friday. Captains for the game are the Senators Daniel Alfredsson and Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara, whose current head coach, Claude Julien, will unsurprisingly lead Team Chara. McLellan and Tortorella were chosen as coaches based on their teams have the best winning percentage in the Western Conference and Eastern Conference, respectively, on Jan. 9. Julien and his staff are there as the defending Stanley Cup champions. McLellan, who was a coach at the game in 2009 in Montreal, doesn t expect it to be too grueling of an affair from his perspective. I was joking around, what coaches need to do is probably know how to say next in more than one language. That s usually the extent of it, he said on Thursday. Torts and I will have the best seats in the house. Sharks forward Logan Couture is the team s lone participant in the game.