SAN JOSE, Calif.
Joaquin Benoit Jersey . -- The Vancouver
Canucks rely so heavily on the Sedin twins to generate their offence that it
feels good when they can get a win without their biggest stars getting on the
score sheet. Chris Higgins had a goal and an assist, Roberto Luongo made 22
saves and the Canucks got plenty of contributions from their lower lines to snap
a nine-game losing streak against the San Jose Sharks with a 4-2 victory on
Thursday night. This marked the first time all season that the Canucks won
without a point from Daniel or Henrik Sedin. "It probably wont happen too
often," Higgins said. "Give them a little rest on that. It seems like they carry
a lot of the burden. Theyre great players. Obviously they want that burden. Its
good that we can get a win without those guys getting points." Brad Richardson,
Mike Santorelli and Zack Kassian also scored for the Canucks, who had lost all
five regular season meetings between the teams the past two seasons and were
swept by San Jose in the first round of the playoffs last spring. "It feels good
because we just beat a pretty good team on home ice," said Kevin Bieksa, who had
two assists. "You guys have made us well aware that weve lost nine in a row to
these guys, so its nice to end that little skid and more importantly to get a
big two points." Joe Thornton and Mike Brown scored for the Sharks, who lost
their fourth straight game, but just the second in regulation all season. Antti
Niemi allowed four goals before being replaced early in the second period as the
Canucks controlled the play for much of the first 40 minutes and weathered a
strong push from San Jose in the third. "We were clearly outworked," coach Todd
McLellan said. "In the real world you work for eight hours and in the hockey
world you work for 60 minutes. And we didnt even come close to that. ... When
you have a bus load that didnt show up to play its pretty hard." Vancouver
killed an early power play and got a strong save from Luongo on a tip by Logan
Couture in the first half of the period to help seal the victory. Vancouver got
the win without any production from the usual suspects. Henrik Sedin had points
in an NHL-best 12 straight games, while brother Daniel had his seven-game point
streak snapped. Linemate Ryan Kesler had 10 points in the past nine games before
being held without a point. "Thats a good sign for our club, getting some help
and some depth within our team as far as producing," coach John Tortorella said.
"Were going to need it as we continue to go on through this trip." The Canucks
dominated the second period, outshooting the Sharks 17-5 and getting the only
goal when Bieksas point shot hit Kassians skate and went past Niemi to make it
4-2 with 14:38 left in the second. That ended Niemis night after he allowed four
goals for the third time in four games. Alex Stalock came in and stopped all 21
shots he faced but the Sharks were unable to get anything past Luongo the rest
of the way and lost. "Its been twice weve stunk up the joint in the first and
second and try to come back in the third," Thornton said. "Tonight, we just
couldnt catch up. We have to be better in the first two -- it starts there." It
was a wide-open first period with odd bounces and costly misplays leading to
five goals as the Canucks took a 3-2 lead. The Sharks got the first break when
Thornton innocently played the puck around the boards only to have the puck hop
back over the net and deflect off Luongos shoulder before falling into the net
for a goal just 1:17 into the game. "Quite comical the way the game started,"
Luongo said. "But like weve been doing all year we answered right back and we
get ourselves right back in the game." The Canucks answered quickly when Bieksa
took the puck away from Tyler Kennedy along the boards and Richardson
capitalized by shooting it past Niemi. After Santorelli and Brown traded goals
on nice plays in transition, another San Jose turnover helped the Canucks take
the lead into the second. Jason Demers and Scott Hannan misplayed a puck in
their own zone and Higgins got it and flipped it over to make it 3-2 with 1:05
to play in the first. NOTES: Vancouvers Ryan Stanton fought Andrew Desjardins in
the first period after the Sharks forward gave Luongo a snow shower after the
whistle. ... After having at least 50 shots the past two games, the Sharks were
held to 11 in the first two periods. ... The Canucks have killed off all 14
power play chances by the Sharks this season.
Ichiro Suzuki Jersey . They actually finished
with a better record in ‘07 than they did in ‘06 but only marginally, going from
61 victories to 66.
Ken Griffey Mariners Jersey . According to
TSN Edmonton reporter Ryan Rishaug, agent Rick Valette met with Oilers senior VP
of hockey operations Scott Howson and general manager Craig MacTavish on Monday
to kick off the talks.DUNEDIN, Florida – Blue Jays manager John Gibbons knows
theres a lot at stake this season. Coming off a disastrous 2013 year, relative
to expectations perhaps the most disappointing in franchise history, the club
could be dealing with significant upheaval if theres continued, sustained
underperformance. Gibbons sat down with TSN.ca before Thursdays Grapefruit
League game against Houston to talk about his team, in which he espouses
confidence. To listen to the interview, click here. TSN.ca: John, as we sit
here, two weeks from tonight you guys will be flying to Montreal for the final
two exhibition games of the spring. GIBBONS: Cant wait. TSN.ca: Old stomping
grounds for you, right? An ex-Met, did you have some fun in Montreal in your
day? GIBBONS: Yeah, you know I wasnt up with the Mets long but I made a few road
trips to Montreal. I loved it. I really did. Its a neat city. Its a little
different than what were used to or what Im used to but we always had a good
time there. Good people. I enjoyed hopping on that subway, riding it to the
stadium there so I have some good memories of that place. TSN.ca: Parlez-vous
Francais? GIBBONS: Poquito. Oh thats not French, okay. You learn a lot of
Spanish around here. Ill put it that way. TSN.ca: Yeah, theres no question about
that in your clubhouse. So were three, three and a half weeks in since all the
regulars got here. The tone of camp, at least from my point of view, John, is
different from last years and there were a lot of mitigating factors with the
WBC and whatnot last season. How do you feel camp has gone so far and where do
you see your team at today? GIBBONS: I agree with you. I think theres a lot more
focus and thats not just coming from the coaching end of it. I think the players
are a lot more focused. Last year there was a lot of distraction. A lot of new
faces were brought in and the high expectations, much more media coverage so the
players were getting dragged in a lot of different directions. We had some
celebrities on here. We brought in Dickey coming off a Cy Young. Of course Reyes
and those guys coming in and everybody was tugging at all different angles so
there were some distractions that way. Good distractions but nevertheless
distractions and then of course some guys went off to the WBC and things like
that. Its been a much nicer, simpler camp, a lot more low key and weve been able
to get some great work in. TSN.ca: As you head into the regular season I think
there are some questions about certain positions around the club. The starting
rotation, especially the back end, has been a hot topic of conversation. More
broadly speaking, the American League East, I think we both agree is always
strong but has gotten better. Do you feel you have the quality of starting
pitching that matches the quantity of the depth that youll have at Buffalo and
in the lower minor leagues. GIBBONS: I think we do. Not a whole lot of change
this year other than Navarro. You know, Alex was working all winter trying to
bring in a pitcher or two, difference makers. We werent able to do that. It
wasnt for a lack of effort. The money, the years, all sorts of things, their
desire to go other places hampered that a little bit. There were a couple of
trade opportunities but they wanted everybody and their brother top prospects in
the minor leagues. After the trades with Florida and the Mets we gave up a lot
of our top prospects so, I mean, theres no way you can deplete your whole minor
league system to get guys who maybe arent difference makers. We sat tight there.
The main reason behind that is we like what we have here. Theres much more
depth, like you just alluded to, that we didnt have last year. If somebody
falters or if theres an injury weve got some guys, some fallback plans that we
think are pretty good that should make a huge difference. As of right now were
still looking for that fifth starter. Weve got some guys that are pitching very
good. Theres been some good competition down here. Right now, were probably only
looking at one spot. J.A. Happ, now, hes been a little bit banged up with his
back so at this point, on this day, hes a little bit of a question mark.
Hopefully hes going to throw in the next couple of days in a minor league game.
If hes fine that should solve some problems there. You know, theres some guys in
here that we think are going to have some good big league careers. Now its just
are they going to get that opportunity? They may get it as we break camp as we
start the season this year. It may come a month in. It may come in two months.
Who knows? Weve got some players here who we think are capable of winning in the
American League East. Theres some great competitors and well see where it all
ends up. TSN.ca: Do you anticipate Drew Hutchison breaking camp with the team?
GIBBONS: Well, Im not going to say hes on the team right now but Ill tell you
what, hes pitched as well, if not better, than anybody in camp and another thing
he has going for him, you know hes really bounced back from that injury, but hes
pitched in Toronto before and was pitching very well before he had the injury.
Hes got a little experience under his belt. Hes definitely been a standout. Hes
always been thought of highly in the organization. Its just basically a matter
of time when hes ready again and it sure seems like, you look at it now, he
should be ready to go. TSN.ca: Do you believe in the phrase, "Its early?"
Especially after last year maybe you dont but getting out of the gate strong,
John, aside from having more wins than losses, just setting the right tone I
think would be important for you guys this year.
Luis Sardinas Mariners Jersey. GIBBONS: It
was early three weeks ago. Its not so early anymore, a couple of weeks left.
Yeah, no question, a quick, fast start is very important to this ballclub.
Easier said than done, of course, you know we play some pretty good teams early.
I think what it would do is give us confidence and it may quell some of the
naysayers out there because until we go out and prove something on the field
that were better than we were last year and we actually do have the team that we
think can win here, thats always going to be hanging over our heads. These guys,
theyve been working hard, theyre very focused and now the key is to come out of
the gates with everything clicking. Weve got to get good pitching. Hopefully
those bats are going at the right time at the beginning of the season and
something thats a constant, one thing you can always control, is the way you
play defense and I think that will be much, much better this year. TSN.ca: I
wanted to touch on that with you because when we think of winning, youve got to
score more runs than you allow and we typically always think of offense, just
hit the ball out of the park or piece together runs. We dont always think of run
prevention. Well cross our fingers for you guys that you have pretty good health
here, and you have so far through camp and that that will carry through. But
with Lawrie at third, Reyes and short and it looks like Ryan Goins at second
base, as long as theyre all out there on the field at the same time, weve seen
some pretty sweet double plays and some pretty nice plays made here, John. Youre
going to be able to prevent more runs than you did, especially in the first half
of last year. GIBBONS: We think so and we have to. You left out Melky Cabrera,
who wasnt moving well at all last year and so that created a big hole out there
in leftfield. With the guys you just mentioned, we think we have one of the
better defenses in baseball, in our minds. As much as our starting pitching
struggled last year, we didnt bail them out, we didnt help them out one bit,
especially early in the season. A lot of those games, a play thats made here or
there, might have got us out of an inning, a big inning and kept us in the game
and we may have come back and won some of those. You look at it, you can go
through any sport, if you dont play defense youre not going to win. Boston was a
good defensive team last year and they won the World Series. Football, another
sport I know well, the Seahawks last year, great defense, the best defense in
the NFL. Theres no secret there. We think we have a good one but the key is weve
got to keep the right guys on the field the majority of the season. TSN.ca: The
Red Sox, maybe they didnt have the best team on paper in the majors last year
but they won the World Series and there was that grind it out aspect. When youve
walked around the clubhouse, talked to your players or youve had them in here
one on one, do you sense that there is an unquestioned willingness to grind it
out this year? Kind of a win at all costs mentality? GIBBONS: Yes, I do. Weve
got a lot of proud veterans out in that room. Some guys whove had some great
careers, some guys on the upswing that are going to end up having real good
major league careers but everybody was a little embarrassed, the way things went
last year. One thing Ill say about this group last year, through all the
different changes, all the guys coming and going, there never was a lack of
effort. Thats rare when some seasons go south but our guys showed up to play
everyday and I tip my hat to them and thats admirable and thats the way it
should be but thats not always the way it ends up. They all know they have
something to prove, that were a better team than the way we played last year and
I sense that. They talk about that. To get to this level as an athlete, to get
to the top at anything, youve got to have some pride. We have a lot of that in
that room and I think, I dont want to say necessarily that were going to
surprise some people because we think we have a good team on the field, we think
we had a good team on the field last year it just didnt pan out, but if we play
up to our capabilities we think weve got a chance to win this thing. TSN.ca: Its
an everyday game so youre always at the field and youre always thinking about,
okay, what do I have to do to win today? But when you get away from the
ballpark, do you think give any thought to your future and the fact that if it
doesnt go well again this year, John, fairly or unfairly, itll be a hard sell to
the fan base to continue with you as manager and the coaching staff? There could
be changes here if it doesnt work out. GIBBONS: Oh yeah. Thats to be expected in
the professional sports world. I can guarantee you one thing, I wont be here
forever. Thats a fact. When that day comes, sooner or later, who knows? I dont
give that much thought because I approach my job everyday to do the best job I
can. I have a great responsibility to the organization whos given me an
opportunity here and theres a lot that goes into that. Thats the reality of
baseball. I have some fans out there but I also have a lot of detractors. When
the dark clouds show up you start hearing more of those voices. If you get
caught up in that kind of stuff itll paralyze you, you cant do your job so I
take it all in stride everyday because I know I can do this job, I know I can
run a baseball team, Ive got zero doubt in my mind about that. Things dont
always work out but I think this year it will. TSN.ca: We appreciate the time,
John, and all the best this season. GIBBONS: Thank you, Scott.
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