Pastor Of Muppetz
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I always get my hopes up when we play at the Saddledome...and more often than not, my hopes are dashed.
Pre-Game Talk: [GM25] Canucks @ Flames | Sat. Dec 2nd, 7pm | HNIC/SNP | Zaddy’s Home
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(Chris Faber) ‘I’m here to help, I’m an added piece to a great team’: A Q&A with Newest Canuck Nikita Zadorov | Vancouver Canucks
What's exciting to you about joining this group?
"It's a great team," said Zadorov. "The boys are playing really well this year. Obviously, we're in the same division, so I've got to watch them before. I know a few guys that were on the enemy side but now they're my teammates. So I've played with Ian Cole in Colorado, played with Tyler Myers in Buffalo my first two years, Pius Suter one year in Chicago, so I know them and all the Russians of course. We all get together in Florida in the offseason and have the same strength coach so we're in the gym together. My wife and Ilya Mikheyev's wife are good friends, so we hang out a lot in the summer, we're like neighbours and see each other like every day. Andrei [Kuzmenko] and I grew up playing for the same minor hockey teams, his dad was my coach but Andrei was one year younger than me. It's like five to eight guys that I know on the team so hopefully that will be an easy transition for me. And you can ask my teammates, I'm not a shy guy."
What sticks out about this Canucks team to you?
"Quinn Hughes is probably a top-two defenceman in the league right now. And Elias or Elias, he’s having a great year, we have a different way to say Elias in Calgary with Lindholm," said Zadorov with a laugh. "Brock Boeser is scoring a lot of goals. J.T. Miller is a leader on the ice and we have really good battles all the time, it was always a hard night to play against him, he's a pretty competitive guy. And then Thatcher Demko has been playing so well. And it's not just those guys, I'm super excited to join such a great team right now and the coaching staff is great too. I've only heard good things about Rick Tocchet, I've worked with Adam Foote in Colorado as he was a development coach when I was in my first couple of years in Colorado. I spoke with Sergei Gonchar on Thursday night and he was one of my idols when I was growing up. Gonchar is a super smart, intelligent coach and I think they can all help me help the team. I'm here to help, I'm an added piece to a great team."
What about the size of this Canucks defence corps?
"Right now, it's such a quick game and all of us big guys have reach and we need to use our sticks properly so that we can break plays in the defensive zone so we can spend more time in [the] offensive zone. Tyler, Carson and Ian are all good skaters and have good hockey IQ and we can chip in some offence too that's always fun."
We’ve known you as a player who throws the body around often, what do you like about playing a physical brand of hockey?
"I have the size to do it, I probably have 50 pounds extra on most guys in the league so I'm going to use it," said Zadorov. "It's part of my game to play physical and break plays that way. I enjoy it and in the past couple of years I've really improved my offensive game as well, I scored 14 goals last year so I don't only bring hits, I can bring a two-way game for sure."
How have you worked on becoming a strong skater?
"My parents put me in figure skating classes when I was a kid for seven years before I came to Junior hockey in the OHL. I do power skating in my summer workouts and if you do the right stuff in the summer, that's going to increase your speed and keep your speed. I'm only 28 so I believe there's another four or five years of improvement because I haven't yet reached my goal and I think I'm not even close to finishing improving here. I think I can improve on a few particular [skating] things here."
We know how beautiful Vancouver is as a city, what are your thoughts on coming to the West Coast?
"My draft was 2013 and Vancouver made the Cory Schneider trade for 9th overall and they were my favourite team but they picked Bo [Horvat] and Bo was my [London Knights] teammate so I was a bit jealous," said Zadorov with a laugh. "But I still ended up in a good organization with [the] Buffalo Sabres. It's definitely a dream to play for your childhood favourite team. It's a great city. It's got great restaurants. If you ask me about my 11 years [in the NHL], I would say Vancouver is a top-three road city for me for sure. I'm always enjoying my time, every time, so I think it's perfect."
What made you a Canucks fan as a kid?
"Markus Naslund and the Sedin brothers," said Zadorov. "Naslund, I really like him a lot, I think he was definitely one of my favourite players."
What can fans expect from you on the ice?
"I'm going to leave everything on the ice for my teammates," said Zadorov. "There are no shortcuts for myself and I'm going to leave everything out on the ice and am going to hopefully help this team win something."
What's exciting to you about joining this group?
"It's a great team," said Zadorov. "The boys are playing really well this year. Obviously, we're in the same division, so I've got to watch them before. I know a few guys that were on the enemy side but now they're my teammates. So I've played with Ian Cole in Colorado, played with Tyler Myers in Buffalo my first two years, Pius Suter one year in Chicago, so I know them and all the Russians of course. We all get together in Florida in the offseason and have the same strength coach so we're in the gym together. My wife and Ilya Mikheyev's wife are good friends, so we hang out a lot in the summer, we're like neighbours and see each other like every day. Andrei [Kuzmenko] and I grew up playing for the same minor hockey teams, his dad was my coach but Andrei was one year younger than me. It's like five to eight guys that I know on the team so hopefully that will be an easy transition for me. And you can ask my teammates, I'm not a shy guy."
What sticks out about this Canucks team to you?
"Quinn Hughes is probably a top-two defenceman in the league right now. And Elias or Elias, he’s having a great year, we have a different way to say Elias in Calgary with Lindholm," said Zadorov with a laugh. "Brock Boeser is scoring a lot of goals. J.T. Miller is a leader on the ice and we have really good battles all the time, it was always a hard night to play against him, he's a pretty competitive guy. And then Thatcher Demko has been playing so well. And it's not just those guys, I'm super excited to join such a great team right now and the coaching staff is great too. I've only heard good things about Rick Tocchet, I've worked with Adam Foote in Colorado as he was a development coach when I was in my first couple of years in Colorado. I spoke with Sergei Gonchar on Thursday night and he was one of my idols when I was growing up. Gonchar is a super smart, intelligent coach and I think they can all help me help the team. I'm here to help, I'm an added piece to a great team."
What about the size of this Canucks defence corps?
"Right now, it's such a quick game and all of us big guys have reach and we need to use our sticks properly so that we can break plays in the defensive zone so we can spend more time in [the] offensive zone. Tyler, Carson and Ian are all good skaters and have good hockey IQ and we can chip in some offence too that's always fun."
We’ve known you as a player who throws the body around often, what do you like about playing a physical brand of hockey?
"I have the size to do it, I probably have 50 pounds extra on most guys in the league so I'm going to use it," said Zadorov. "It's part of my game to play physical and break plays that way. I enjoy it and in the past couple of years I've really improved my offensive game as well, I scored 14 goals last year so I don't only bring hits, I can bring a two-way game for sure."
How have you worked on becoming a strong skater?
"My parents put me in figure skating classes when I was a kid for seven years before I came to Junior hockey in the OHL. I do power skating in my summer workouts and if you do the right stuff in the summer, that's going to increase your speed and keep your speed. I'm only 28 so I believe there's another four or five years of improvement because I haven't yet reached my goal and I think I'm not even close to finishing improving here. I think I can improve on a few particular [skating] things here."
We know how beautiful Vancouver is as a city, what are your thoughts on coming to the West Coast?
"My draft was 2013 and Vancouver made the Cory Schneider trade for 9th overall and they were my favourite team but they picked Bo [Horvat] and Bo was my [London Knights] teammate so I was a bit jealous," said Zadorov with a laugh. "But I still ended up in a good organization with [the] Buffalo Sabres. It's definitely a dream to play for your childhood favourite team. It's a great city. It's got great restaurants. If you ask me about my 11 years [in the NHL], I would say Vancouver is a top-three road city for me for sure. I'm always enjoying my time, every time, so I think it's perfect."
What made you a Canucks fan as a kid?
"Markus Naslund and the Sedin brothers," said Zadorov. "Naslund, I really like him a lot, I think he was definitely one of my favourite players."
What can fans expect from you on the ice?
"I'm going to leave everything on the ice for my teammates," said Zadorov. "There are no shortcuts for myself and I'm going to leave everything out on the ice and am going to hopefully help this team win something."
VanillaCoke
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- Oct 30, 2013
- 25,474
- 11,938
ChilliBilly
Registered User
Run these lines at puck drop (don’t wait for mid-game to drop PDG from Miller):
Kuzmenko Miller Boeser
Hoglander Pettersson Lafferty
Joshua Blueger Garland
Mikheyev Aman PDG
Hughes Hronek
Cole Friedman
Zadorov Myers
Kuzmenko Miller Boeser
Hoglander Pettersson Lafferty
Joshua Blueger Garland
Mikheyev Aman PDG
Hughes Hronek
Cole Friedman
Zadorov Myers
Will definitely be a little worried if they lose this game. Losing to the Lames twice in a row, a team the Canucks should absolutely be better than, would suck big time.
- Aug 28, 2011
- 16,226
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Depends on the loss. A tight 3-2 loss where this team plays a solid 60 minutes and is the better team but gets stonewalled by hot goaltending and screwed by the refs is ok.
Coming out completely flat, getting outshot and thoroughly outclassed would be a shitty outcome.
It's weird. Their better 5 v 5 games have been losses. The games against the Rangers and Avs....
Coming out completely flat, getting outshot and thoroughly outclassed would be a shitty outcome.
It's weird. Their better 5 v 5 games have been losses. The games against the Rangers and Avs....
theguardianII
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- Jan 30, 2020
- 3,259
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The team needs to stop Pettersson from hitting so much, it is taking away from his game. Being physical for him is keeping the puck and not being the #1 on the forecheck. He looks weird flailing around swinging his stick all over the place while laid out on the ice.
This is going to be a weird game IMO. This is just a personal perspective. This Zadorov trade has put me dead smack in the middle of the fence of where the future of the lies, at least the timeline. That takes the games to a higher level of, and I hate the word, hope. Hope that I carefully sequestered away under the disastrous Benning reign.
I still think it will be a OT game.
No I like that he’s incorporating hitting into his game. No correlation to his lack of on ice production.
Hopefully he wakes up though. Also I hope they split Mikheyev and Pettersson up. I just don’t think he’s a fit.
theguardianII
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- Jan 30, 2020
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My concern with the hitting is my belief he has concussion symptoms and that has caused his decline since around Nov. 4th. Maybe not severe enough to stop playing but needing some time to stop rocking the brain bucket around. He won't want to stop due to contract time IF he even knows. I have had those symptoms and it was a few years before I could look back and see the effects.
Billy Kvcmu
Registered User
This chaos pairing is going to be peak entertainment value.
Pastor Of Muppetz
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Zadorov/Myers pairing has the promise of some spectacular gaffes...
Juulsen has Tocchet gambling ring footage for sure
Yeah I'm not a fan. I would have paired Zadarov with someone a little more stable so he can get acclimated to the team in a slightly less erratic way.
Honestly just pepper him with a couple of shots early and he’s going to fold. Guy never comes prepared to play
Hit the post
I have your gold medal Zippy!
vadim sharifijanov
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- Oct 10, 2007
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I'm getting flashbacks to the Edler-Bieksa pairing.
there was a period of SOB and bieksa, never forget
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