Oo beibi
http://www.vancouversun.com/hockeypage/stories/010410/5066221.html
"Oh joy!", sanoisi Sitmpy.
Pakko se on tähän kopsata. Tämä siis Vancourissa ilmestyvästä sanomalehdestä, Vancouver Sunista:
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Grate-ness looks good on Canucks' gritty rookie
Gary Mason Vancouver Sun
Jarkko Ruutu has his playoff face on. I mean, look at it. This, ladies and gentleman, is a playoff face. Generally, though, it's a face you wear at the end of the playoffs, not before a single game has been played. Ruutu looks like he's already played four rounds. And was kicked, punched, scratched, clawed, butt-ended and generally beaten to a pulp in each one.
If he looks like this now what's he going to look like after Colorado finishes with him?
Honestly. If you saw Ruutu walking down the street your first reaction would be to avoid eye contact. Guys who look like he does, well, you never know what will set them off. Guys who look like he does normally have been at the wrong end of an argument with Mike Tyson.
In Ruutu's case it was #just Edmonton Oilers defenceman Jason Smith.
"All that is from just one punch?" someone asked Ruutu, sporting a pair of swollen eyes the color of a porterhouse steak.
"Yep," said Ruutu, smiling. "One punch. But I'm pretty proud of it."
Ah, hockey players. You have to love 'em don't you?
For that matter, you have to love the way this feisty Finn is playing right now for the Canucks as they prepare for their first-round playoff series against the Avalanche. (I'm sorry. But I still catch myself every time I write Canucks and playoffs in the same sentence. This isn't a crazy dream is it?).
If the Canucks have any hope of beating the Avalanche (yes, I know their hopes are slim) they are going to have to find a way to score goals. They are also going to need guys like Ruutu skating around the ice getting under Peter Forsberg's visor; getting a stick between Joe Sakic's legs; and generally doing the best imitation they can of another Finn who made the playoffs his time of year, Esa Tikkanen.
In fact, if Ruutu can put in the kind of performance he gave his team against Edmonton on Saturday night, he could become a factor in this series. Which isn't something you often predict for someone who spent most of the year in the minors. Did you see Saturday's game? Forget the result, Ruutu was accorded one of the highest honours a player can get. Well, at least a player who models his game on those whose job is to poke and prod and generally be the most irritating little bast -- ah, pest on the ice.
"I'm as annoyed with [Ruutu] as teams used to get with Tikkanen," said Oilers head coach Craig MacTavish, who played with The Grate One in Edmonton.
Try to understand just how big a compliment this is. This is like a football coach# comparing you to Bill Romanowski or a basketball coach singling you out for being another Bill Laimbeer. What McTavish is really saying is: "I'd love to have him on our team."
The Canucks knew what they were getting when they made Ruutu their third pick, 68th over-all, in the 1998 entry draft.
He had established a reputation in the Finnish Elite league as a nasty and belligerent winger with a good set of hands. For whatever reason, Ruutu failed to bring those same qualities with him when he came to Vancouver to try and make the Canucks. Consequently, he spent most of last year and much of this season down on the farm.
When Markus Naslund broke his leg in March, the team called Ruut#u up again. This time he was ready.
"He competes more than anything," said Canucks coach Marc Crawford after practice Monday.
"He's an energetic guy who will do anything to win. He's got better skills than maybe the novice observer would notice.
"Add to that the intangible of being a feisty, pesky type of player and it's a nice combination."
If he's on your team.
"I'm feeling more comfortable with the guys," said Ruutu, who has also been losing regularly at backgammon to Henrik Sedin since being called up. "I was so worried about making a mistake in the past and now I'm not and I really don't know why. Things have just kind of changed."
Ruutu's role is not an easy one. Just look at his face. He's not a big fighter. That's obvious. What he does do best is distract the other team's best players. Get them thinking about retribution and retaliation instead of concentrating on the things they should#be, like scoring.
"When guys get mad at me I get little bumps and bruises but I also get fired up and play a lot better," said Ruutu, smiling with anticipation at the bumps and bruises he'll get in the next two weeks.
"If there's nothing going on it's harder to get into the game."
Ruutu says he's received plenty of strange looks in the past 48 hours any time he's ventured outside his apartment. He shakes his head and laughs.
"A couple of times I've wanted to say, 'Am I that bad looking or what? I just haven't yet."
Judging by the way he plays, there'll be other opportunities. Lots of them.
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Gary Mason can be reached at 605-2166 or via e-mail at garmason@direct.ca
