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Physical and focused on the little plays, Ekman-Larsson is recapturing his old form

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VANCOUVER – We thought there was a good secret to tell that Oliver Ekman-Larsson has been the best Vancouver Canuck through 10 games, but Henrik Sedin came up with a better one.

“He’s a sneaky-dirty player,” Sedin, the Canucks’ special assistant, revealed Thursday.

That’s not the kind of hockey snipe we expect from a Swede, especially about a countryman who is a member of the same National Hockey League organization.

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“Not dirty, sneaky-dirty,” Sedin explained. “Cross-checks after the whistle, stuff like that. Playing against him, I always thought he was way more physical and tough than people realized. I knew he had that part in him.”

Sedin meant this as a compliment. And it is.

The physical engagement Ekman-Larsson has displayed in the first month of the rest of his career is driving all the better-known components of his game to a level the defenceman’s many critics suggested was probably gone forever.

It’s a tiny sample and it would be foolish for even the 30-year-old’s biggest supporters, who include Henrik and Daniel Sedin, to declare July’s blockbuster trade with the Arizona Coyotes a success.

There are 492 games and nearly $43-million owed by the Canucks on the rest of Ekman-Larsson’s contract, but the defenceman has been performing at an elite level unseen since he was getting honourable mentions on Norris Trophy ballots halfway through the last decade.

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“I know that I’m a good player still,” Ekman-Larsson told Sportsnet on Thursday. “I know some of the guys (in the media) wanted to say that I’m not, that I’m old. But I feel good about my game. There’s still some stuff that I need to clean up at the same time, but I’m still playing good hockey.

“I feel like I’ve been aggressive, I’ve been hitting a lot and running around and trying to get into the game that way. At times, I think you can kind of sit back a little bit more and try to let the game come to you. But I think it was important to come in here and show that I really wanted to be here, and show that I really wanted to get better and be a leader for this team for all the young guys.”

Despite playing difficult matchups nightly on a defence pairing with Tyler Myers, Ekman-Larsson’s shots-for percentage of 55.8 leads the Canucks. At five-on-five, Vancouver has outshot opponents 79-65 and outscored them 7-3 with Ekman-Larsson on the ice. His expected goals-for (53.1 per cent) leads the team as does his xGA-per-60 (1.62). He is second in time on ice (24:03) and first in shots on goal (37).

The only other skater in the conversation as best Canuck so far is Conor Garland, the other half of that Arizona trade that saw general manager Jim Benning surrender first- and second-round draft picks and three bad, expiring contracts.

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The only thing Ekman-Larsson hasn’t done is score enough, stuck at just one goal and one assist through 10 games despite all those shots on target.

“I want to be a guy who puts up some points as well,” the two-time 20-goal scorer said. “That’s probably one of the most frustrating parts.”

It may not be for much longer.

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Against the Nashville Predators on Friday night at Rogers Arena, Ekman-Larsson is expected to start on a remade first-unit power play. Canucks star Quinn Hughes, second among NHL defencemen with 47 power-play points since the start of the 2019-20 season, practised Thursday on the second unit after Vancouver went 0-for-6 with the man-advantage in Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime win against the New York Rangers.

With Hughes and Ekman-Larsson, coach Travis Green has the luxury of two left-side studs who combine for 50 minutes of nightly ice time.

“I don’t want to say better than we thought, but he’s been a real complete player for us,” Green said of Ekman-Larsson. “He’s also been a good leader in the room.”

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“He looks great, right?” Garland said. “I thought he would look that good. Last year was probably really hard for him. I only had trade rumours from the deadline on, and it bothered me a lot. He had to deal with it all summer (in 2020) and the whole season. It takes a toll on you. Coming here, he’s been unbelievable.

“He’s really hard to play against defensively. He’s kind of, like I said about Petey (Canuck centre Elias Pettersson), he’s kind of nasty. He plays like that type of Swede where they’re hard to play against. Anytime you’re out there with him, in the O-zone you want to get him the puck, and the D-zone if he has it, usually it’s an easy breakout, so those guys are hard to find.”

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Ekman-Larsson lacks Hughes’ overt flash and flair, but rarely makes a mistake. The Swede is an excellent, agile skater, but it’s all the little plays he makes that have been impressive so far: his body position, stick position, when and how he chooses to be aggressive, how he protects the puck, how quickly and simply he moves it.

“He does so many little things that maybe the average fan doesn’t notice,” Sedin said. “I’m not surprised at all. We all understood the situation he was in in Arizona; he had been there a long time, team was moving in another direction. It weighs on you as a player. I think it weighed on him.

“We all agreed (in hockey operations) he was going to be a good player, and he’d be a good player even if he didn’t have a great start. But for him and the fans, I think it’s really important to get off to a good start. He is showing the kind of player he is.”

Ekman-Larsson thinks he can play even better.

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“I mean, that’s the goal, right?” He said. “I’m trying to use what I’ve learned over the years and kind of turn that into something positive, and still learn how to get better at some stuff. I feel like I’m shooting more, and I know when I get the bounces, I’m going to score more.

“I’m not the biggest guy, but I try to play the body as well when I have a chance to do it. I feel like I got away from that a little bit maybe the last couple of years. But that’s the way I should play and that’s the way I have to play to be successful. Everything else will fall into place. I kind of just wanted to get back to where I was a couple years ago.”

He’s already there. The challenge now is to sustain it.



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Star Power vs. Star Power: Blue Jays win dramatic opener over Cardinals

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ST. LOUIS — Opening day or not, that was a lot. Nineteen runs on 34 hits. A combined 14 pitchers. A steady stream of late-game leverage. A three-hour 38-minute time of game despite the pitch clock and not including Adam Wainwright’s surprise two-plus minute take on the Star-Spangled Banner before the festivities started.

And at the end, star power versus star power. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. first stemmed a St. Louis Cardinals rally in the seventh inning with a brilliant stab of a Tommy Edman chopper before making an off-balance throw home to save a run, then fought off 102.9 m.p.h. Jordan Hicks heat for a two-run single that put the Toronto Blue Jays up 8-7 in the eighth. Then it was a Lars Nootbar walk, a Paul Goldschmidt double and a two-run Nolan Arenado double off Yimi Garcia in the bottom half that restored a 9-8 lead for the defending National League Central champs.

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Not even Ryan Helsley, the other fire-breathing dragon in the Cardinals bullpen who came up in trade discussions between these two clubs during the off-season, could lock down that lead as he walked Whit Merrifield to open the ninth, Kevin Kiermaier followed with a base hit, George Springer flared an RBI single just into shallow left and Guerrero delivered a go-ahead sac fly.

Finally, Jordan Romano, the eighth Blue Jays pitcher of the day, put a lid on the madness, locking down a bonkers 10-9 season-opening victory before a festive crowd of 47,649 at Busch Stadium.

Such was the depth of drama at the end that the rough outings for all-stars Alek Manoah and Miles Mikolas, each of whom lasted only 3.1 innings and allowed five earned runs, could be easily forgotten.

In between there was so much to take in, from Manoah finding his velocity but still taking damage, to the defensive upgrades immediately showing dividends to clever baserunning helping to make the difference in the end.

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A Colts Legend Has A Request For Fans

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(Photo by Jeffrey Brown/Icon Sportswire)

 

The Lamar Jackson sweepstakes are well underway, with the consensus being that the Baltimore Ravens will be forced to trade the superstar quarterback before the 2023 NFL Draft or the start of next season.

Although Jackson hasn’t been as hot a commodity as anticipated, the versatile quarterback may have a solid trade suitor in the form of the Indianapolis Colts, who admitted recently to not ruling out the prospect of trading for him.

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It appears that Colts fans are avidly supporting the potential trade to acquire Jackson and have been trying to get team legend Reggie Wayne to help Indianapolis make the push for the one-time NFL MVP.

Wayne hasn’t been too happy about fans constantly nagging him to do something about the situation and responded with this hilarious tweet.

At this point, there’s no telling where Jackson will end up or how serious the Colts brass may be about going after the superstar quarterback.

The Ravens still want Jackson in the fold for the foreseeable future, especially head coach John Harbaugh.

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However, the team has been reluctant to pay Jackson’s asking price, and that appears to be the only thing the 26-year-old quarterback cares about right now.

A fully guaranteed deal is what Jackson wants, and that’s a lot to ask for in a league that doesn’t give out fully guaranteed contracts.

Along with the league’s reluctance to make fully guaranteed deals the new trend in the NFL, Jackson has had injury issues, making it much more challenging for teams to commit a lot of money and years to a mobile quarterback.

The post A Colts Legend Has A Request For Fans appeared first on The Cold Wire.





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With Caitlin Clark running the show, Iowa's range is limitless

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The laws of shooting don’t apply to Iowa star Caitlin Clark, who presents a unique challenge for defending champion South Carolina.



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