National Hockey League

National Hockey League

The Vancouver Canucks are reportedly open for business, and Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving better be calling to find out the asking price on a few of their players. Vancouver hasn't met expectations thus far with a 10-12-2 record. Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported that Patrik Allvin and Jim Rutherford were listening to trade offers for their veteran players. Considering their tough start, and cloudy future with their captain, you can't blame the Canucks management duo for wanting to make serious changes.

"Big two-way defenceman," Verhoeff said. "I like defending. I take pride in my defensive zone, hard on guys in the D-zone. Then getting up the ice, I'm kinda able to transition the puck pretty quickly I think. Using my size and my shot in the offensive zone to create time and space and create some passing lanes and be able to wire the puck."

It seems like more than other sports, professional hockey players have family ties to current players and those of days past. Last night was the first game of the CHL vs USA top prospects game, as Parker Trottier, the grandson of six-time Stanley Cup champion and NY Islanders legend Bryan Trottier, was part of the USA's 4-2 victory. While grandpa came from the Canadian plains, born in Val Marie, Saskatchewan, Parker hails from Edina, MN, currently playing for the NTDP.

The San Jose Sharks visit the best team in the NHL in a measuring stick game that will show how well San Jose stacks up against the Colorado Avalanche. San Jose has already done something that only a few teams in the National Hockey League have done to date and that's beat the Avs, who have a 16-1-5 record and an .841 points percentage. The Sharks won 3-2 in overtime on Nov. 1.

The trio was dominant and showed great chemistry in the Bears' two games against the Cleveland Monsters late last week, scoring six goals combined, with all three players tallying once in each game. Protas even notched his first three-point game as a professional in Friday's contest, highlighted by a brilliant primary assist on a Trineyev goal where he put the puck through his legs before dishing on his backhand.

Trineyev, mentored by Aliaksei Protas at the start of his AHL career, has become one of the Hershey Bears' best players, serving as a major contributor offensively and defensively. He is the first player off the bench for the penalty kill and also gets power-play time on the team's second unit. He currently sits second on the team in points with 12 (6g, 6a) in 15 games. He rooms with Ilya Protas and Eriks Mateiko.

Selected in the fourth round (115th overall), Gamzin has taken the reins as starting netminder for CSKA Moskva in the KHL. The 22-year-old backstop took over the role from former NHLer Spencer Martin, who recently left CSKA after losing the starting job, signing with the NY Rangers, and is currently playing for the Hartford Wolf Pack. Despite playing in a low-scoring league, Gamzin's numbers have been phenomenal.

"Yeah it's nice," Thompson responded. "As I said many times, that's life of a goalie. Sometimes games go like that: four goals on six shots. Other games, you have a little more puck luck. So it was nice for Carbs to let me get right back in there, and I felt really good tonight. I thought overall it was a perfect team game from everyone from forwards to D. Just a really positive game."

Hockey players are no stranger to bridging the language gap. With more than a dozen countries represented across the NHL, learning English is often a vital part of adjusting to the league. But for Capitals goaltender Logan Thompson, the flow of knowledge is going the other way. Thompson has started to pick up some Russian, enlisting Aliaksei Protas as a tutor. Protas, who hails from from Vitebsk, Belarus, was all to happy to oblige.