Canorcas Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 "Tommy Gun" Who is the newest Canuck? Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider must be breathing a small sigh of relief. Goaltenders remember a thing or two about players that score important career goals against them, and Sestito has a unique relationship with both Canucks netminders. It was against Luongo that Sestito scored his first career NHL goal as a member of the Blue Jackets back in the 2011 season. Then it was against Schneider a few weeks later that Sestito scored his second. But make no mistake, scoring goals is not Sestito's job. In 34 career NHL games, Sestito only has 4 goals and 7 points but has amassed 159 penalty minutes in that short time frame. Despite losing Aaron Volpatti through waivers earlier this week, the Canucks picked up their own tough guy in the same manner by claiming Sestito from the Philadelphia Flyers. The two share a similar brand of hockey; they're not very good goal scorers but they can both skate, they can both hit and if it means anything to you, Sestito is considerably bigger. Volpatti may have packed on about 10 pounds over the off-season this year but Sestito is a natural hulk. At 6'5 and 230 pounds, "Tommy Gun" plays an intimidating and physical brand of hockey that should fit in right away on the Canucks depth line. In truth, there isn't much that Sestito can bring to the table that Volpatti couldn't. Neither has played on the penalty kill and you'd be mistaken if you thought you saw either on the powerplay. But Sestito has worked his way into the NHL the hard way when you're designated as an enforcer. Throughout the better part of 6 seasons in the AHL, Sestito has racked up an eyebrow raising 867 penalty minutes, most of them fighting majors. Volpatti was never drafted and was signed by the Canucks out of Brown University. Meanwhile, Sestito was picked in the third round of the 2006 NHL draft by the Blue Jackets. After bouncing around Columbus, Syracuse and Springfield, the rugged big winger may have found a comfortable home in Vancouver, where a desperate need of hitting and fighting was incessantly critiqued by fans and media alike. For a big man, #29 (his expected jersey number) can skate quite well. In a straight line, he's deceptively quick and that should serve him well with Vancouver's aggressive forechecking style on the depth lines. It matches well with Dale Weise, winner of this year's speed relay contest during Vancouver's super skills contest. At the very least, he can answer the bell if other teams are taking liberties with the Twins or other top players. He has 15 fights in his NHL career including 2 this season. He doesn't win all of them but it makes a point that he's a willing combatant when it comes to dropping the mitts. Canucks fan should anticipate a high-energy player who won't play much but can win the hearts of many if he lives up to his billing. Sestito is a guy who knows his role in the NHL and what he has to do to stay in it. Make no mistake, when a player is given a second chance after he's been waived, they should understand the message and try harder to succeed. This writer anticipates an immediate impact from Sestito. After Calgary acquired Brian McGrattan earlier this week, the Canucks needed to respond with their own heavyweight-- it should make the upcoming match between the two divisional rivals an interesting one later next week. For a team already loaded with enough offensive guns, the Tommy Gun provides a different kind of shooting altogether-- and he's coming, locked and loaded. The Orca Zone is a nonprofit Canucks.com blog written by Canorcas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raffi Torres's Smirk Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Excited to see this guy play with Pinner and Lappy. Also, good job on the not-centre justification this time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canorcas Posted March 2, 2013 Author Share Posted March 2, 2013 Excited to see this guy play with Pinner and Lappy. Also, good job on the not-centre justification this time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Karlsson Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Read this on HF boards He is devastating on the forecheck. When he was in Columbus, defensemen seemed absolutely afraid when he was forechecking them. I distinctly remember one game vs. the Rangers where McDonough, Girardi and Staal wanted nothing to do with him. I remember telling my wife, when Sestito is out there, he is intimidating the Rangers blue-liners like I've rarely seen anyone do. lol imagine a line of Sestito-Lapierre-Kassian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canorcas Posted March 2, 2013 Author Share Posted March 2, 2013 Read this on HF boards He is devastating on the forecheck. When he was in Columbus, defensemen seemed absolutely afraid when he was forechecking them. I distinctly remember one game vs. the Rangers where McDonough, Girardi and Staal wanted nothing to do with him. I remember telling my wife, when Sestito is out there, he is intimidating the Rangers blue-liners like I've rarely seen anyone do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMapleLaughs Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Whew. For a sec i thought they were bringing back Tommy Larscheid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Karlsson Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Now that would be impressive because I just wrote this exclusively on Canucks.com. But yeah, Sestito on the ice basically determines every other player has to keep their head up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeanBeef Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 He seems to play with a heated head at times, i remember when he jumped Tambellini a few years ago when we played columbus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pimpcurtly Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Him and Kass have a unique relationship as well...hope they play nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VAN_FAN_MATT Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 He's a 6'5" 228lbs 4th line beast who can keep up with the play and is reliable enough defensively to eat up minutes. All this and he's only 25 years old. There's some decent upside in this guy. I'm pretty satisfied with this pickup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VAN_FAN_MATT Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 After looking at a couple of his fights on YouTube, it appears he isn't a very good fighter. I hope he'll at least lay some crushing hits, but I also hope he dosn't take any dumb hitting from behind penalties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bookie Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 dammit I wanted to nickname him Zesty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pimpcurtly Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 dammit I wanted to nickname him Zesty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck in the Truck Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Oh great we got another punching bag ,another guy who loses fights .A cover up move for losing patty . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tragoedia Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Seems like a good acquisition, but I hope he can be more effective than Bitz. It's a shame to see Volpatti go though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VAN_FAN_MATT Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Tom Sestito fought new Canuck teammate Zack Kassian a little over a year ago on Feb 16, 2012. http://youtu.be/NfuU_bay0kE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edlerberry Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Sestito has a better career shooting percentage than Daniel Sedin! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billabong Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 as much as i love his bulky size, i really wanna see pinnizotto pinner can play center 4th line? sestito-pinnizotto-kassian weise is good skater and a solid hockey player but he isnt mean or aggresive and i think we need that on the 4th line Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skate or Don't Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 after looking at some of his youtube clips i can say with some confidence that he wont do anything to clean up our image or keep us out of the box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VAN_FAN_MATT Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Tom Sestito had a 2 goal game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Feb 5 2013 1st goal - scored 4:25 into 2nd period http://youtu.be/3g6uwvAFWKg 2nd goal - scored 11:11 into 3rd period http://youtu.be/PUt8qdd4mlo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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