Stierlitz

He was born in Finland but his last name is definitely Swedish just like Salo. Historically a lot of Swedish families live in Finland, Finnish and Swedish are two official languages of the country.

+1

Markus Granlund ‏@GranlundMa 4h4 hours ago Thank you @NHLFlames and #CofRed for everything! So excited to be part of the @VanCanucks #vancity

He is flying from LA today to participate in practice tomorrow and play on Thursday.

Run out of pluses long time ago... +1.

Surprise! Avto won in the first playoff game on the road 2-1. Tryamkin played 19:43 with +1, 2 SOG, 2 blocked shots. Great playoff experience for Nikita. Fans mentioned that Avto played as a team and all players were outstanding. As Magnitka's fans said, "we have stars but Avto has the TEAM".

Here is the link to interviews with the Avto players before playoffs, dated Feb 19: http://www.championat.com/hockey/article-241409-golyshev-ne-schitaet-sebja-zvezdoj-trjamkin-protiv-sravnenija-s-kharoj.html - in Russian obviously. I will try to translate the part with Tryamkin (all about KHL playoffs, did not mention NHL) skipping some uninterested internal club details: Hockey expert Sergey Gimaev gave advice to call up defenseman Tryamkin to the national team. Tryamkin is committed to realize his potential. " We have reached our main goal (playoffs) and now will try to advance to next round. Magnitka (Metallurg from Magnitogorsk) is a strong opponent but we will battle with them. We have to raise to their level someday. We know their team, players and how they play. Will try to beat them." Q: Do you really believe that you can beat Magnitka with Zaripov, Mozyakin, Semin? A: They are people just like us. Magnitka has very good forwards but how strong our defence is! We are going to fight anyway. Q: Are you satisfied with your play this season? A: It is much better than last seasons. More playing time. I am more trusted because we are young team and don't have veteran players. Q: Did you know about Sergey Gimaev's opinion regarding you? A: I am very pleased with his opinion and greatly appreciate it. This is up to the national team coaches. If they don't call me up, than I don't deserve it yet. Will try to prove to be in the national team. I am considered to have large potential and am working to improve. If I work on myself, I will be good defenseman. Q: Who do you look up to? A: I watched play of Sergey Gusev when I was kid. I liked his play, then we played together on the same line. In general.., everyone says that I am copy of Chara but I don't like this comparison. I want to be myself so that later people would talk about me like about Chara. Q: Talk about winning Gagarin Cup, is not this overstatement? A: We must set up the highest goal. What is the point to play if the goal is to win one game out of five? Not everyone becomes champion, but we all will try. Q: And then it would be direct road to the national team... A: With Gagarin Cup, for sure (smiling).

Yeah Avtomobilist (7th place) has lost to Metallurg (2nd place) 3-2 in shootout last night and will play the same team in coming playoffs. Tryamkin with 22:31 TOI, 3 SOG, 2 hits and couple great scoring chances according to the Avto fan forum.

In its last game of the regular season tomorrow Avtomobilist is playing Metallurg which is the most likely opponent for playoffs. Should be an interesting game.

nvm

The Eastern conference quarterfinals will be played on the following dates: February 22, 24, 26, 28 March 1, 3, 5 - if necessary (best of 7 series). So Tryamkin could be available after the first week of March IF: his injury is not serious enough to prevent him from playing in NA both clubs (KHL and NHL) would be able to make loan agreement for the period until April 30, 2016.

Avtomobilist won 3-0 last night and officially made playoffs. Tryamkin played 15:29 with 2PIM for slashing, 3 hits and 1 SOG.

He was injured in the first period on Jan 9 (played just 0:56) and did not play until Jan 25.

The latest data listed him at 202 cm

Luckily Avto has 11-day break between games from Feb 5 until Feb 16 to give Nikita some rest and medical treatment.

Thank you. I have advantage of reading Russian media and am happy to provide Canucks fans with some inside info. Yeah this Tryamkin's injury does not look good at all in terms of his possible play for Canucks (Comets) this spring, he definitely needs rest for his shoulder, not the battle for playoffs...

Okay I found recent interview with the Avto head coach Andrey Razin dated Feb 8: http://www.championat.com/hockey/article-240633-andrej-razin--ob-avtomobiliste-sudejstve-i-golysheve.html (in Russian). I will translate the part related to Tryamkin. Q: Sergey Gimaev (former Soviet defenceman, played for Soviet national teams in 1980s, now sport expert and TV commentator) recently said that Tryamkin should be called up to the Russian national team. How would you evaluate Tryamkin? How does he improve and play? A: He has very strong progress this season. Tryamkin started championship not very good. Okay but not very strong. However during the season he has significantly improved. Besides I can say that Nikita is a team player. Right now he has very serious injury but he is still playing. After a game he is not able to raise his arm but he is on the ice, playing. Therefore I agree that he should be given chance with the national team.

Tryamkin's official height is 201 cm from the KHL web site.

Ben Hutton played the most minutes in the team today 23:14. His previous TOI record was 22:15 at NYR last month.

Vancouver Canucks ‏@VanCanucks 4h4 hours ago Janet Hutton wanted nothing to do with this selfie. pic.twitter.com/tHOpF7AFGd

Avtomobilist does not play until Feb 16 because of break in the KHL regular season due to Euro Tour games by the Russian national team. The last club game was on Feb 5.

Ben Birnell ‏@OD_Birnell 2h2 hours ago The OT winner tonight gives Brendan Gaunce 12 goals this season in 34 games. He had 11 in 74 games last season.

2 games, both at home. In the best case scenario Avto could be on 5th place by the end of regular season. Hopefully they don't play Admiral from Vladivostok in playoffs, that's a lot of travelling like Vancouver - Florida, 4 time zones in between.

Avto won road game last night against Spartak, Moscow 4:2 and almost secured playoff spot - they are on 7th place with 5 points up to the 8th place team. Tryamkin played unusually low 17:55 with +1 in the 4:2 win.