Jump to content
The Official Site of the Vancouver Canucks
Canucks Community

Jake Virtanen | #18 | RW


avelanch

Recommended Posts

3 hours ago, Locke Lamora said:

Guys, I watched 2 of 3 groups (the more veteran groups) practice at Rogers Arena today. Jake looked pretty good. And I'd say his fitness probably fell into the middle of the pack based on some nasty line rushes coach Green set up at the end of practice.

 

Scrimmaging tomorrow apparently. That will help illuminate whether or not Jake has grasped some of the "subtleties" of the game of hockey. His endurance, while not close to the elite on the team (based on today, Sedins, Stecher, Biega, some others headed this group) it looked to be much better. Despite his lighter weight, he still looks big out there.

Thanks for sharing! 

 

For Jake to be middle of the pack for fitness is a huge improvement and means he has been working on his cardio over the summer. Definitely a step in the right direction.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Diamonds said:

Thanks for sharing! 

 

For Jake to be middle of the pack for fitness is a huge improvement and means he has been working on his cardio over the summer. Definitely a step in the right direction.

hopefully, he understands what it takes to be tip top fitness and not simply middle of the pack. 

 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, N4ZZY said:

hopefully, he understands what it takes to be tip top fitness and not simply middle of the pack. 

 

Yep. But there's always gotta be someone coming first and someone coming last. Middle of the pack is definitely an improvement... I'll take it over this time last year that's for sure. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Rob_Zepp said:

I am not sure that is entirely fair as fitness just isn't about bag skating.   He may be middle of that pack but perhaps on squats, hammering people into the boards, having someone's face hit his fist by accident a few times and so forth he may be much higher on the scale.   For a big guy like Virtanen to be middle of the pack for such drills is more impressive than, say, a Jordan Subban doing it - for guys like Subban they had better be leading it or they might as well say to the coaches "I didn't really try this summer".

Thats exactly it. I'm hoping there are some underlying reasons for Subbans rough go. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

49 minutes ago, Horvat is a Boss said:

 

 

 

 

26 minutes ago, dpn1 said:

Listening to 1040 and they were saying Jake was one of the most noticeable during the game in practice today.  Sounds promising. :)

looks like virtanen has shown up.  i like that he and Juolevi are showing some passion. good for olli to know you got a guy on ur team who can punish opposing d.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Virtanen looked really good today. I was driving to the rink this morning and the guys on Sportsnet 650 were saying that, based off a recent interview, Virtanen has matured as a hockey player (in comparison to last year) and they mentioned that he is looking to earn and take a spot on the starting lineup rather than be given one. 

 

As Ryan Biech said, Virtanen and Demko were the first guys out into the ice after it was zambonied, but the ice crew yelled at them to get off hahaha! Quite the moment, but it's the little things that show how far he has come. 

 

During the scrimmmage he was fast and skating hard. Yes, it was just a scrimmage but he was throwing his weight around and letting everyone in the arena know that he's back in Vancouver. He put the body on a couple of guys he lined up on the forecheck, but his most noticeable hit was on Juolevi. It was a hard hit with a little extra something to put Juolevi onto the ice. Chirping ensued. This is the Jake Virtanen that fans wanted. 

 

Offensively, things were very scrambly and there wasn't much of anything for anyone, but he did use his feet to get open in the high slot, receive a pass, and let go of a wrister for a good scoring opportunity. He was skating alongside Baertschi and Granlund (I personally would like to see Baertschi with Horvat, but that prolly goes into a different thread altogether). 

 

It's only day 2 of training camp, but I think  Jake is earning and taking one of the very few winger spots. His fitness is up, he's skating fast and hard, he looks like he's in good position in the defensive zone, and he's playing physical. He does have that shot and offensive pedigree as well, but whichever role the coach gives him he'll make the most of it. Besides, other than the Sedins since when does Vancouver ever have set lines for full seasons? If he makes the team, great!! He'll get an opportunity to be put in a scoring role sometime as long as he continues to work hard and play his game. 

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Blömqvist said:

[...]

During the scrimmmage he was fast and skating hard. Yes, it was just a scrimmage but he was throwing his weight around and letting everyone in the arena know that he's back in Vancouver. He put the body on a couple of guys he lined up on the forecheck, but his most noticeable hit was on Juolevi. It was a hard hit with a little extra something to put Juolevi onto the ice. Chirping ensued. This is the Jake Virtanen that fans wanted. 

[...]

You need to show up in training and especially in scrimmages. Everything starts there..  B)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He looked great today. Looked like he was trying way harder and making good decisions. I know hockey iq is "unteachable" but he actually looked like he was making smarter plays, reading the play better and covering for defenseman when they stepped up. His weight loss + Effort level is showing.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

46 minutes ago, Rob_Zepp said:

Jake Virtanen's first preseason game indicates he is going to make it a hard decision not to keep him in the NHL.   He hit, he skated and he scored.   Green rewarded him with a lot of 3 on 3 overtime ice-time.   

Proclamations of falling skies may have been premature.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...