Hello friends,
Thanks for your patience while I've been off serving my many masters. I have now been in St. Petersburg for a week and we're midway through the round-robin portion of the World Championship tournament.
The sun continues to shine and I'm appreciating more and more aspects of the lifestyle here, that I wasn't expecting.
I keep hearing that because of its location on the western edge of Russia, this city is the most "Westernized" of the entire country. For me, the locals have gone above and beyond in their efforts to make my stay here comfortable and pleasant.
You'll never believe this—there's barely any indoor smoking. My entire hotel is smoke free, as is the arena. I see a few people huddled around doorways doing the deed but for the most part, the air is clean and crisp—and fresh air makes me a very happy traveller.
I'm becoming more and more convinced that more people speak English here than I found in Prague last year. Maybe I'm just more acclimated now, but even outside the hockey bubble, I'm finding that I can get by.
Remember last week, I told you about how you'll now find ethnic cuisine here? I had a late lunch today at a "Belgian Gastropub" called Brugge that's close to the arena and would fit right in if it was in Yaletown.
I had a veal steak, beautifully presented on a bed of mashed potatoes, with a side order of grilled vegetables. The server, who was knowledgeable, professional and spoke solid English, recommended a smooth beer with some sweetness and a bit of a banana flavour. It was very refreshing.
After lunch, I walked back to my hotel. It was a bit of a hike—about 5k, I think, maybe a bit more due to the slightly roundabout route I took. But I enjoyed the opportunity to check out the locals going about their business on a beautiful Friday afternoon, coming home from work, buying groceries, playing in the park with their kids. All very pleasant and normal.
After reading the excellent TSN piece on the background of the Victory Day holiday and why it's so important to the Russian people (
click here if you missed it, I feel a bit guilty that I'm so appreciative of the un-crowdedness of the city now that I realize that more than three-quarters of the city's population was wiped out during World War II, mostly due to deliberate starvation after the Nazis cut off the area's food supply. From what I'm seeing, they're doing a brilliant job of building a cultural hub that could become world-class in the next couple of decades. But I admit, I haven't seen the city in winter, and I don't know all the ins-and-outs of what's happening with the overall political and economic system in the nation.
One thing I will say—it's not just us North Americans that are impressed. I interviewed Marko Dano of Slovakia (and the Winnipeg Jets) today, and he was also quick to chime in on how happy he was to have had the opportunity to play tourist with his team yesterday on their day off.
The Slovaks play Canada tomorrow. Dano said they'll put together their game plan at Saturday's morning skate.
The Canadians remained tied for top spot in Group B after a 5-2 win over Germany on Thursday night. I realized last night that this world is very different from what we're used to with the Canucks when I was in a state of panic that the Canadians were in a 2-2 tie with the Germans after 40 minutes. I don't just expect wins over here—I expect big, bold, blowout wins. Nothing else will do.
Earlier on Thursday, I had a one-on-one chat with Canucks goaltending prospect Thatcher Demko, who's in the third-goalie role for Team USA here in St. Petersburg.
Like his Boston College predecessor, Cory Schneider, Demko seems to have a pretty level head. His competitive fire made him feel impulsive after losing in the Frozen Four, but he still took the sensible road and gave himself some time think things over and wait until he had cooled off before deciding whether or not to turn pro.
I like the fact that he has booked a full summer for himself, too, with more schoolwork as well as development camp and a to-be-determined training regimen. It's not like he's planning to casually waltz into training camp now that he has has pro contract in hand.
I know we're all expecting that Demko will take a year or two to develop in the AHL before making the jump to the Canucks. Maybe the new development model is Pittsburgh's 21-year-old Matt Murray, who has outduelled goaltending icons Henrik Lundqvist and Braden Holtby to get the Pittsburgh Penguins into the Eastern Conference Final.
Murray is where he is because Marc-Andre Fleury suffered a concussion shortly before the playoffs began, but his postseason has been close to flawless, especially considering his limited NHL experience.
I suspect Murray's playoff performance has made it much easier for the Team North America braintrust to determine who will start in net at September's World Cup of Hockey.
I would love to see Demko get into some game action here in St. Petersburg, but I think it'd take an injury to Mike Condon or Keith Kinkaid even to get him onto the bench as a backup. As he said, "I’m ready if they call on me. I'm having a blast. I love representing my country. Even though i'm not playing, I still get to wear…(laughs)…the practice jersey."
Pronman's Draft Rankings
One other note before I sign off for today. Corey Pronman, who covers prospects for ESPN, released his Top 100 draft prospects yesterday.
Pronman's article is behind a paywall. I subscribe to the ESPN site, which has some of the best sportswriting around, including about hockey, and it's not expensive, so I don't want to quote too much here.
He has taken his stand on the Laine/Matthews debate—which I think will get a semi-definitive verdict once we see how things shake out in the medal round here at the World Championship. What really caught my eye is that Pronman moved U.S. center Clayton Keller WAAAAY up after his outstanding performance at the U18 tournament—like, into the area where he could be a possibility for the Canucks.
From what I've heard, that's not an unreasonable assessment. Keller was *that* good in North Dakota. So there's another name to throw into the mix when you set your future lines and present your mock drafts.
I'll look more at Keller in the weeks to come...
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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