At the end of the Vancouver Canucks' 2014-15 NHL season, most of us had Ronalds Kenins slotted into a permanent position on the big club's depth chart after he impressed with his gritty game and timely scoring during 30 regular-season and five playoff games.
Jim Benning appeared to agree, signing Kenins to a one-year, one-way contract worth $600,000, according to
General Fanager. But after coming out soft in preseason, Kenins was sent down to the Utica Comets before the beginning of the regular season and had a relatively unspectacular year: 5-18-23 in 41 games with the Comets and pointless during eight games with the Canucks.
After the Comets were eliminated from the AHL playoffs, Kenins signed on with Team Latvia for the World Championships. Playing on the top line with Zemgus Girgensons and Kaspars Daugavins, Kenins was minus-two in the Latvians' 2-1 overtime loss to Sweden on Friday, then was ejected after dishing out a head hit on defenseman Tomas Kundratek late in the second period of Latvia's 4-3 shootout loss to the Czechs on Saturday.
Take a look:
International hockey does not take kindly to plays like this. I wonder if Kenins will face supplemental discipline?
It's another lowlight in a rough season, where 25-year-old Kenins is expected to become a Group VI Unrestricted Free Agent on July 1. As things stand right now, I'd say the best-case scenario for him would be a two-way contract to return to Utica, but I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up going back to Europe next season.
Also a bit grim—Yannick Weber's Swiss team dropped a 3-2 decision to Kazakhstan on Saturday thanks to the shootout heroics of former NHLer Nigel Dawes, who has spent the last five seasons in the KHL. Weber played a game-high 22:00 for the Swiss, finishing with an even plus-minus and four shots on goal.
A different ex-Canuck had a very good day in Moscow on Saturday. Not to be confused with his teammate Nicholas Jensen, a defenseman, former Vancouver No. 1 draft pick Nicklas Jensen scored twice as Team Denmark shut out Norway 3-0 to open their tournament. Both of Jensen's goals came at even strength, in just 11:03 of ice time. Jannik Hansen is playing on a talented top line for Denmark with Nikolaj Ehlers and Lars Eller, but failed to record a point.
On Sunday, Canada kicks off the action here in St. Petersburg against Hungary—a team that has returned to the World Championships this year after spending the last six seasons in Division 1. So—the Hungarians really are just happy to be here.
If you're up and watching the game at 2 a.m. PT, keep an eye out for No. 38. That's 41-year-old forward Frank Banham, born in Calahoo, Alberta. Banham was drafted in the sixth round by the Washington Capitals back in 1993 and played 32 NHL games over several stints with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and Phoenix Coyotes before moving his career to Europe in 2003-04.
Despite being one of the lowest-ranked teams at this tournament, Hungary put on a pretty decent show in their first game against Slovakia on Saturday, losing 4-1.
Later today, Finland faces Germany and France plays Slovakia here at Yubileiny Arena. In Moscow, the Russians will try to pick up their first win of the tournament when they play Kazakhstan, then Norway plays Switzerland and Sweden faces Denmark.
Saturday was a low-key day of writing for me, so let me share the fruits of my labours.
First,
click here for my Bleacher Report slideshow on players to watch here at the tournament, which does include one Canuck.
More excitingly—for me, anyway—
click here to check out my first piece for NHL.com, about Friday's Connor McDavid/Auston Matthews meeting.
I'll be writing a bunch of features for them while I'm here, with an eye towards setting up September's World Cup of Hockey.
I'm learning that the Wifi here in the hotel becomes utterly unreliable in the late evenings—presumably, when most people are back in their rooms. So, when I couldn't get online to work last night, I learned that Russian TV is not so different from what we're used to back in Canada.
On Channel One, I was treated to Part One of a TV movie about the 1972 Canada/Russia Super Series!
Obviously, the Russian version of events won't have the same joyous ending that has been part of our national culture ever since Paul Henderson scored the tournament-winning goal, so I'm not sure how they're going to spin the second half. Or maybe there is no second half?
Last night's show ended with the famous scene of Phil Esposito spouting off after Team Canada was booed during their loss in Game 4 at the Pacific Coliseum.
For the most part, the culture shock since I've been here hasn't been as enormous as I'd expected, although I have mostly just been working and inside the hockey bubble. Still, watching that movie last night really drove home to me that, deep down, we're really just a couple of hockey-mad nations at heart.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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