Pouliot speaks softly, carries a big stick
Soft-spoken Canucks blue-liner lets improving play do the talking for him
Derrick Pouliot prefers to let his emerging game do the talking.
The soft-spoken Vancouver Canucks defenceman can defer from doling out the details because he has a willing spokesman in Michael Del Zotto, who will go chapter and verse on any National Hockey League topic.
And when it comes to his defensive partner Pouliot, who had five blocked shots, three hits and logged 21:53 in Saturday’s 2-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs, Del Zotto knows there is a lot to talk about.
There’s the steady improvement since an Oct. 3 trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins and the elite-level passing. And there’s potential for the pending restricted free agent to be part of the club’s future.
“Each day he talks a little bit more,” a chuckling Del Zotto said of Pouliot following Monday’s practice. “We sit beside each other, so we joke around a bit and there’s a little bit more whispering than yelling. But he has been more vocal as each day goes by and it’s showing in his play on the ice, too.
“He has been great for us, especially when Eagle (Alex Edler) went down (Oct. 12). He stepped up and played some big minutes and did a great job. It’s an uptempo system and that’s the way the game is played now and it suits his style. He’s getting up in the play, he’s making plays and allows us to have the puck in the O -zone, rather than defending a lot.
“And he’s good with all his passes. He’s makes great plays and it doesn’t matter in what zone.”
Pouliot isn’t going to fill the net — he has three goals in 91 career NHL games — but an ability to transition the puck and make the right reads will make the 23-yearold valuable beyond this season. He has earned the right to remain in the lineup, even when Erik Gudbranson returns from an upperbody injury next week.
The Canucks took a gamble when they shipped Andrey Pedan and a fourth-round draft pick to the Penguins to provide Pouliot an opportunity to grow his game under former junior mentor Travis Green. But it wasn’t really a risk. Pedan was a towering presence and willing combatant, but not a prime puck mover and he hasn’t played an NHL game since the trade.
Pouliot had a passing pedigree since his time with Green in Portland, and it just needed to be rekindled.
“It’s a big strength of his to pass on the fly with his head up and snap it,” said Green. “That’s an art. He has been really good at it his whole life. Some guys pass in stride cleaner than others. But to be an elite defenceman you have to pass it hard and flat so it hits the blade and sits there.
“He’s also done a good job in his own zone and we don’t need him to be something he’s not — not yet. You can be a good player without being No. 1 power-play guy.”
Run all this by Pouliot and you get more of nod and a shoulder shrug because he knows he’s still a work in progress.
Mention his triumphant return to Pittsburgh on Nov. 22 — the Penguins’ first-round pick of 2012 (eighth overall) had a goal and a season-high 25:08 in a 5-2 victory — and he will say this much: “It was really neat to go back and play. It was a pretty emotional game, even though it was a back-to-back. I felt full of energy.”
The native of Estevan, Sask., would rather talk about challenges in his game because he appears to have found a home. It’s why the only goal the Maple Leafs managed Saturday — a James van Riemsdyk tip in the slot — still bugs him because that’s what good players do. They’re not going to let anything slide.
“You’ve got to get the guy’s stick and maybe get in front of that one,” he recalled. “But day by day I’m feeling better. Some games, you may be at 80 or 85 per cent, but you have to find a way to be as consistent as you can.”
It helps that Pouliot and Del Zotto have similar styles in a system that plays to their strengths. It helps build puck-rushing chemistry where they instinctively know who’s going and who should hang back. Not that it’s easy.
“Once where he was carrying the puck in the (offensive) zone and I was the second guy I thought: ‘I think I’ll just hold back here,’” said Pouliot. “You just read off each other. And if we can both jump up in the play, it takes a little pressure off you to do it all the time.
“One thing I really noticed is that he (Del Zotto) defends hard (a team-high 61 hits, 43 blocked shots) and is more of a physical presence than I thought. He has a high compete level.”
So does Pouliot. He just doesn’t talk about it much.
But day by day I’m feeling better. Some games, you may be at 80 or 85 per cent, but you have to find a way to be as consistent as you can.