Healthy Sutter solves riddle in middle
CORNERSTONE CANUCK: Centre will provide big help on faceoffs, penalty kill and possibly even power play
Brandon Sutter was labelled a “foundation piece” when the centre signed a five-year, US$21.875-million contract extension that kicks in this season.
Sutter would settle for staying in one piece.
The versatile Vancouver Canucks forward was limited to just 20 games last season by Dec. 1 hernia surgery and a Feb. 10 fractured jaw. The road back to productivity and comfortability has been longer than expected.
Sutter scored two goals in three pre-season games, but managing his core strength to ensure he doesn’t have lingering effects from the hernia procedure was of paramount importance.
A healthy Sutter will help the Canucks improve on last season’s league-worst 45.4 per cent faceoff efficiency. He averaged 52.5 per cent in the games he played and, as a right-hand shot, gives coach Willie Desjardins the right defensive-zone faceoff matchups.
He’ll also give the 27th-rated power play more options and the 17th-ranked penalty kill more consistency. And if Sutter hits the 20-goal plateau — he had 21 with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 201415 season — that “foundation piece” assessment by general manager Jim Benning will carry even more clout.
“It remains to be seen,” Desjardins said. “I felt better in games last year knowing he was healthy because it put everybody else in a better (positional) spot. With our second and third (line) matches last year, we were struggling. We were getting over-matched in some cases, and now it’s not like that. He just gives us a different look.”
Sutter was looking for perspective on the recovery road and found it in Dan Hamhuis and Derek Dorsett. Hamhuis had a hernia and Dorsett had double-hernia surgery in the 2015 off-season.
Judging by the way the winger was skating in the pre-season, that should be of comfort to Sutter.
“You always come back a little nervous being out for a while, but you just trust your training and your abilities. It’s gone pretty well so far,” the 27-year-old Sutter said. “It’s kind of ongoing. You have to stay on top of it. It’s one of the things we learned last year that even when you think it’s good, you still have to pay attention to it.
“Once you start losing that strength in your core, you start feeling your groin or your hamstring or hip flexor. It’s all connected right there, so it’s a pretty tricky spot to maintain. The biggest thing is to keep the maintenance over the course of a season because it’s long and your strength is going to lower a bit.”
Last season, Sutter said he felt something in the core region after a Nov. 8 game in New Jersey. Two nights later, he scored on a breakaway in Columbus. The next day at practice, he couldn’t skate and even had a hard time walking. Then came surgery, the fractured jaw, a very long summer of reflection, and some trepidation.
“You’re always worried and that’s the hardest part of the summer,” Sutter said. “All you’re thinking about is: ‘Am I going to be ready? Can I keep up to the pace? Am I going to be behind?’ But you can’t worry about that stuff and you’ve got to go play.”
If all that wasn’t enough, while Sutter was rehabbing, one of the men he was traded for, Nick Bonino, was thriving with the Penguins.
Despite a third-line role and being insulated by centres Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, four of Bonino’s nine regular-season goals didn’t come until the final four games. But when aligned with Carl Hagelin and Phil Kessel, his game took off. He looked fast. He had four playoff goals and the Penguins won the Stanley Cup.
But Bonino was miscast in Vancouver as a second-line centre and Sutter fills several needs here.
Dorsett has helped Sutter maintain his focus. He cautioned that Sutter would feel like he was further along than he really was in recovery. Sure enough, when the centre tried to skate again last November to avoid surgery, the pain only worsened.
Dorsett felt a strain during the playoff series against Calgary in 2015. Two weeks after the Canucks were eliminated, he went for a run in Vernon and felt a lump. He didn’t really know what it was and just left it.
“I then started weight training and was doing some squats and my whole back just locked up and I knew something wasn’t right,” Dorsett said. “The lump was back and bigger and the doctor told me it was a hernia. But once I had the surgery and was healed, my hips and groin just felt unbelievable. That was two summers ago and it still takes maintenance and you’ve got to know your body. It’s an everyday thing.”
Dorsett also knows what peace of mind Sutter can bring to a team. They played against each other in the WHL and the skill set required to play in the NHL — versatility and consistency — is Sutter’s calling card.
He showed flashes in the pre-season. On a penalty kill pairing with Loui Eriksson against the Flames, they controlled play before Sutter’s wrist shot found the top corner for a short-handed goal.
“He’s a leader,” Dorsett said. “You can rely on him. He’s not a flashy guy, but he does all the right things. If we had a healthy Sutter throughout last season, I’m not saying we would have made the playoffs, but we would have had a lot better record.”
Which, of course, is the big key this season. Lose core players to injury and the Canucks will lose traction and slip from playoff contention. If they stay healthy, it’s a different conversation.
Sutter skated between Brendan Gaunce and Jannik Hansen at practice Tuesday and would also look good in a transitional role between Markus Granlund and Jake Virtanen or Jack Skille.
“I’ve never gone a whole year playing with the same two guys,” Sutter said. “Bo (Horvat) and I know our lines have to be good two-way lines and with defensive zone faceoffs, it’s going to be my line on one side and his on the other dot. We have pretty similar responsibilities and we can be a pretty good middle six for our team.”
“(Sutter is) a leader. You can rely on him. He’s not a flashy guy, but he does all the right things.” — Derek Dorsett