Roussel doesn’t plan to change gritty style
Scrappy forward is back on the ice, hoping to return soon from concussion
Antoine Roussel is wired to play one way.
The feisty forward will get under your skin, get in your face and get you to hate him.
“That’s not bad — I’ve heard better,” the Vancouver Canucks left winger said with a chuckle when told that description. “It works for me. You just develop a habit of having success and when I play like that, I have it. It’s a habit you learn very young and it’s all I ever knew.”
What Roussel also knows is he’ll play at some point on this six-game road trip. After suffering a concussion Aug. 30 during a scrimmage in Montreal, he experienced significant post-concussion symptoms.
They were so bad the 28-yearold free-agent acquisition saw a specialist in Detroit before symptoms finally subsided to allow him to practise for the first time Friday.
Roussel doesn’t know how many concussions he has suffered in a rough-and-tumble career that has spanned 413 NHL games and produced 141 points (64 goals, 77 assists) and 806 penalty minutes, all with the Dallas Stars. He has fought 59 times at the NHL level and the manner in which he forechecks aggressively and gets into collisions can also lead to whiplash and concussions.
Will he have to alter the way he plays?
“So far no,” he said. “We’ll see how it goes.”
The obvious concern is Roussel had never experienced a concussion quite like this one. He has tried to rationalize it and hopes being in optimum condition and in full game awareness will lessen the possibility of another setback.
The Canucks could use his grit. However, even when Roussel tried to skate on his own at training camp at Whistler, the dizziness, headaches and sensitivity to light only worsened by the end of the day.
“It wasn’t the optimal situation and I wouldn’t have written a story like that,” he said of that Aug. 30 collision. “One guy was going the other way and we just didn’t see each other and it was as simple as that and it sucks. Maybe, sometimes in the summer you’re not ready for that. You’re looking somewhere else and all of a sudden there’s an impact.”
Roussel has always looked fondly at the Canucks organization and the city.
He first popped up on the radar at the Young Stars Tournament at Penticton in 2011. The Providence Bruins didn’t renew his AHL contract and the undrafted native of Roubaix, France impressed the Canucks to earn a one-year deal with the affiliated Chicago Wolves. He scored four goals, piled up 177 penalty minutes and was teammates with Chris Tanev and Nolan Baumgartner.
“He (Roussel) always played the same way and it’s never left him,” said Baumgartner, a Canucks assistant coach. “He would get under the skin quite a bit — we all know that. But he was dedicated. Every practice or game day, he was first on the ice and would work on something even more and after.”
Added Tanev: “Probably the hardest-working guy I’ve ever played with. He’s definitely missed right now. He was always stirring stuff up and always finishing checks. Very relentless.”
It’s not a surprise that the guy who really sold Roussel on Vancouver was former Canucks pest Alex Burrows. The forwards trained together for eight years before Burrows became an assistant coach this season with Laval of the AHL.
“I always had a soft spot for the city and good games there, but Burrows went deeper to say how great the living is for the family. He said it was the best,” Roussel said. “I always looked up to him as a good mentor and friend. He was always supportive and taking care of me.”
Still, a four-year, US$12-million commitment is a lot of faith in a player who put up only 17 points last season but is supposed to bring more edge to the lineup along with free-agent forwards Tim Schaller and Jay Beagle.
Roussel can make players better because he’s willing to do the dirty work and get his linemates the puck. He played with Tyler Seguin on a few occasions last season and didn’t look out of place, but does have a penchant for taking bad penalties in the offensive zone.
However, before last year’s offensive slide, he hit double-digit goals in four consecutive seasons. And even last season, he was still fourth in hits and the first to come to the aid of a teammate, with 162 penalty minutes.
Roussel expects a bounce-back season and even guaranteed it.
“You can tell by the way this team plays,” he said. “We get a lot of oddman rushes and it’s fast paced. Last year was the opposite. Very slow and frustrating. And when that snowball starts rolling, you can’t stop it.
“It’s about confidence in this league. There are a lot of great players, but not a lot who play like me with balance.”
The return of Roussel will put the Canucks one over the 23-man roster limit.