It’s been a wild past 48 hours for new Vancouver Canucks forward Jimmy Vesey. The 27-year-old was put on waivers by the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday, and by Wednesday, he was suiting up with a new team.
The Canucks picked up Vesey on Wednesday at about 9 am PT, about seven hours before they were set to play a road game against the Ottawa Senators.
Before he had a chance to really process the move, Vesey jumped into his car and headed north, making a four-hour drive in an attempt to make his Canucks debut.
“I drove from Toronto to Ottawa, right when I got the official word at noon that I was claimed. Got to the rink at about 4:15 and left my car there,” Vesey told reporters via Zoom today. “I was prepared to play the game but obviously the paperwork issue held that up. I watched the game and then got on the plane with the guys and I’m in Montreal now.”
Vesey drove to avoid having to quarantine before joining his new team, which he would have had to do had he taken a commercial flight. He made it on time and even took the pre-game skate, but his Canadian work visa couldn’t be processed in time, so he had to sit it out.
His car, by the way, is still sitting at the arena in the Ottawa suburb of Kanata.
For fans, this may stir up thoughts of the legend of Artem Chubarov, a former Canucks player who simply ditched his car in the underground parking lot at Rogers Arena (known as GM Place in those days), when he left for the KHL in 2004.
The plan for Vesey is to get it shipped somewhere eventually.
Familiar faces
Vesey is from Boston, and has mutual friends with Adam Gaudette. He also played against Thatcher Demko in college — Vesey beat him out for the Hobey Baker Award in 2016 but Demko’s team ended his season.
But Vesey is actually a close friend with J.T. Miller, who he won a World Junior gold medal with as members of Team USA in 2013. The pair also played together during Vesey’s first two years with the New York Rangers.
Jimmy Vesey said he’s close with new #Canucks teammate J.T. Miller. They even met for dinner this past summer.
“He was in Boston for a couple days this summer and we had dinner,” Vesey said, who added that they planned to go golfing together, but it got rained out.
“I know Millsy really well and it’s great to have a familiar face in the locker room. He was one of the first people that reached out.”
“It’s sh*tty when you get put on waivers”
Getting put on waivers has to be a shot to the ego of any hockey player, given that it means the team you’re on is willing to risk losing you for nothing.
“It’s shitty when you get put on waivers,” Vesey said bluntly. “No one really wants to experience that.”
Perhaps it’ll be a blessing in disguise though for Vesey, who had fallen out of favour quickly in his first season in Toronto. After averaging about 12:58 minutes per game in January, Vesey’s time on ice dropped to 10:58 per game in February. In March, his average ice time dropped to 8:59 per game, including a season-low 4:41 of ice time last week in Winnipeg.
Subsequently, through 30 games he has just seven points.
“We’re all athletes and competitors and we want to perform. So overall, I’m just really excited to have this chance (with the Canucks).”
Vesey will get a much better opportunity to succeed in Vancouver. He was lined up with Brandon Sutter and Jayce Hawryluk during the pre-game warmup, but will probably be elevated in the lineup, assuming Tanner Pearson misses time with the injury that caused him to leave Wednesday’s game early.
It remains to be seen if he’ll play special teams, but he has experience playing on both the power play and penalty kill during his five-year NHL career.
“I’m excited for the opportunity and through talking to the coaches, it looks like I might have a more prominent role on the team than what I had with Toronto. You’ve got to love that opportunity and that chance to succeed ultimately. I think this team has a lot of good pieces in place and hopefully I can add to the mix and help this team to win hockey games.”
Vesey has baby face, but has imposing size at six-foot-3 and 202 pounds. He doesn’t play a big bruising style of game, but the left winger does have the skill necessary to succeed in the NHL.
“I’ve always felt that when I’m on top of my game that I belong [in a top six role]. I think for me, it’s just a matter of consistency, and being able to do that every night.”
What went wrong
A star in college, Vesey was a highly-coveted NCAA free agent before signing with the Rangers in 2016. Vesey’s first three years in New York went well, with him scoring 16-17 goals each season. After notching a career-high 35 points in 2018-19, he was traded to Buffalo, but struggled with the Sabres — as nearly everyone does with that franchise.
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“Last year wasn’t what I wanted. Got off to a bad start in Buffalo, but as the year went on I progressed… It’s tough to say, but if you throw out the first 20 games of that year, I think I was statistically about on the same pace as what I had been in New York.”
Vesey had a disastrous start in Buffalo, scoring just two points in his first 19 games. He had 18 points in 45 games the rest of the way.
With the Leafs, Vesey was a victim of playing on a deep team.
“This year (in Toronto) I played a little bit up the lineup to start the year, but mostly was down the lineup. Toronto’s got a lot of talent obviously, and a lot of depth. It was a competitive roster.”
Vesey can play at the NHL level, and it’s easy to see why he struggled in Toronto. But with the Canucks, a team in desperate need of depth at forward, there should be no excuses.
“I’m looking forward to this opportunity and going to try to take it and get back to where I was… I’m excited for the challenge.”
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
