An afterthought to play for the OHL all-star team, James Livingston proved a welcome addition to the star-studded squad.
ST CATHARINES - James Livingston thought he'd back at his billets' house in Sault Ste Marie watching an OHL all-star team take on the touring Russians Monday night. That's what he thought last week and that's what he thought when he skated off the ice in Plymouth Saturday night after his Soo Greyhounds came from two goals down in the last 90 seconds of regulation to beat the Whalers 5-4 in overtime in Plymouth.
But in the dressing room Greyhounds general manager Dave Torrie gave Livingston the news: He wasn't going back to the Soo with the rest of the team Sunday night but instead he'd be heading to St Catharines for the Russia game. A shoulder injury to Brampton's Matt Duchene opened a spot on the roster and Livingston had been invited to take his place.
"I had no idea that I was even being considered for the team or that I was an alternate," Livingston said, still sounding a little groggy, still feeling the effects of playing four games in four nights and logging a couple of thousand kilometers in drive time on the way.
Even though he wasn't on the original roster Livingston wasn't a spare part in the contest, an exciting 3-2 win for the OHL that was still in doubt right to the last tenth of second. Livingston, a third-round pick of the St Louis Blues, took his place on the first line beside Oshawa's John Tavares and Windsor's Taylor Hall, two players who might end being the first-overall selections in the 2009 and 2010 NHL entry draft.
"With those two guys my job is pretty simple," Livingston said.
Simple but not pretty. Livingston's job was to throw bang and crash and force turnovers either out of brute force or, later, fear. It's not an entirely thankless task but still some wouldn't sign up for it, especially against a Russian team that was not just skilled but physically formidable on the back end. Then again, Livingston is a load at six-two and 215. He's not shy either. In Plymouth Saturday night he dropped the gloves with Jamie Devane, a six-foot-five winger. It's worth noting that Tavares, Hall and Livingston have a combined career total of 23 fighting majors in the OHL. The breakdown explains itself.
Monday night's game was Livingston's first exposure to international play-though he had played for the Ontario team that mopped up at the Canada Winter Games a couple of years ago, he had never donned a Canadian sweater. Any chance to play on a national team is a special opportunity to be sure but on Monday night Livingston found himself in a unique position: playing beside two teenagers considered Nos. 1 and 1A in the Canadian junior ranks. Livingston had a bit of history with No. 1-the Newmarket native played summer hockey with Tavares a few years back. He only knew Hall from playing against him the last couple of seasons, including a game in Windsor Sunday afternoon. Final score: Soo 1 Spitfires 12. Understandably Livingston didn't have much to say about that game beyond "things happen."
His perspective on what separates Tavares and Hall from the pack? "What they have in common is the ability to create something out of nothing," Livingston said. "It looks like they're locked up and no threat to score and next thing you know they're generating a scoring chance. They have great vision of the ice and great hockey sense. And before the game and between periods they're a lot alike in the way that they're so focused."
Tavares scored the opening goal of the game a little over a minute into the second period and ended up winning the POY award for the Ontario side. He could have easily picked up at least two more goals but for the strong performance by Russian netminder Sergey Gayduchenko. Hall picked up a couple of assists in the win. Neither Tavares nor Hall needed to make a strong case for his selection to the Canadian team heading to world juniors next month in Ottawa. That Tavares will be back is a given, only slightly more of a sure thing than Hall's place on the team. They might have been making their case for places on the first line and even developing on some chemistry that they can build on in the tryouts and training camp. Pat Quinn, the Canadian under-20 team's coach was in attendance in St Catharines Monday night and while he was evaluating some on the Ontario side, with Tavares and Hall he was just taking attendance.
Still Hockey Canada could take away something from this game, foremost among them the necessity of some muscle to accompany the talent. That was one criticism that I heard from scouts who worked the Canadian u-20s' summer camp-there were a lot of skilled forwards but none who carried a payload on the forecheck. In a previous column I noted that Kyle Beach was a player who could fill that need.
The game in St Catharines showed just how valuable that type of player is, especially when games aren't being played on Olympic-sized sheets. Livingston and Barrie's Stefan Della Rovere (another household name only in his own household) detonated a few bombs in the Russian zone Monday night. You would have thought that they had a contest going. If they did have a friendly wager the decision would have to go to Della Rovere. He drew a retaliation penalty on Alexey Potapov who was spitting mad after one hit and almost KO'd Russia's best player that night Nikita Klyukin with an open-ice check early in the third. Somewhere Steve Downie was turning green with envy.
One other fellow who was probably taking more than a rooting interest in the play of the top Ontario line in this game was Windsor general manager Warren Rychel. Rumbles persist that the Spitfires will be players in the market when (not if) the Oshawa Generals trade John Tavares. One OHL executive told me that Rychel will jump in if only to keep Tavares away from the London Knights, Windsor's closest rival in the Western Conference. The exec also noted that Rychel likely has more assets to trade with than Mark Hunter in London. Rychel got an eyeful when he saw Tavares, Hall and Spitfires point man Ryan Ellis on the ice together for OHL powerplays Monday night. It might seem like piling on-the prospect of the best team in the CHL adding the best player in the loop, especially if they get Josh Bailey back from the New York Islanders-but standing pat is effectively going backward (just maybe not this fast).
And while the spotlight in Windsor this season is trained on Hall and Ellis, Livingston said that the Spitfires' toughness should get more play. Another way of saying that the team could find someone in his own mould
Other stuff that fell out of my notebook … I was in Ann Arbor to watch the US under-18 development team take on the Marquette Rangers in North American Hockey League Saturday night. I caught a view of three players of interest to OHL. 1. Jeremy Morin, a winger from Auburn, N.Y., the likeliest u-18 player to land on the US under-20 team at the world juniors next month. Morin, whose rights are owned by Kitchener, scored the overtime winner vs Marquette, a wired wrist shot on a solo effort. All skill. He's leading the US team in goal-scoring by a comfortable margin and he dropped the gloves early in the game, his second fighting major of the season. When I spoke to him after the game Morin was coy about his plans for next season-"still looking at my options" was the way he put it. I'd bank on him being in Kitchener. I just don't see him as a fit in the NCAA. 2. Brandon Maxwell, the goaltender whose rights Windsor acquired in trade with Erie. I wrote about Maxwell in this space last week. Maxwell did not distinguish himself. Marquette's three goals were: (a) a 100-foot bouncing blooper that took a 90-degree turn on what looked like a limp cross-corner, Maxwell not even in the crease while he watched it roll in; (b) a penalty shot with less than two minutes to go; and (c) a game-tying goal in the last minute that came directly off Maxwell's turning the puck over on an attempt to shoot the puck into the vacated Ranger cage. I'll give Maxwell some credit-he was still willing to talk after the game. No ifs, ands or buts about his intentions-he will be in Windsor next season, where he'll join his former teammate in minor hockey in Cambridge, Ryan Ellis. How did he find out about the trade? "I got a text message from Taylor Hall." 3. Cam Fowler, a big, nimble late-birthday D-man who ranks as the US team's best blueline prospect and whose rights are owned by-yes-the Windsor Spitfires . "As good as Windsor is this year they have a great shot at being even better next seson," one NHL scout offered up … I was in Windsor for the Soo game Sunday. The less said the better … First returns on Doug Gilmour's turn behind the bench in Kingston. Act I: a huge 5-4 overtime win at home over Belleville Friday. Act II a hard-luck 3-2 loss in Kitchener (winner scored with less than three minutes left) Saturday. Act III: a 6-5 shoot-out loss in Niagara. When I spoke to Gilmour last week, he talked about loosening up his players rather than playing a tight game. "They have to know that mistakes are going to be made, but they have to be the right kind of mistakes, ones when you're trying to create chances," he said. So far so good … Who has been the toughest game so far for the Windsor Spitfires? Taylor Hall reckons the tilt in Belleville was. First game at the new arena in Windsor: Dec 11. Opponent: Belleville Bulls. It's appropriate given not just the quality of the Bulls but the class they showed in their trip to Windsor last season, the Spitfires' first game after the death of captain Mickey Renaud … I asked Stefan Della Rovere if he had any experience playing against Russians. "I haven't really," he said. He thought about it and then added that he had played against this guy and this guy in training camp back in the fall. Yeah, that would count. Everything gets easy after that. Check out SDR's hockeydb.com profile for an explanation. Pretty decent seventh-round draft pick.
