Official Site of Darcy Hordichuk

Darcy takes on Chris Neil of the Ottawa Senators. 12.28.08

Hordi takes on Stortini again…

You’ve heard of the Gordie Howe hat trick, right? But how about the enforcer’s points streak?
“Right now I’ve got a little points streak going, but I know my role and I love my role,” Darcy Hordichuk said.

Hordichuk is on a tear — two goals and three points, and a plus-three to boot, over his past five games — three of them skating with a painful broken bone in his foot.

If it’s not quite a streak in the literal sense of the word — Hordichuk was kept off the scoresheet in two of the five games — it’s a streak of sorts for a guy whose goal total already this season matches his combined total for the past two seasons.

And really, his last game, at Nashville on Tuesday, shouldn’t even count since because of the way the penalties unfolded, he only got onto the ice for 3:09.

A mere four shifts, when he averages about 10 or so.

It’s a shame because he was really looking forward to showing his old employers they made a mistake by not re-signing him. (Plus it’s probably where he and his wife will retire to once hockey’s done, so much did they love his three seasons with the Predators.)

“It’s a long season,” Hordichuk said. “When we go back there in December [for a New Year's Day game] we’ll have our fun again and hopefully I can make an impact.”

Alain Vigneault takes a lot of heat over his trigger-happy penchant for shaking up lines.

The Sedins will likely retire without ever playing a season with a regular right winger again.

But Vigneault’s decision to throw Hordichuk, Jannik Hansen and Moose call-up Jason Jaffray together on the fourth line — to say nothing of putting Steve Bernier with Alex Burrows and Ryan Kesler on the third line — has looked so far like a stroke of genius.

“I’m just feeling more confident and getting more comfortable,” said Hordichuk, who set up Jaffray’s first NHL goal of the season. “It’s fun.

“Getting a chance to play with Jaffs, he’s being playing real well, and Jannik, it’s just a different outlook on the fourth line.”

Hordichuk missed two games on the road trip — at Columbus and Detroit — after taking a shot to the laces.

The puck broke his second metatarsal, one of the five long bones in the forefoot which attach to the toes. He wears a protective shield over the front of his left skate and it’s actually less painful to skate than it is to walk (it’s the up-down lifting motion that hurts most).

Doctors have told him it’ll be sometime in mid-January before the bone is fully healed.

“When you’re skating you’re pushing off sideways,” he said, “except sometimes when you’re turning you can really feel it.

“But I’ve doubled my goals from last year already, so that’s not a bad thing. It’s funny that I’ve played some of my best hockey with a broken foot.”

Darcy scored his second goal of the season in the Canucks lost to the Avalanche.

Milan Hejduk loves to play against the Vancouver Canucks. The rest of his Colorado Avalanche teammates are enjoying it, too.

Hejduk added to his reputation as a Canucks killer with a goal and two assists, and he scored the decisive goal in the shootout to help the Avalanche beat Vancouver for the eighth straight time, 5-4 on Sunday.

In 57 career games against the Canucks, Hejduk has 34 goals, his highest goal total against any NHL team.

“There is not really a good explanation for it; I don’t have one,” Hejduk said. “I know the stats are good for me against this team, but we do play them a lot, being in the same division, so obviously I would score more goals against them than the others.”

Wojtek Wolski, Marek Svatos and Hejduk scored for Colorado in the shootout, and Peter Budaj made 34 saves. Colorado is 5-1 in shootouts this season.

“Our shootout guys have been very good,” Avalanche coach Tony Granato said. “Those guys are all talented.”

Colorado defenseman Daniel Tjarnqvist forced overtime, scoring his second goal of the season with 2:48 left in regulation.

“He got a quick shot off,” Vancouver goalie Cory Schneider said. “I’m sure it glanced off of somebody to just change it enough that instead of hitting me in the stomach it went under the armpit.”

David Jones and Ryan Smyth also scored in regulation for Colorado, and Paul Stastny had three assists.

Steve Bernier had two goals for Vancouver, Daniel Sedin and Darcy Hordichuk also scored, and Kyle Wellwood connected in the shootout. The Canucks last win over Colorado was a 2-1 overtime victory Nov. 9, 2007.

“In my mind we should have won this game,” Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault said. “I think we played well enough to win this game, but when you put two pucks in your own net by your own sticks it’s a little more challenging.”

Bernier gave the Canucks a 4-3 lead with 10:03 left in the third on a one-timer from the right circle. Earlier in the period, Hejduk tied it when he picked up a loose puck in the slot and flipped it past Schneider for his 11th goal of the season.

Hordichuk gave Vancouver a 1-0 lead just 2:17 into the game, and it held up until the second period when Jones tied with a great individual effort.

Jones skated out of the Colorado end and chipped the puck along the right boards into the Canucks’ end. He skated by defenseman Shane O’Brien and, with the defenseman trying to check him off the play, Jones leaned over and slipped the puck past Schneider for his fourth goal of the season.

Smyth gave Colorado the lead with his ninth goal. Smyth took a pass from Hejduk as he skated into the Vancouver end and put a hard wrister under Schneider’s right pad to give Colorado a 2-1 lead with 8:35 left in the second period.

Sedin and Bernier scored goals 2:04 apart late in the second period. Sedin knocked in his own rebound for his team-leading 12th goal of the season with 4:11 in the period, and Bernier scored a power-play goal to make it 3-2.

Source: Canucks.com

Darcy Hordichuk plans to keep playing even with a fractured bone in his foot that means he can’t walk without wearing a protective boot off the ice.

He doesn’t think he has much of a choice, not after his teammate Ryan Johnson played for a month with a similar injury.

“What are you going to do? You suck it up, right,” Hordichuk said. “Everyone keeps saying how R.J. played through it.

“I still can’t walk without the boot. Guys are laughing at me, but I can’t put the pressure on it. The swelling has gone down, which is nice. But I think I’ll be in this boot for a while.”

Hordichuk missed a week before returning Friday with teammates calling him a “warrior.”

He had a good game against the Wild, skated hard and helped set up Jason Jaffray’s game-winning goal.

He said playing through the foot injury has been easier than when he was playing despite a banged up knee earlier in the season.

“When I was taping up my knee, I didn’t feel like I was playing my game,” Hordichuk said. “Now, it’s a foot. But it feels a lot better than the knee. I think I’m back on my game, running around and being physical.”

Hordichuk now has a goal and an assist on the season, both points came in his past three games.

“It’s not expected but I feel confident out there,” Hordichuk said. “I just have to be a little bit more patient with the puck. I think that’s what our line has been doing well.

“I do feel good but I don’t know how soon I’m going to be able to drop the gloves.”

We’ve got two days between games and seeing as I have a little time, I might as well get some writing done.

Even though we’ve been at home for most of the last month, it seems like we’re on the road quite a bit because our trips so far have been quite lengthy. I don’t mind road trips but being away from my wife and my dogs can be difficult too.

As much as travel can be a toll on the body, getting to hang out with the guys on the road and getting a chance to do things together makes it much easier. I mean, we don’t always all go out together but there’s always a good number of us at one time so it’s fun.

Being with Vancouver is different than, say Nashville, because we’ve got such long road trips, we get more time on the road and a little more time to see the cities (but between games and practices, it really is just a little more time). In Nashville, we’d get to St. Louis or Detroit, we’d get in at around dinner time, eat, and then play the next day.

I think starting out on the road like we did definitely helped with the bond of the guys and we’re a really tight-knit group and it shows on the ice too.

My roommate right now is Mason Raymond and I’d like to spill some secrets about him but he’s really just a good kid. He’s got a lot of energy and he’s an easy guy to get along with so I can’t complain.

Although I’m sure if you ask him about me he’d complain about my snoring. I’ve caught him a couple times trying to wake me up when it happens but when you get your nose broken a couple of times, it’ll happen. If I do catch him trying to wake me up though, I come out swinging – good thing it hasn’t happened too many times (so far).

But sometimes I think he’s walking on eggshells around me and maybe he’s got to step up to me once in a while and say no to me but I think the intimidation factor just overwhelms him – just kidding! We get along great, right Mason?

Thinking about it now, Mason reminds me a little of Alex Radulov, who I played with in Nashville because they’re both really young. When Alex first came over from Russia, he said he had never been to Disneyland so when we were on a trip to LA, I took him there and we spent the whole day there. Our hotel was pretty much right next to it so we did all the rides and saw the characters – he was like a kid in a candy shop. I think he was maybe 19 or 20 at that time. Having grown up in Canada (or for anyone in North America), I think we take for granted moments like that and he really appreciated getting to go there.

Next week will be my first trip back to Nashville and I’m excited to go back there to see some old teammates and friends so it’ll be good. Vancouver’s a great city and believe me, I have zero complaints but I miss some of my friends and my neighbours. We had a nice house with a firepit in the backyard with a bocce ball court so that was nice.

I think our dogs, Chandler and Franklin miss the backyard the most. There’s no backyard where we’re living right now, just the street and a little landing strip of grass on the side walk but luckily there are a lot of good dog parks for them.

My dogs were named after cities that we lived in, so it’s Chandler from when we were in Arizona and Franklin for when we were in Tennessee. I‘m not sure if we’re going to continue the naming tradition for little boy, it might be hard. We’re not too sure about Van or Couver for a name but we’ll see.

The Canucks have lost winger Darcy Hordichuk for an undetermined period with what coach Alain Vigneault called a slight foot fracture. Hordichuk suffered the injury when he blocked a shot in Saturday night’s 3-1 loss in Calgary. Winger Mike Brown took his spot in the Vancouver lineup.