Ellerby on Canada-Russia

From The Daily News of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2007 . . .

Keaton Ellerby’s excitement at being part of Team Canada’s domination of a Russian side was tempered Monday by the news that one of his best friends had been traded.
“Me and Kraus were best buddies and hung out a lot so that’s pretty disappointing,” Ellerby. a veteran Kamloops Blazers defenceman, said from Calgary. “He called me and told me. He’s pretty upset. He stayed over the summer and really enjoyed Kamloops.
“Oh well, he’ll get more opportunity to play in Tri-City. I think it’ll be good for him.”
Ellerby, who turns 19 on Nov. 5, had just arrived in Calgary from Vancouver where he and Team Canada completed their series with Russia by beating the visitors 6-1 on Sunday. The Canadians emerged from the eight-game series with seven victories and a tie, outscoring the Russians 39-13 in the process.
Ellerby, who was selected 10th overall by the Florida Panthers in the NHL’s 2007 draft, admitted he was surprised with the total domination.
“A little bit,” he said. “You never know with the Russian teams. If you get all over them they tend to shut it down. Obviously, our game plan was to get all over them every game, get the first goal and take their confidence away. We did that and it seemed to work for us.”
As the series got underway, however, Ellerby admitted thinking it would be a battle, especially after falling behind 2-0 midway through Game 1’s first period.
“I thought we had our hands full but we responded quickly and took it to them from then on,” Ellerby said, adding that he expected a bit of a slow start. “It being our first game together and getting first-game jitters out and getting used to playing with each other . . . I think we expected that.
“But after that first period we came back and played well together the whole series.”
The series opened in Russia with two games in each of Ufa and Omsk, before shifting to Canada for games in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Red Deer and Vancouver.
The 6-foot-3, 185-pound Ellerby was quite pleased with the way he played. In eight games, he had two assists and 26 penalty minutes, including a misconduct late in Sunday’s game.
“The coaches told me they felt comfortable in playing me in most situations,” stated Ellerby. “They were happy with the way I was playing and let me play all eight games. That was definitely nice.
“I thought I played well. I just tried to keep it simple and not do too much, just stay within myself.”
He was paired with Kelowna Rockets defenceman Luke Schenn, who is projected as an early first-round pick in the NHL‘s 2008 draft. They took a regular shift and killed penalties together.
“We played lots of 5-on-5,” Ellerby said. “We played a lot of minutes so it was good. We played really well together. We played against one of their big lines and didn’t give them much. I think we did a good job.”
While hockey was the name of the game, Ellerby said the team had time to play a bit of the tourist game, too, especially in Moscow where it held a pre-series camp.
“We stayed in an unbelievable hotel there and got to tour around the city a bit,” he said. “Ufa and Omsk were good, too; the arenas were unbelievable and the hotels were good, too.”
There were two things that he really noticed.
“There’s a lot more people over there,” he said, “and everybody lives in apartments. There’s no houses or anything like that.”
He said there aren’t any neighbourhoods as we know them.
“No, no, no, not at all,” he stated. “There are apartment buildings absolutely everywhere.”
Having gotten this taste of the international junior game, Ellerby is hungry for another opportunity he hopes will come in December. Team Canada will hold its selection camp in Calgary, starting around Dec. 10, with the world junior tournament set for Pardubice and Liberec, Czech Republic, Dec. 26 through Jan. 5.
“I want to play very badly,” Ellerby said. “After this experience, I think everybody on the team is very excited for world junior tryouts and we can’t wait for them to come.
“After this and getting the ice time I did and the coaches telling me they had confidence in my playing ability, it gave me a lot of confidence going into December.”
That is three months away. In the meantime, Ellerby will head for the Miami area Wednesday where he will join the Panthers. Then it’s off to Vail, Colo., where the team opens training camp with medicals Thursday. He hopes to play in at least one exhibition game -- the Panthers meet the Flames in Calgary on Sunday -- before rejoining the Blazers.
“Everybody is saying we’re looking pretty good,” Ellerby said, “so I’m excited to get back and get going.”