Ross getting comfortable in Kamloops

From The Daily News of Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008. . . .
Nick Ross thought he was safe.
It was New Year's Day when Ross, then a defenceman with the Regina Pats,
heard Todd Ripplinger, the WHL team's director of scouting, on the radio.
According to Ross, Ripplinger said: "We're not going to trade Nick Ross
away."
That was after the Pats had fallen 2-1 in overtime to the visiting Swift
Current Broncos. As things turned out, that was Ross's last game with the
Pats. He found out Jan. 4 that he had been traded to the Kamloops Blazers.
"It kind of came as a shock after that," Ross, who turns 19 on Feb. 10, said
following Monday's practice at Interior Savings Centre.
A lot of what followed is something of a blur. There was a flight to Kelowna
the next morning, along with defenceman Spencer Fraipont who also was
involved in the deal, and a game that night against the Rockets. Then it was
on the bus to Vancouver and then into the U.S. Division for four three.
Sheesh, Ross, Fraipoint and centre Devon Kalinski, who came over from the
Calgary Hitmen, were with the Blazers for a week before they even met their
billets.
While Ryan Bender, Victor Bartley and Brock Nixon, the players the Blazers
traded away, had time to join their new teams and then return to Kamloops to
pick up personal belongings, that hasn't been the case with Ross. His Regina
billets are packing for him.
"They're putting it in my vehicle and shipping it here . . . putting it on a
truck, I think," said Ross, who leads his new team into action tonight
against the visiting Kelowna Rockets. Game time is 7 o'clock.
The deal involving Ross -- the Blazers got Ross, Fraipont, and a 2008
fourth-round bantam draft pick for Bender and Bartley -- started as a
"sparring process," according to Kamloops general manager Brian Fortin.
"We had inquired off and on about Ross," Fortin added. "We heard they wanted
Bender. They were feinting . . . they were really reluctant to move Ross. It
was a long affair."
In the end, the Blazers got Ross.
"I'm a two-way defenceman," said the 6-foot-1, 185-pound Ross, who was
selected by the Phoenix Coyotes with the 30th selection in the NHL's 2007
draft. "If we need goals I can play really solid offence. If we need to play
defensively, I'm a real good defensive d-man. I move the puck real well and
I can play specialty teams. I can play in any situation."
In his first five games with the Blazers, he has a goal and three helpers
and is minus-5. But the first four of those games were road losses in which
the discombobulated Blazers were outscored 24-5.
Ross, who had 28 points and was plus-1 in 41 games with Regina, much
preferred what he saw Saturday as the Blazers, back on home ice, beat the
Chilliwack Bruins, 2-1.
"When our team works hard we can compete with anyone," Ross said. "I've only
been here for a little bit but this team has guys who have so much heart.
You need that to really be good in this league. If you put us against anyone
in the league in a seven-game series, if we stick to the system . . . that's
one of our plans. We have to stick to the system for 60 minutes."
By sticking to a game plan, Ross said his club should be able to cut down on
the number of shots it has been allowing opponents, a figure that has been
30 or higher in each of its last 10 games.
Ross said that the buzz in the east is that Western Conference teams are "a
lot more technical and defensive. Generally, there's a lot of powerhouses in
the west. They like to play their systems really well."
Ross began his life near Edmonton but grew up in Cochrane, Alta., and moved
to Lethbridge when he was in Grade 8. His mother, Elaine, is a school
teacher and his father, Rory, has retired from the RCMP. Nick's only
sibling, Brad, was taken by the Portland Winter Hawks with the fifth pick of
the 2007 bantam draft.
Going back to the 2004 draft, Regina took Nick with the 34th selection. So,
before being traded, all he knew was the Pats organization.
"I'd been there for a few years and had so many friends on that team . . .
not just friends for a year but lifelong friends," he said. "But the guys
here are great and I can really see this team being just as close."
BLAZERS BUZZ: RW Brady Calla (groin), C Tyler Shattock (broken leg) and C
C.J. Stretch (concussion) didn¹t skate Monday. Only Calla is likely to play
tonight. . . . LW Matt Riley, 16, has returned to the junior B Port Moody
Black Panthers. . . . Kamloops players will spend Wednesday evening at The
Keg Steakhouse and Bar on Lorne Street taking part in the annual
Tip-A-Blazer promotion. All monies raised will go to the SPCA.