Ross learns it's all about defence

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
It has taken a while but Nick Ross says he has learned a valuable hockey
lesson — it isn’t always about the points.
Which is why, for the first time in his WHL career, the Kamloops Blazers
defenceman is playing with renewed focus and vigour in his defensive zone.
Ross, who was acquired from the Regina Pats on Jan. 4, was selected by the
Phoenix Coyotes in the first round of the NHL’s 2007 draft. He has since
signed a three-year NHL contract and attended the Coyotes’ training camp in
September.
It was after returning to Kamloops, Ross said, that the light went on.
“They said I make good passes, the same old stuff, but that (I) have to
compete harder in the (defensive) zone,” Ross, 19, said. “I mean, it’s not
the kind of thing that comes naturally to me. It’s kind of how I’ve been my
whole life . . .sometimes I look too composed out there. I really have to
set my mind before games to go in there and win every battle in the corner
and play strong defensively.”
Through his first three WHL seasons, Ross earned the reputation as a player
with lots of potential, but one who was so nonchalant that he bordered on
being uncoachable.
“When I was younger, I was always with a veteran (defenceman) and you really
didn’t notice (my shortcomings) as much,” Ross said. “Last season, I came
here . . . I was here for (three) months and I was minus-13. I want to be a
two-way defenceman . . . really solid.”
In 31 games with the Blazers last season, Ross, who is from Lethbridge, had
19 points but was minus-13. This season, prior to Wednesday night’s game
against the visiting Prince George Cougars, he had six points in 16 games
and was plus-5.
“He’s been getting better,” Blazers general manager Craig Bonner said
Wednesday afternoon. “He’s paying attention to detail and has been a good
player for us.”
Ross said there is a reason for his paying attention these days.
“I want to be way better defensively than I was last season,” he said. “Last
season, if I didn’t get a point, I’d think to myself about it. But now I
know at the next level I’m not going to be able to do that. It’s going to
take me a while to learn to be an offensive defenceman there and to play
there I have to be good in my own end. So I really want to improve in that
area this season.”
Which is where Scott Ferguson and Geoff Smith, the Blazers’ two assistant
coaches, enter the picture. Both are former Blazers defencemen who went on
to play in the NHL, which gives them a lot of credibility in the Blazers’
dressing room.
“They’re great . . . they’re great coaches,” Ross said. “You have to listen
to them. They’ve got a lot of experience. They’re really easy to talk to.
They‚ve helped me out a lot.”
It also has helped Ross that he and defence partner Kurt Torbohm, a
sophomore out of Chase, have developed a certain chemistry and have grown
into the Blazers’ shutdown defensive pairing. That alone makes Ross’s plus-5
rating that much more impressive — he spends much of his time defending
against the opposition’s top forward line and he plays for a team that went
into last night having allowed six more goals than it had scored.
“Playing with (Torbohm) is great because I know if I jump up he’s going to
be back there,” Ross said. “I also want to try and keep it in the
(offensive) zone and make their top line play defence because not many top
lines can do both.”
There is a shortage of defencemen — good defencemen and depth defencemen —
in the WHL and Bonner, who has seven on his roster, said his phone rings all
the time.
“I get calls about him and other defencemen all the time,” Bonner said. “But
Nick is interesting to other teams because they look at him as the guy who
could put them over the top.
“But he’s the same as anybody else . . . we talk about guys all the time.”

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com