Dylan a complete unknown — except to Segal

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
It is rare, indeed, to find a junior hockey player who professes to be a fan of Bob Dylan — yes, that Bob Dylan.
But such is the case with goaltender Mark Segal of the Vancouver Giants.
“My dad is a Dylan fan . . . has been for a long time,” said Segal, an 18-year-old WHL freshman from Vancouver, as he prepared to face the Kamloops Blazers in a WHL playoff game at Interior Savings Centre.
While in high school, Segal said, he listened to the same music as everyone else — “rock.”
But as time wore on he went back to his childhood memories. His father, a psychiatrist who is from South Africa, listened to a lot of Dylan. And so it was that when he revisited his childhood, Segal became a Dylan fan.
Segal has twice seen Dylan in concert, once in Seattle and once at Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum, which just happens to be the Giants’ home arena.
Segal said he doesn’t listen to Dylan prior to games — he prefers to leave the American Troubadour for his spare time. Instead, Segal listens to hip-hop and some country around the rink.
Overall, though, he said he listens to “everything . . . Neil Young . . . Grateful Dead . . . country.”
There is, he said, a lot of country in the Giants’ dressing room, something Segal blames on “some of the guys from Saskatchewan.”
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Ask the Kamloops Blazers what’s playing in their dressing room and you get a variety of answers.
“It’s a mix of everything,” offers freshman forward Colin Smith, a 16-year-old from Edmonton. He said he listens to “whatever is new” and “whatever is good.”
Does he listen to Bob Dylan?
“I don’t know who that is,” Smith replied.
Veteran forward C.J. Stretch, 20, said a lot of ’80s rock plays in the Blazers’ room. He mentioned Motley Crue and Metallica, just for starters.
And what about Bob Dylan?
“I don’t know who that is,” said Stretch, who is from Irvine, Calif.
The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind . . .
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Vancouver forward Brett Breitkreuz sounded quite pleased to hear that Bob Green, the general manager of the Edmonton Oil Kings, had taken in Game 3 of the series on Tuesday night.
Breitkreuz, who scored the overtime goal in the Giants’ 5-4 victory, was acquired from Edmonton at the Jan. 10 trade deadline.
“I have nothing bad to say about the Edmonton Oil Kings organization,” said Breitkreuz, a 20-year-old from Springside, Sask. “It was a special place to play for two and a half seasons. They treated me with nothing but respect and class . . . they are going to have a geat organization there in a couple of years. They have some great young players.”
The Giants got Breitkreuz and forward Tomas Vincour, 19, for forwards Garry Nunn, 20, Mike Piluso, 19, Sebastien Svendsen, 18, two bantam draft picks and a conditional pick.
“I hope the trade works out for the best for both teams,” Breitkreuz said. “I really do thank Bob Green for this opportunity.”
The Giants wanted to get bigger up front at the trade deadline, and the 6-foot-2 Breitkreuz and Vincour, at 6-foot-2, have fit right in. So, too, have James Wright, a 6-foot-3, 200-pounder, who was returned by the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning, and Brett Lyon (6-foot-2) and Milan Kytnar (6-foot-1), both of whom were acquired earlier in the season.
“I think I fit in in Vancouver . . . with what the Giants are trying to do,” said Breitkreuz, whose younger brother, Clarke, finished up the season with the Prince George Cougars.
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The Blazers now have lost six straight overtime games on home ice.
That includes two losses to the Prince George Cougars in the spring of 2007, one to the Kootenay Ice in 2005 and another to the Cougars in 1998, along with a 3-2 loss to the Kelowna Rockets a year ago Wednesday.
The last time the Blazers won in OT at home? On April 6, 1996, F Jarome Iginla scored at 13:23 of extra time to provide a 4-3 victory over the Tri-City Americans.
Since that Iginla goal, the Blazers also are 2-6 in OT games on the road.
That includes two losses in triple OT — to the Calgary Hitmen in 1999 and Kootenay in 2003 — and the longest game in WHL history, a 3-2 loss to the Ice in Cranbrook on March 25, 2003.
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The Brothers GM — Scott Bonner is the Giants’ general manager; brother Craig is the Blazers’ GM — bear a striking resemblance to each other.
So it was no surprise to Scott when the parking lot attendant at the ISC mistook him for his brother Wednesday night and asked why he was slowing down.
“You know where you park,” she said to him.
It was, Scott said, the third time it had happened that day.
He twice was asked if this was the night the streak — the Blazers went into Game 4 having lost 18 straight playoff games — would end?
“It happens all the time,” a laughing Scott said of being mistaken for his brother, “and that’s the worst part.”
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JUST NOTES: Vincour signed a three-year NHL contract with the Dallas Stars on Wednesday. Vincour was a fifth-round pick by the Stars in the 2009 NHL draft. In the regular-season, he had 48 points, including 29 goals, with Vancouver and Edmonton. Vincour was a late scratch prior to last night’s game. No reason was given, but he did take a stick to the face in a Thursday practice. That cost him four teeth and he took 12 stitches. He played the first three games of the series wearing a full shield. . . . The NHL’s Vancouver Canucks have signed F Prab Rai, 20, of the Seattle Thunderbirds. Rai was a fifth-round pick by the Canucks in the 2008 NHL draft. He had 69 points, including 41 goals, with the Thunderbirds this season.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com