Big Bad Blog » B’s Bruiser returns to the Looch Lair

B’s Bruiser returns to the Looch Lair

Posted By Joe Haggerty On October 28, 2008 @ 9:32 am In General | 1 Comment

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Lucic will be playing in front of friends and family tonight...

It’s a homecoming tonight for Vancouver homeboy Milan Lucic, who played junior hockey for the Vancouver Giants and is appropriately pumped to play his first ever NHL game at GM Place against the Canucks on Tuesday night. The local Vancouver media has the requisite “prodigal pugilist coming home” stories with the best of them including a photo gallery and baby picture of Looch ^[4] before he became the 20-year-old glass-shattering Hulk lurking on the TD Banknorth Garden ice.

Lucic told ESPN’s Louise K. Cornetta last weekend that he was understandably besieged by ticket requests in his home city, but he instead bought just seven tickets for his parents, siblings and grand-parents to attend the game. Lucic’s older brother Jovan, however, rented out a luxury box at GM Place for at least 70 of Lucic’s closest admirers, so there should be an usual amount of cheering and “Looch Calls” for the Bruiser in the Spoked B on Tuesday night.

The Looch started slowly during B’s training camp this fall amid expectations that he was going to immediately morph into Cam Neely as a 20-year-old NHL neophyte, but it’s fair to say he’s now hitting his stride after creating a youtube sensation with his monster hit against the Maple Leafs and then following that by rattling off the first hat trick of his career last weekend. Much of Lucic’s success can be traced to the natural physical gifts bestowed upon the hulking power forward, but the youngster also has the work ethic to match — as his former Vancouver Giants strength and conditioning coach, Ian Gallagher, told Pucks with Haggs last month: ^[5]

“He certainly did a lot of his power speed-work and he’s getting older now…so his game is coming along appropriately fast. The first step is all about power that allows you to go from a stationary position to full exertion very quickly. So plyometrics are a big staple of his program and power cleaning is a big staple of his program. Change of direction is big with a lot of diagonal sprints where they’re stopping and going quickly There was steady growth for Milan over the summer. He’s got great genetics and he’s a very committed person. He came back very motivated and very willing to improve, and his scores improved over the summer as you expect somebody would that’s got the proper motivation. Nothing surprises me with Milan though because he’s got a real disposition for growth.”

“He’s got a great frame to put on muscle mass and handle it. He’s got great levers and he’s got a very strong core and a good musculature to him that allows him to excel,” said Gallagher. “His leg mass is tremendous. His leg press is well over 900 pounds for eight reps and his power clean for reps is 275 pounds, which are both really football player-like numbers.

“Which is a little amazing because he’s got a very unassuming musculature to him. Because you look at his arms and there’s not a heck of a lot of mass to them, but his core is just so bloody powerful. His legs are massive and his trunk is massive, and when he gets those big muscles going it demonstrates itself in a powerful way when he collides with somebody or when he’s shooting the puck. I think it’s one of his biggest assets.”

New rules kicked around at GM Meetings

Here’s a good piece from respected columnist Ken Campbell from The Hockey News ^[6]about some of the rule proposals discussed at the GM Meetings in Chicago that Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli mentioned to Pucks with Haggs last week. Included in the proposals are some pretty revolutionary ideas, like penalizing players for leaving their feet to block shoots.

Offense has been up thus far this season, but these kinds of rules would really take the NHL back to the offensively heavy NHL days of yore. Diving to block shots is such a time-honored, gritty way to play ‘D’ in your own zone that I’d be hesitant to take it out the game, but wide open hockey does have its positives.

–In other link news: Don Cherry takes some well-aimed shots at Dallas Stars bad boy Sean Avery ^[7]during last weekend’s Coach’s Corner on Hockey Night in Canada after the rough-and-tumble forward backed out of a few fights over the last week — including a potential scrap with New Jersey Devils forward David Clarkson, who dropped his stick and had the gloves coming off in anticipation. Something tells me Clarkson might have been defending the honor of legendary goalie Martin Brodeur, who Avery called “fatso” during the playoffs last season when the NHL adopted the “Avery Rule.” ^[8]

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[2] : #disqus_thread

[3] Image: http://blogs.weei.com/files/2008/10/lucic12.jpg

[4] best of them including a photo gallery and baby picture of Looch: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/sports/story.html?id=7963f977-a7ad-4a9a-a961-a6176ff86782

[5] as his former Vancouver Giants strength and conditioning coach, Ian Gallagher, told Pucks with Haggs last month: : http://blogs.weei.com/joehaggerty/2008/10/02/dont-mess-with-the-looch/

[6] columnist Ken Campbell from The Hockey News : http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/19202-Campbells-Cuts-Radical-ideas-keeps-game-headed-in-right-direction.html

[7] Don Cherry takes some well-aimed shots at Dallas Stars bad boy Sean Avery : http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/hockeynightincanada/coachscorner/

[8] the “Avery Rule.”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec_2oKWe2Gw

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