Better late than never?

I meant to start this blog on Thursday when we arrived in Penticton for the Young Stars tournament, but I couldn’t find the time. Today we only had a practice, so time was on my side.

I’ve been asked just to talk a bit about the Young Stars experience and it’s been a blast so far. This is my second tournament and it’s extremely well run and the competition on the ice is intense. The pace is higher this year, or at least it felt like it last night.

Tough losing to the Oilers in overtime, but we rallied well and I was happy with my game. A lot of people have been talking about my hip-check on Kellen Jones; being a smaller guy, it’s important for me to get involved physically if I can. Obviously it’s not my game, it’s not what I’ll be focused on in the NHL, but I want to play a good, sound defensive game and that means getting physical sometimes.

Our next game isn’t until Sunday afternoon (I’m told you can watch it live on Canucks.com), so after practice today Hunter Shinkaruk and I rented some jet skis and hit the water. Penticton is many things and beautiful is certainly one of them. Water, mountains, amazing people.

I actually lucked out and my hotel balcony faces the water and mountains instead of the parking lot, so every morning I open the blinds and wow, what a view!

Not much in store for tonight, just resting up for tomorrow. Might check out the Mayweather fight or maybe just chill. Maybe Evan McEneny, my roommate, and I will channel surf until we find a bad movie to watch! Wild times.

Jordan