Time to break the ice
KITCHENER, Ontario – Trevor Glass and David Rutherford are hoping to make the most of a rare second chance.
For Glass, it’s another shot at what he came so close to achieving one year ago when his former team – the Medicine Hat Tigers – lost the Memorial Cup championship to the host Vancouver Giants.
“It really sunk in (earlier) this year that it’s just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Glass said after the Spokane Chiefs had their first practice Thursday. “You really want to look back and have no regrets. You always look back and think of what you could have done different and wonder what else would have happened, so it’s just awesome that this year I’ve got another opportunity.”
The 19-year-old veteran defenseman, who won a Western Hockey League title with the Tigers last season and again this season after he joined the Chiefs in a trade-deadline deal, has been a stalwart since arriving in Spokane on a team whose identity is centered on defense. Through 21 games, Glass has scored one goal, recorded eight assists and is fourth on the team with a plus-11.
Since being drafted 10th overall by Medicine Hat in the 2003 bantam draft, Glass has appeared in 190 regular-season games (27 with the Chiefs) and 59 total playoff games – by far the most postseason experience of any of the Chiefs.
For the first 3 1/2 years of his career, Glass played on the blue line with Medicine Hat’s Jordan Bendfeld, a Phoenix Coyotes prospect.
“Medicine Hat was all I knew,” said Glass, whose defense partner in Spokane is two-year veteran Mike Reddington. “I was with one coach the whole time and I played with same defense partner since I was 16. It was definitely a bit of a change going from (Medicine Hat) to (Spokane) but I felt like part of the team as soon as I got here.”
For Rutherford, it took a little longer.
A healthy scratch for the Giants as an 18-year-old during the 2006 Memorial Cup tournament in Moncton, New Brunswick, the current Chiefs overage forward never cracked the Giants’ lineup. When the Giants lost in the semifinals, Rutherford was told not to worry – he would get his chance the following year when the Giants hosted the Cup.
“That chance never came,” said Rutherford, who was traded to Spokane at the start of last season.
He found his niche soon thereafter, scoring 31 goals and 58 points in 69 games during the regular season.
Marred by an early-season groin injury at the beginning of this year’s campaign, Rutherford missed 18 games but stormed back in the second half to score 22 goals and 21 assists in 52 games. Rutherford is second in scoring for the Chiefs in the playoffs with nine goals and nine assists in 21 games.
“It’s almost fitting that we’re here now and I get my opportunity,” said Rutherford, who was born in nearby Mississauga, Ontario, and lived there until his family moved to Vancouver when he was 6. “It’s nice to know I’ll get to play (for the Cup), but at the same time I’m not here for vacation or for the experience. I’m here to win. That’s all I care about.
“Where I was more of a guy (in 2006) that was supporting (the) guys and just trying to stay positive, now I have the chance to prove myself. It’s a tremendous feeling, but the feeling of winning it would be better then any feeling I’ve ever had in the world.”