Jeff Tambellini has found himself as a winger for the Vancouver Canucks this season, a considerable change after spending parts of the past five seasons with the New York Islanders. He's even had the opportunity to play alongside the Sedin brothers on occasion; if you've heard of them before, you're aware that's a pretty good arrangement.
"Tamby," as he's been creatively nicknamed, is one of the NHL's most dangerous players in the shootout, with a career shooting percentage around 61.5 percent (8/13). That's "decent," but not quite as good as the time he scored seven straight in the AHL. Dude can shoot it.
His scary accurate (and heavy) snapshot combine with his speed make him a constant threat, and the ideal trigger-man to play with the type of players who can naturally dish the puck. In his 36 games played this season he's a goal short of ten, and doing a nice job to solidify his role on the playoff-bound Canucks.
Q. First and foremost, quite a change going from playing for the New York Islanders to the Vancouver Canucks, I would assume. What's the biggest difference from one team to the next?
TAMBELLINI: I think coming to a team that's ready to win there's always going to be a big difference, just the age of the group, and the experience level that's throughout the entire lineup. There are guys here that have been in playoffs for a number of years, and are talented, talented players. It's just a different building and franchise from the Islanders who are a bunch of up-and-coming superstars. They're young, and their time will come, it's just a difference of where the teams are at in terms of building a winning team.
Fair enough. The coolest thing for me when I look at your season is - you spent some time playing with the Sedins, right?
Mm-hmm.
So, how crazy is that? What it like playing with players that good?
The question I usually get from friends is something along the lines of "who surprises you the most?" on the Canucks. I mean, sounds easy to answer, but the twins are actually so much better than I even thought they were, especially when you're either a), playing with them or just b), getting to watch them every day.
The things they do with the puck, the way they protect it, the patience and the poise in both their games, it's just at a different level. And the craziest part is, they do those things at top speed. And of course, the chemistry they have together is uncanny. For anybody who likes to shoot the puck, playing with them is a pleasure, whether it be one shift, one period, a game or more.
Yeah, no kidding. For me, when I would come up to Bridgeport and get the chance to take a few shifts with yourself or Frans Nielsen, it was always a good experience and a good opportunity, but I always felt inadequate to some degree, given that you guys were far better players than I was. Do you feel that way at all when you play with them - I mean, Henrik just won the Hart Trophy - how do you feel about your own abilities when you're sitting on the bench with them?
No it was ... for me, it was just a great opportunity. At the start of the year I had been in and out of the lineup for a bit and trying to really find a role on the team, and they put us together for just the one night, but we had good chemistry and I got a ton of shots and the goal at the end of the game. Then the next night I scored on the first shift, and before you know it you've got a couple on the board and you're season is going.
It was a great opportunity for me to show that I can play with those guys, and as anyone on this team will tell you, getting to play even a shift or two with a couple of the best players in the League is just, like I said, a great opportunity. They make such good passes and plays with the puck that guys get excited just for the chance to play with them for a few shifts.
I'm guessing you've always felt that you just need the chance to shoot the puck to score at every level, but is there a goalie in the NHL that intimidates you?
There's so much talent in this League, pretty much everybody has evolved into being really good goaltenders. You figure you get enough chances every night that hopefully you'll come out on the right end of it. When you play on a team like this where you have so much firepower it's more like wearing teams down, just keep pounding away and getting enough solid chances and you'll score. This group in general is able to take a 2-1 game and turn it into a 6-1 game that way, and I think that was always my theory at the lower levels too, just get a ton of chances.
For yourself, part of what you bring to a team right now is that you can be a shootout specialist - do you know what your record is in shootouts?
Ahhh I don't, but it's funny, y'know, until they started cleaning the ice, my shootouts were never really that good.
So that made a big difference for you, eh?
Yeah, it made a huge difference. Prior to that it was like "oh great, we've got a shootout."
I found a website that said for guys with a minimum of 10 attempts, you're second all-time in NHL shootout scoring percentage. Do you feel like you deserve more respect for that part of your game?
Nooo, no I hope nobody ever even talks about me when it comes to that.
Ah, "the move."
[Laughs] Yeah, it's the same move, and I don't want anyone to talk about it, I don't want anyone to YouTube it. When you play against goalies that've already seen it, now you're doing the thinking game where they know what I'm gonna do, and I'm wondering if I should go into the shootout bag of tricks, or ... I usually just go back to the well, so I try to keep that as undercover and low-key as possible.
Gotcha, moving on. What sort of team dynamic is there in the Canucks dressing room this year? Is it sort of "Stanley Cup or bust?" Has to be different from last year.
Well first off, I was blown away by the maturity level of this group to start with, I mean, our leadership between the Sedins really controls the way our room works. These guys are such elite players with no ego and such good teammates it's made the entire group have to be just as good as them within the room. It's a dynamic I haven't seen a lot, it's just such a solid group of people that we have in the room, and talented.
That in itself was the first thing I noticed: The focus on the way we're going win, and the way we talk about winning and the way we expect to win, it's something that I've never been a part of. We were on a ... felt like almost a 20-game winning streak where we were picking apart teams 4-1 and the team's still not happy after the game because we know we can play better and we want to play the right way.
But still, y'know you win game after game after game and the focus is still on playing the right way. The fact that there's no complacency and we're just always pushing to become a better group was something that I've been impressed with from both the coaches and players. It's a pretty focused group with one goal in mind.
Right, so who is the influence from within the room that when you win 4-1 it's not good enough? Is that Vigneault, or players?
The guy that's really stepped up and probably deserves more attention is Manny Malhotra. He's been the guy trying to make sure that every guy is accountable for his own actions out there on the ice and y'know, we address problems as a group through him, and talk about the right plays and hopefully it lets the coaching staff leave it a lot more to the players. We can sort stuff out without them having to come in, and it's made each player much more accountable.
Guys feed off that and there's always plenty of good things coming from him, and Ryan Kesler, and Kevin Bieksa, just going down the line with this group, we challenge ourselves. There's so much leadership within the room that's concerned with making sure we're playing the right way.
It's interesting to hear you mention a guy like Kevin Bieksa, who was involved in trade rumours as one of the team's leaders. Your team appears have a bunch of guys that can lead an NHL team in there.
Man, when you look at just our defense, we have nine defensemen who are legit NHL defensemen.
As opposed to your time in New York, where you were lucky to have three.
[Laughs] Well, there's just so much depth in this organization that if somebody goes down there's somebody ready to replace him who can step right in. We sent Ryan Parent down to the American Hockey League, who's a top-end NHL defenseman. He played in the playoffs. Then we got Sami Salo coming back. Salo's gonna replace Alex Edler and we probably won't even miss a beat. That part has been unbelievable, just to have that kind of depth, especially on defense.
You're a guy who's had a lot of success in the AHL but was focused on getting yourself to the NHL as a top priority. Suddenly you find yourself on a team that's going to fight for the Stanley Cup, how different is the mindset this year for you?
On a team like this man, you just fill whatever role you possibly can. For me it's a feeling like I had at the World Juniors back when I was 19, you get into the mindset of "whatever these guys ask of me, I'll do it." Whether it be playing a shift a game with the Sedins or seeing five minutes of ice on the fourth line, I'll do it. You just want to be a part of it, doesn't matter what the role is.
You played in Chilliwack, you're from the Vancouver area; do you get some fans that have been around since your early days?
That's the neat part about playing in your hometown. People are re-connecting with you, and it just means so much more. Just having friends and family around after every game is something that I wasn't used to on the East Coast for the past five years. It's been some big changes in my life, but in general, it's been great.
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