"We're The Smartest Fourth Line In Hockey":

This was in yesterdays Vancouver Sun Newspaper:

"We're the smartest fourth line in hockey": Canucks pair Ivy Leaguers Volpatti, Glass

Everything coming up roses, or rather Ivy, for Vancouver Canucks' fourth line

By Brad Ziemer, Vancouver SunDecember 17, 2010

Coach Alain Vigneault has tried everything in a seemingly endless search this season to find a fourth-line combination that clicks for his Vancouver Canuck team.

He added some size in Joel Perrault and more recently injected some speed and skill in the form of Jonas Andersson. Now, it seems, he has settled on smarts.

"We're the smartest fourth line in hockey," winger Tanner Glass quipped Friday about the addition of fellow Ivy League graduate Aaron Volpatti.

Glass took history at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, while Volpatti majored in human biology at Brown University in Rhode Island.

All of this has their centre, Alex Bolduc, feeling a little bit like he isn't worthy.

"My high school back home in Quebec I think was ranked 215th in the province," Bolduc said with a laugh Friday. "But I'm not too worried about it. We're talking about street smarts. I grew up on the streets. Let's see who lasts longer out on the streets."

Of course, Volpatti's IQ really didn't factor into Vigneault's decision. He's simply making the umpteenth change on his fourth line this season in the hopes he can find a unit capable of playing more than the five or six minutes a game the line has been averaging.

"I think as a group we have played our best when we had a balanced lineup, when we had our four lines and we had Jannik Hansen there," Vigneault said. "I could spread the minutes out and we seemed to have a better pace and a better tempo. That is what we are trying to do here, find four lines that are going to enable us to have that pace and tempo."

Enter Volpatti, who believes he will become the first Revelstoke native to play a NHL game when he steps onto the ice late this afternoon to play against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

"It's pretty special," said the 25-year-old. "It's obviously a dream come true playing Hockey Night in Canada in my home province."

A dream that he will share with his parents, sister and some friends who are all making the trip down from Revelstoke for this afternoon's game. His dad, Tony, has been a machinist for CP Rail for about 25 years and his mom, Lana, and sister, Brianne, both work at the local hospital.

Volpatti thinks his family may be even more excited than he is about his NHL debut.

"Obviously I am very excited, but I am going to try and relax and play my game and play hard," he said. "But I'm sure they'll be on the edge of their seats."

Volpatti isn't here to score goals. In fact, he hasn't scored any this season in Manitoba, where he has six assists and 44 penalty minutes in 26 games. The Canucks like his grit, energy and physical play. The fact he doesn't mind dropping the gloves doesn't hurt either, especially against a Maple Leafs team that just might try and outmuscle the Canucks.

He's had six majors this season with the Moose and managed to accumulate 115 penalty minutes in his senior year at Brown, despite the fact there's no fighting in college hockey. At six-foot-one and 185 pounds, he's hardly a heavyweight.

"I welcome it, it's part of the game," Volpatti said of fighting. "I did a little bit of it in junior so it's not like I've never done it. It's a part of my game, but it's not like I am going to be squaring off with the heavyweights. I am going to play hard, get in on the forecheck and stuff happens after that."

The Canucks outbid several other teams for Volpatti's services last spring and had to pay handsomely to sign him. Volpatti received a $200,000 bonus when he signed his two-year deal that guarantees him $200,000 a season at the AHL level and more than $600,000 with the Canucks.

Volpatti is just the latest Moose player to get a fourth-line audition and he hopes to make the most of it.

"I don't know what the plan is, maybe they want to find the right mix of guys and are giving guys some opportunities," he said. "Either way, I am going to take advantage of it and just play my best and hopefully I can stick around."

If he plays well, Volpatti figures to be around at least until injured winger Mason Raymond is ready to play. Raymond's return will have a trickle-down effect that will likely result in Jannik Hansen returning to the fourth line.

Vigneault got a first-hand look at Volpatti when the Moose played a Nov. 27 game in Abbotsford. In that game, Volpatti flattened Heat centre Mitch Wahl with a hard open-ice hit. Wahl hasn't played since.

"We had been talking about Volpatti here for quite some time," Vigneault said. "We watched him in Abbotsford when he came there and he brings energy, an element of grit and we thought it might be the right time to try that here with Toronto coming and then that three games four nights on the road. So we will see what that line can do."

Besides the hockey intangibles, defenceman Kevin Bieksa figures there are other benefits to having another well educated player like Volpatti on the team.

"It just brings the overall IQ of the team up," said a smiling Bieska, who is a graduate of Bowling Green State University in Ohio. "It's no secret we're a little low on this squad here with a lot of guys from major junior. Kes (Ryan Kesler) only went (to college) for one year. We have a ways to go in that area. Certainly with him and Tanner around, conversations are a little more interesting."