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Campbell takes the lead; Maata makes Utah debut

Posted on by Vanessa
Campbell takes the lead; Maata makes Utah debut

Intelligence personnel and intelligence services
| The Detroit News

Toronto — Jessica Campbell stood behind the visitors' bench and watched the evening's opponent warm up.

The Seattle Kraken assistant coach was concentrating on the Dallas Stars' forward lines and defensive pairings when she noticed a young girl in the stands.

“Just so excited,” Campbell remembered the face looking back through the glass. “I looked at her hard in that moment… I realized that I am looking at her and she can now see what she can become. I never had that.”

Campbell, 32, is the first woman in NHL history to hold an assistant or assistant bench coaching role after she was hired in July after two seasons with Seattle's top minor league affiliate.

“I started to really get to know the group and the team, they got to know me,” she said. “The demands of the schedule, the vigorous enforcement of it all, it’s just a matter of getting through it all.”

It's also about managing attention as a pioneer.

“When I go through these moments, I don't take lightly the path that I'm taking and charting,” said Campbell, who spoke to reporters in Montreal and Toronto this week as she marked her first NHL games in Canada. “But I think this schedule and this job has so much to offer that I can’t take a moment for granted. I never do that.”

Campbell, a native of Rocanville, Saskatchewan, played college hockey at Cornell University, professionally in the now-defunct Canadian Women's Hockey League and on the national team. She grew up a Canadiens fan and wore the iconic red, white and blue jersey – her mother Monique taught her to skate – on freezing prairie ponds in southeastern Saskatchewan.

It was surreal Tuesday night as she sat on the bench at the Bell Center as Seattle beat Montreal 8-2.

“At the end of my CWHL career, I played a game at the Bell Center and went to the Habs game with my parents right after,” she said. “It was just a full-circle moment where I really felt all the emotions of this journey.”

Campbell got through the game in a flash.

After retiring as a player and completing a coaching stint in Sweden, she began working as a power skating consultant when the pandemic hit. That meant NHL players in British Columbia needed ice time as the league prepared to restart in the summer of 2020. Those workouts in the Okanagan Valley made her think there was a path to the NHL.

“I proved it myself when they showed up and paid for my services,” Campbell said. “They gave me permission to believe in this dream because I didn't see that it was possible. They showed me it was possible.”

Her reputation as a power skater later earned her an assistant coaching role at the 2022 Men's World Cup with Germany. Seattle then hired Campbell to work with Stanley Cup winner Dan Bylsma on the Kraken's American Hockey League team.

When Bylsma was promoted to the top job in Seattle in May, she packed up and followed a month later.

“They were great and very respectful,” Campbell said of the players’ welcome. “I may be different to them than they are to me… They are very familiar with the way I work now. I believe that I am a very approachable and compassionate person.”

Her style is shaped by the coaches she valued as a player – and those she didn't.

“The power of positivity is real,” Campbell said. “Even the top players sometimes don’t even know how good they are. You give certain players confirmations and they go out and just get rolling even more. Take care of them as people, get to know them, how they work, how they function.”

Campbell, who won silver for Canada at the 2015 Women's World Cup and won gold as captain of the U18 team in 2010, said she feels like she belongs at the highest level of hockey.

“Focus on my work and hope that the success or impact is positive and can only do good things for others,” she said. “It keeps me grounded and gives a lot of meaning to the work I do. I’m part of something much bigger than myself.”

Former winger Maata makes his debut in Utah

▶ (At) Utah 5, Calgary 1: Mikhail Sergachev had a goal and two assists, Connor Ingram stopped 30 shots and former Red Wing Olli Maata was a plus-1 in his Utah debut.

Maata, acquired from Detroit late Tuesday night for a third-round draft pick, played the second-most minutes (20:06) behind Sergachev's team-leading 22:46.

Alexander Kerfoot, Barrett Hayton, Maveric Lamoureux and Clayton Keller also scored to help end Utah's four-game break.

Former winger Anthony Mantha scored a goal for the Flames, who lost for the fourth straight season. Dustin Wolf finished the game with 23 saves.

▶ (At) LA Kings 5, Vegas 3: Anze Kopitar scored a goal and two assists, including his 800th career assist, Adrian Kempe and Kevin Fiala each scored a goal and an assist, and Warren Foegele, Alex Laferriere and Joel Edmundson also scored for Los Angeles, which included three has won the last four.

Brandt Clarke contributed three assists, Mikey Anderson had two assists and Darcy Kuemper made 23 saves.

Kopitar's assist on Fiala's power-play goal at 6:23 of the third period made him the fifth player born outside North America to reach 800 assists, joining Jaromir Jagr (1,155), Evgeni Malkin (809), Nicklas Lidstrom (878) and Henrik Sedin ( 830). Kopitar also joins Sidney Crosby (1,013) and Malkin of Pittsburgh and Patrick Kane (818) of Detroit as active skaters to reach the milestone.

Pavel Dorofeyev scored two goals and Tanner Pearson also scored for Vegas. Ilya Samsonov stopped 20 shots.

▶ Tampa Bay 5, (at) Colorado 2: Nikita Kucherov scored the first of three Tampa Bay goals in the first 5 1/2 minutes, Jake Guentzel and Conor Geekie also scored early goals against goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen, who was making his season debut for Colorado after being recalled from Winnipeg on waivers had been.

Tampa Bay's Anthony Cirelli scored an empty-net goal with 1:20 left in regulation.

Ivan Ivan converted a shot from Cale Makar for a power play goal late in the first period. Makar added a goal in the third period. Andrei Vasilevskiy finished the game with 33 saves, earning his 299th career win.

Makar and Nathan MacKinnon were both rewarded with an assist on Ivan's goal, extending their season-opening points streak to 11 games.

(At) Columbus 2, NY Islanders 0: Damon Severson kept the game scoreless in the third period and Elvis Merzlikins stopped 28 shots for his first shutout of the season.

It was the first time this season that the Blue Jackets (5-3-1) have won back-to-back, but they have taken seven points out of a possible eight in their last four games.

Semyon Varlamov made 24 saves for the Islanders (3-5-2), but was pulled back for a sixth fielder with 2:30 left. Justin Danforth scored an empty-netter 27 seconds later.

Griffins lose 3-2 in overtime in Hartford

The Grand Rapids Griffins lost a 3-2 overtime decision to the Hartford Wolf Pack on Wednesday at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut.

Dominik Shine scored both goals for Grand Rapids, Sebastian Cossa stopped 28 shots and Antti Tuomisto picked up an assist to extend his point streak to three (0-3-3).

McDavid will be out for two to three weeks due to an injury

Connor McDavid is expected to miss two to three weeks with an ankle injury, the Edmonton Oilers announced Wednesday.

McDavid, the reigning playoff MVP who led Edmonton to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, was injured Monday night when he tripped and went left skate first into the boards on his first shift in Columbus. The team sent him home to be evaluated, raising fears that it could be an extended absence for hockey's undisputed best player.

The Oilers would obviously be particularly cautious with McDavid, especially early in the season and given their ambitions of another long playoff run this spring. The 27-year-old scored ten points in his first nine games before his injury.

A three-time Hart Trophy winner as regular season MVP, McDavid led the NHL in league goals with five in nine seasons and was tied for first in goals once. The injury could cause him to miss between six and eleven games.

Sharks acquire defender Liljegren

The San Jose Sharks have signed defenseman Timothy Liljegren from the Toronto Maple Leafs.

They sent back fellow defenseman Matt Benning, a 2025 third-round pick and sixth-rounder, in the trade completed Wednesday.

Liljegren, a 25-year-old Swede, has appeared in one game so far this season. He is a veteran of 210 regular season and playoff games in the NHL.

The Maple Leafs clear more than $1.5 million in salary cap space with this move, which sets the table for free agent activation by signing Jani Hakanpää from long-term injured reserve. Liljegren is making $3 million and Benning is making $1.25 million, with each player under contract through next season.

Toronto receives the former of the three third-round picks San Jose has. The Leafs added Hakanpää and Chris Tanev to their blue line to bolster themselves after another first-round playoff exit, and the 30-year-old Benning brings more size and physicality.

In Liljegren, the rebuilding Sharks are getting a younger player with more offensive potential who could benefit from a change of scenery.

Michigan Region Ice Hockey Schedule

Wednesday

▶ Jets 6, Red Wings 2

▶ Hartford 3, Grand Rapids 2 (OT)

Friday

▶ Rockford at Grand Rapids, 7

▶ Michigan at Boston University, 7

▶ Michigan Tech in Northern Michigan, 7

▶ Northern Michigan at Michigan Tech, 6

▶ Ferris Green at Bowling Green, 7

Saturday

▶ Saber at Red Wings, 7

▶ Michigan at Boston University, 7

▶ Ferris State at Bowling Green, 7th

Sunday

▶ Grand Rapids at Cleveland, 6:30

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