Dunbar Proudly Leading the Canucks
November 24, 2009
It was just another Saturday evening hockey game at Max Bell Centre in Calgary. The hometown Canucks had fought back to a 3-3 tie with the visiting Bonnyville Pontiacs. John Dunbar had already scored the goal that tied the game at two early in the second period. Now he was on a foray into the Pontiacs zone. He lost the puck behind the net, but crafty talent that he is, he went to the side of the net and waited. Sure enough, with 27 seconds left in regulation time, Jared Wynia made a fine play to get the puck to Dunbar and the diminutive forward tapped it into the open net for the winning goal.
Ah yes: the diminutive forward. It has to be acknowledged that Dunbar is not the biggest man on the ice physically. The Canucks say he is 5’7 and 160 lbs – which might be generous. But you ask any teammate he’s ever played with, any coach he’s ever had, or anyone who’s ever tried to defend against him, and you’ll get a decidedly different perspective.
“He’s learned how to play in a physical game in a physical league like the AJHL,” says his coach, Don Phelps. “He’s become really good at using teammates as decoys, even though he tends to pass rather than shoot. I’ve often wished he’d shoot the puck more. But if he’s holding onto the puck, he’s usually drawing at least one checker to him. That means somebody is open and John’s pretty good at finding that open man.”
Born and raised in Calgary, Dunbar grew up playing the game but became accustomed to being ignored for elite age level competition.
“I was always small,” he told me. I always thought I was overlooked because of my size. I never played in the Alberta Cup. I wasn’t picked in the WHL bantam draft. I didn’t make the under 18 team. But when I went to Edge School as a 16 year old, I found out I could play. Kevin Primeau was my coach and it was a great year. I played on the touring squad and we traveled a lot, playing tournaments in Canada and the US. That spring, I was an affiliate player with the Canucks and wound up playing in the post-season. It really helped my transition into the AJHL at the start of last season.”
Dunbar spent the first part of last season as a kind of alter-ego to another diminutive centre, Matt McKay. The two played on different lines and frustrated opposition coaches desire to blanket them with good checkers. McKay has moved on to play in Medicine Hat. Dunbar, with an extra year of seasoning, has 14 goals and 36 points in his first 23 games.
It’s a performance that earned him a spot on Team West at the recent World Junior A Challenge in Summerside PEI. Team West finished second to the US for the second straight year. Dunbar had a ball.
“I played with Daniel Carr from St Albert and Cam Reid from Westside in the BC Junior League,” Dunbar said. “We generally were the number two line and got some powerplay time. Those guys are both good shooters so I was kind of the setup guy which plays to my strengths. And while we were there, we went to some schools and talked to the students about goals and working hard to achieve them”
Speaking of school, Dunbar has made the decision to attend Quinnipiac University, a small Division 1 school in Hamden Connecticut, about 90 minutes north of New York City. The university has an undergraduate population of about 5,700 students and Hamden has a small town feel to it.
“I haven’t decided what academic courses to take yet,” says Dunbar. “We’ve been talking about my going there since early summer. I went on my school visit in October. By then they had offered me a scholarship. But I didn’t sign until after I came back from Summerside. It turns out that Kellen and Connor Jones, who I played with on Team West, have decided to go there as well. That didn’t really factor into my decision, but it will be nice to know some guys when I go there next fall.”
Between now and then, though, Dunbar is focused on trying to bring a championship banner to Max Bell Centre. He likes what he sees in the Canucks locker room, and recent wins over the Pontiacs, the south division-leading Camrose Kodiaks and a road victory in Drumheller, has the Canucks in second place in the south.
“There’s been a fair bit of turnover in our roster from last season,” Dunbar told me. “We picked up goalie Chase Martin who’d been playing for Spokane while I was in Summerside. He’s giving us a good solid presence in the net along with Dustin Nickle who’s been really good. We got Jason MacDonald back from the Hitmen. We’ve gotten good solid play from our defensemen like Ryan Moir who’s been really steady for us and who makes the right play without being fancy. And our new assistant coaches, Rob Miller and Doug Hodge along with Ryan Barrett are good communicators and have won the respect of the players.”
It’s an early season recipe for success. But it’s a long season, full of ups and downs before the playoffs begin in late February. In Calgary, at least, the march to a championship is being led by a little man who casts a big shadow. There’s no question John Dunbar is the leader. There’s no question his teammates are ready to follow. The only question is whether the march will be de-railed or not. It will be an interesting march to watch.
