Willie Mitchell Winning Converts in Vancouver

Over at Puck Daddy this weekend, Greg Wyshynski repeated one of the absolute truisms of today’s NHL: we all love Calgary’s Jarome Iginla because he’s a superstar who not only puts the puck in the net, he’s also not afraid to stand up for himself and drop the gloves when the time comes.↵
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↵Such was the case on Saturday night against the Canucks when the Calgary captain tussled with Cancuks defenseman Willie Mitchell:↵

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But there’s another side to this story. Because while Iginla might have won that battle, it was Mitchell -- who was assigned to shadow Iginla -- and the Canucks who won the war. Here’s Ben Kuzma of The Province (British Columbia) on how Mitchell is winning over his teammates:↵↵⇥While the television highlight clip and an image in many papers captured Iginla landing a late left hand, Mitchell was ahead on the scorecard. He also won the intimidation game because Iginla was held pointless and finished a minus-1 on the night. Mitchell was plus-3.↵⇥↵⇥Needless to say, Mitchell also won the admiration of his teammates for taking on Iginla.↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥“That’s awesome,” said Ryan Kesler. “They battle game in and game out and see a lot of each other and it was good for them to go toe-to-toe.” [...]↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥“I knew he was a tough guy to play against and a very good defenceman, but what he did [Saturday] was huge,” said centre Ryan Johnson. “It resonates through the rest of the year.”↵⇥

↵↵I’m not going to pretend that Mitchell is some sort of superstar. Then again, in a league with a salary cap, there’s something to be said for players who know their role and excel in embracing a style reminiscent of Neil Sheehy.↵