The one about…his last name

Two I’s, two O’s, two T’s, two Z’s, a P and an N.

Forget the second I and don’t emphasize both Zs and you’ve got “Pinizzotto,” Steve Pinizzotto said slowly Saturday morning as the Excellent Adventure landed in his hometown of Mississauga, Ontario. “If I tell someone to spell it, it’s not happening.”

Pinizzotto said his last name has been butchered “millions and millions and millions” of times, basically by anyone that has ever tried to say it. “I’ve heard Pennazato and Pizzanova, I just hear A’s instead of the O’s, but I’m almost done correcting people because I’ve heard it different so many times.”

He took teasing in stride in grade school, it’s unclear what they rhymed Pinizzotto with, but there’s always something. It has led to a few fisticuffs on the ice, however. He did not elaborate, he just laughed.

Pinizzotto’s father is Sicilian, as are his grandparents on his father’s side. His mom was born in Canada by German parents; Pinizzotto has dual citizenship, but can’t speak or understand a lick of German. He hasn’t even opened his German passport.

Someday he will.

“I’d like to go explore Germany and see where my mom’s side grew up,” he said. “I’ve been to Europe before, Austria, Italy and Germany, actually, but it was during my last year of junior and our coach took the whole team there to tour around a play eight games in 14 nights. There wasn’t much time for anything but hockey.”

The one about…the injury

“That was probably the worst thing I’d ever heard,” said a straight-faced Steven Pinizzotto Saturday morning.

“I almost felt bad for the doctor telling me, just because he felt so bad for me. I had never heard those words before. The average hockey injury is four-to-six weeks and he’s saying four-to-six months and that’s a lot of time.”

The doctor visit in question went down on September 26, 2011, the day after Vancouver’s 4-3 loss to San Jose in the team’s fifth exhibition game. The night before, Pinizzotto, looking to make a good impression, took a run at Sharks brute Douglas Murray and got the worst of it.

“It was just a regular hockey play, I went to finish my check on Murray, the biggest guy in the league, and I just bounced right off the guy into the boards and fell awkwardly into the boards. My arm was in the air and the direct impact was my shoulder on the boards so it forced it out, which is pretty unlucky, and unfortunate as well.”

When Pinizzotto, already in the Canucks dressing room, was met with the rest of the team post-game, they questioned him about going after Murray. They didn’t know the extent of the injury and neither did Pinizzotto. Not that it would have made any difference. He’s a physical player who plays tough and finishes his checks, regardless of who is on the receiving end of them. He doesn’t back down.

He’s spent the last 10 months rehabilitating his left shoulder so he can get back on the ice and continue to not back down.

Pinizzotto rehabs every Tuesday and Thursday in Brampton and that’s down from as many as five rehab sessions a week he was enduring not too long ago. He’s been working on reestablishing a full range of motion in his shoulder by focusing on the little muscles around where the injury happened in order to stabilize the joint.

And it’s been paying off.

“It’s feeling just about 100 per cent,” said Pinizzotto. “I haven’t really put it through any major tests like throwing my body at some big guys, but everything outside of that feels good. I’ll get more physical in August with some competing and battle drills.”

While on the shelf, showering was a nightmare, as were everyday everything’s like opening the fridge or the car door. To take his mind off of hockey, Pinizzotto bought a PS3, some games and a stack of movies. Chino, his Chihuahua, was good company, but he’s happy his shoulder injury house arrest is almost over.

“Losing a season is not fun, that’s for sure, but you’ve got to think of ways to take up your time because you can’t sit there and just think about not being able to play. At the end of the day, that does nothing for you.

“This has been a battle mentally, but I’ll come out on top.”

The one about…his love of golf

When we walked into Steve Pinizzotto’s house Saturday morning, the golf channel was on.

When we walked into the kitchen, a Tiger Woods DVD was on the counter.

When we cut through the garage to get to his car, a large set of golf clubs sat in the entrance, a Peter Griffin cover hugging and protecting his driver.

“I love golf, I actually spent all day Friday at the Canadian Open,” revealed Pinizzotto, who took in the second round of action at the Hamilton Golf and Country Club in Ancaster, Ontario.

“A buddy called me up on Thursday and said he had VIP passes, so we hung out in this tent where they had food and drinks, and it was near one of the grandstands right where 18th hole finishes and the 10th hole tees off. It was a perfect location.”

This was Pinizzotto’s first experience watching golf live and blown away is an understatement.

“The consistency of those guys is wild, I feel like nothing really affects them, it seems like every shot is the same, they’re not really changing anything. They just place the ball and move on. It’s unbelievable.”

Asked to compare his game to that of someone on the PGA tour, Pinizzotto wouldn’t do it. “Whoever is the worst on tour,” he laughed. “They’re all great.”

He’s a Tiger guy, for better or worse, and earlier this week he was out on the links looking like Tiger off the tee and on the putting greens.

“I’d like my game to be a little bit better. Some days it’s pretty good, I went out with my buddies on Wednesday and shot an 83, and that’s with a couple of double bogeys too. My putting game is awful.”

Pinizzotto said he’ll get out golfing 20 times this summer and someday that will include a round at Pebble Beach in California, his dream course “because of all the history.”

Excellent Adventure: Pinizzotto

A chihuahua named Chino, nine-month-old twins, foosball, Greek food, frosted tips, Rick Nash and the vent covering the hole in the door.

EXCELLENT ADVENTURE: PINIZZOTTO

The one about…grinding his gears

There’s a part of me, heck, there’s a part of anyone who knows or is a fan of Chris Tanev, that wants to see him fly off the handle.

He is, without a shout of a doubt, the most mild-mannered, even keeled, easy going, go with the flow, laid back person I’ve ever met.

Once, just once, I’d like him to do something out of character like not say “When” to the waitress at a nice restaurant who is grating fresh cheese on his salad. The room would fill with Parmesan; chaos would ensue.

The odds of that happening, I was told again and again Thursday during our Excellent Adventure visit with the Canucks defenceman, would be the same as getting a rise out of the 22-year-old.

Challenge accepted.

“Come on Chris,” I said from the backseat of his car as we drove down the highway on our way to practice. “What really grinds your gears and gets your blood boiling?”

Tanev bit.

“Stupid things,” he said, “like people wearing running shoes with dress pants and stuff like that. Like white socks with dress pants and dress shoes. Just really stupid things like that irritate me. Other than that I’m pretty easy going.”

I was in tears laughing, as you likely are now.

Running shoes with dress pants? THAT’S WHAT ANGERS YOU THE MOST IN THIS WORLD?

“You asked, I answered,” he laughed.

“I don’t like cigarettes or smoke either, that bothers me. Some of my buddies smoke and that irritates me. I haven’t tried a cigarette in my life, not even a drag. I don’t plan on it.

“I’ll slam a golf club too if I’m frustrated when I’m golfing,” he added. “But I haven’t broken a club in a long time.”

Chris Tanev, you’re a wild man.

The one about…making minimum wage

“She was always on my case,” laughed Chris Tanev, as we zoomed down the highway on our way to an early afternoon skate Thursday, “and rightfully so, I guess.”

The She Tanev was referring to is his mom, Sophie. She was on his case a lot when he was playing junior hockey because, as he put it, “I was just playing hockey and being a bum. I didn’t work much.”

When Tanev was a young, wondering teenager – you know, the good old days of three years ago – he didn’t take life too seriously in the summer, as a teenager shouldn’t. Sleep in. Open the fridge. Nap. Open the fridge. Play hockey. Nap. Open the fridge. Hang out with buddies. And repeat.

Sophie, who separated from Chris’ dad Mike when Chris started high school, would call up her ex-husband frequently with detailed stories of their son’s laziness.

“So I decided to get a job,” laughed Tanev. “Actually my first job was when I was really little, I worked as a camp counsellor at a sports camp from probably when I was 13 to 15. That was a lot of fun.”

Tanev was not serious, it was not fun.

And it got worse.

“Then I worked at a pizza place when I was 17 or 18. I wasn’t in a store, I was at Ontario Place and places like that, Air Canada Centre, doing events, making pizza. When it’s like 100 degrees out and there’s an oven going right beside you, it’s the best.”

Tanev was not serious, it was not the best.

“Then I was working at a meat counter at a grocery store. That was pretty bad, it was a lot of cleaning up, gross meat, old meat and definitely not fun.

“That’s what I’d do in the summer. I’d probably work for a month and a half, save up, and then quit because I was lazy. Then I’d just hang out and go back to school.”

From that, to playing in the NHL.

“Mom is off my case now,” he laughed.

If Tanev wasn’t playing hockey, however, he said his mom would still be off his case because he’d have a well paying job, likely something to do with numbers.

“I would probably be doing something in business, I was studying finance before I left school. I don’t know, maybe something in accounting or investment banking. I’d probably be a terrible salesman, so maybe not investment banking actually. I could sit there and crunch numbers, I’m good with numbers.”

The one about…sneaking a treat

Chris Tanev admitted part of the reason he doesn’t move out and get his own place is that his mom’s cooking is just too dang good.

“She makes good lasagna and ribs, the house usually smells great with whatever she’s cooking,” he said.

The aroma of potatoes cooking in the oven was in the air as we visited Tanev’s house Thursday and, starving at the time, Sophie asked if I wanted anything to eat. I declined, like a buffoon, opting instead for a recipe. I challenged Sophie to give me the recipe for something sweet that makes her son’s heart skip a beat and helped him grow into the man he is today.

“I know just the one,” she smiled, opening a classic mom recipe box filled with a scatter of coloured papers, big and small, new and old. “He still loves when I make these.”

Caramel Bars. OMG yes please.

Here’s the recipe. Let me know if you bake some and how they turn out. Better yet, provide me with your address so I can come over and eat some/all of them.

The one about…overcoming adversity

Think Bambi.

Now think ice.

Now think Bambi on ice.

Now you know how Chris Tanev looked the first time he laced up tiny cheese graters at four-years-old and stepped off the visitor’s bench for his first ever hockey shift.

“That door right there,” pointed his dad, Mike, Thursday at the Victoria Village Arena. “That’s where it happened.”

The story in question practically defines Tanev, who has metaphorically fallen down or been knocked down too many times to count throughout his hockey career.

“When he first stepped on the ice at four-years-old, I think the pants were bigger than his body,” Mike explained. “He could skate because he was in a learn to skate program, so he was okay without the equipment, unfortunately when he got the equipment on, it was a little bit more difficult for him. So he stepped on to the ice and went straight down and when he hit the ice, he was crying. His mother opened up the gate at the player’s bench and she went and picked him up and I went up to her and said that if she ever did that again, I was never coming to watch him again.

“From that point on he got better and better and better and better, and fortunately we never had to do that again.”

Mike described himself as “tough, but fair,” and his son agreed. Both said this was a learning moment, although Tanev doesn’t really remember it. This was the first of many lessons about not giving up and doing it yourself that Mike taught his son and it’s tough to argue the 22-year-old would be manning Vancouver’s blueline were it not for his drive and ability to overcome the odds.

“If you’re trying to learn to ride a bike, you’re going to fall, and hockey is the exact same thing, so it’s trial by error,” said Mike. “If you can overcome adversity, and this is one thing that I’ve always said about Christopher, he had to overcome adversity from a very young age. So when he finally grew to play junior, then to college and in the AHL and now the NHL, he’s had to overcome many, many, many things in life and he’s handled them quite well and I think a lot of that stuff is second nature to him now.

“I’ll never forget that story.”

The one about…Tanev in high school

Tests passed, lessons learned and friendships formed.

East York Collegiate Institute was where that all went down for Chris Tanev and his friends Steve and Lucas. During a lunch pit stop at Steve’s restaurant Off The Hook, a gourmet fish n’ chips joint in Toronto, Thursday afternoon, they spilled what beans they could about Tanev.

The trio met in Grade 11 or 12, they aren’t exactly sure, but the connection was there from the beginning. They’re as chill as Tanev, so just hanging out was the name of the game.

They’ve seen him change quite radically, both physically and mentally, in the last few years and like proud parents, they spoke of Tanev with the utmost pride – when they weren’t busting his chops.

“When we met, I was taller than him, his head was like at my shoulder,” laughed Steve, taking a break from behind the grill. “Then all of the sudden he filled in more.”

“He was a lot quieter back then too,” offered up Lucas, “now he’s opened up a lot more.”

HE HAS?

“Okay, a little more, not a lot.”

Added Steve: “There’s no inside scoop on him. He’s funny in a way where if all the guys are chirping louder and louder, he’ll quietly sneak in comments. But he’s the same guy, he just has little bit more responsibility…and he’s taller.”

“He plays like he is, he just goes to work, calm guy, all the time,” said Lucas.

The three amigos are part of an eight-man crew, a tight crew, that gets together a few times a week. They never talk hockey unless Tanev brings it up; “we want to be a break from hockey…that’s his job,” said Steve.

Tanev has yet to make his NHL debut in his hometown, but when he does, Steve and Lucas will be there, as will the rest of the crew, in addition to countless family members.

Until then it’s more of the same, chillin’, lately at Off The Hook.

“We accommodate his special diet,” said Steve, “but he does have some cheat days – isn’t everyone allowed that?”

Yes, yes they are.

Excellent Adventure: Tanev

What a day. The quiet, calm, reserved Chris Tanev I once knew has been replaced with a funny, upbeat, optimistic 22-year-old who still can’t believe he’s playing in the NHL. He defied the odds, and the above sign around the corner from his house, and is now primed to make a real impact on Vancouver’ blueline.

We’ve got a ton of content to create based on our day touring Toronto with Tanev on Thursday and most of it won’t go up on Canucks.com until tomorrow, but here’s the photo gallery of our day to tie you over until then.

EXCELLENT ADVENTURE: TANEV