‘Where angels fear to tread’: Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis adds muscle, honors legacy
Goaltender Antti Raanta was leaving Carolina Hurricanes practice Friday when he spotted forward Seth Jarvis near the door. The Canes’ goalie playfully pinned Jarvis up against the glass.
The Canes were about to hop on a team flight for a West Coast road trip that began Saturday against the Los Angeles Kings, but the veteran and the guy they call “Jarvy” still had time for some fun.
Told later that he needs to be careful, that Jarvis had seven hits in the season opener and was among the team leaders in hits in the playoffs last season, Raanta smiled.
“I know, he’s a wrecking ball these days,” Raanta said.
Jarvis, now beginning his third NHL season, has been called skilled, relentless, fearless, feisty and few other things. All fit the Winnipeg native, who played his junior hockey in the rugged Western Hockey League and was the Canes’ first-round draft pick in 2020, 13th overall.
But a wrecking ball?
Jarvis is 5-foot-10 and 175 pounds. But don’t let that fool you. He said he added eight pounds of muscle in the offseason and it shows in his shoulders and upper body.
“There’s another aspect of my game I needed to up, and that’s physicality,” Jarvis said Friday. “I’ve gotten a little bit stronger now, so I might as well try to use it.”
Jarvis’ angel
Jarvis, 21, also has something new: a tattoo on his left shoulder. It has angel wings and a star and two clasped hands plus an inscription: “Run Where Angels Fear To Tread.”
Jarvis said he got the tattoo to honor his late grandfather, Larry Shields, who passed away this summer.
Shields played football in Winnipeg and later was drafted by the CFL’s Blue Bombers as a running back, Jarvis said. (Jarvis also played a little football — at quarterback — and said it helped him add some grit.)
“In his last football game, they wrote in the newspaper, ‘Larry Shields runs where angels fear to tread,’” Jarvis said. “That’s why I picked that quote. He was a huge part of my life, someone who was at every game. Whether I was playing hockey or football, he was on the sidelines or behind the glass, probably eating popcorn and enjoying the game.”
With his grandad in mind, Jarvis took the ice Wednesday at PNC Arena for the season opener against Ottawa. Playing on Sebastian Aho’s line opposite left wing Michael Bunting, he had a team-high 21:49 in ice time — nearly a minute longer than defenseman Brent Burns — plus four shots, an assist and two takeaways in the 5-3 victory.
And the seven hits.
“I felt like every body-check I had had a little extra because he was there with me,” Jarvis said of his granddad.
‘I like getting in scrums’
Jarvis was on the ice when Bunting scored the Canes’ first goal of the season on a second-period power play. With Jarvis just a few feet away, Bunting took a pass from Aho to the right of the net, swung around goalie Joonas Korpisalo at the top of the crease and scored.
Bunting was an offseason addition who came to Carolina from the Toronto Maple Leafs having shown he could produce offensively — he had 23 goals with the Leafs last season — and could mix it up physically, be an agitator.
“It gives me comfort out there having another guy who’s going to stir it up,” Jarvis said. “I like that part of the game. I like getting in scrums and doing that, so it’s fun to have a partner in crime.”
Jarvis’ offensive numbers took a dip last season from his rookie year. He had 14 goals and 39 points in 82 games and did not score on the power play, then had five goals and five assists in the Canes’ 15 playoff games.
‘Not a kid anymore’
Jarvis, in the course of his second season, did develop into a better, more reliable 200-foot player for Canes, Aho said.
“His two-way game is a lot better than when first he got here,” Aho said. “He skates better than ever . I feel like he’s very strong on his skates right now, which is natural for a young guy getting stronger and more comfortable with everything on the ice. And he’s got the good shot.”
Jarvis said he thinks the game better now, claiming he did that in the opener. He said he’s better at making the right reads, the right plays, adding, “I’m really pleased with where I’m at right now.”
And now he’s bigger, if only eight pounds.
“That doesn’t change his game,” Brind’Amour said Friday. “When he was a little less strong he was still trying to get in there. That’s part of his game, and it can only help him to get a little stronger.
“It’s about him putting the work in but also in maturing as a normal adult. That’s what’s going to happen. You see it with all of the guys. All of a sudden they’re not a kid anymore.”
