Courtnall Gains the Best of Both Worlds : Canucks: With Quinn as coach, the left wing has learned to combine defense with scoring.

It takes about two hours to get from Victoria to Vancouver by land and sea.

For Geoff Courtnall, it has taken a lifetime.

That’s not exactly the way Courtnall had it figured when he was a youngster growing up in Victoria.

He saw no reason why every day couldn’t be like Sunday, when he scored a goal and added two assists to help lead the Vancouver Canucks to a 7-2 victory over the Kings in Game 4 of the Smythe Division Finals.

Growing up as an NHL fan with considerable talent of his own, all things seemed possible for the young Courtnall.

And indeed, he quickly skated beyond his wildest dreams.

After a season playing for Victoria in the Western Hockey League, he was signed as a free agent by the Boston Bruins in 1983.

And five years later, he played on his first Stanley Cup champion.

Traded to the Edmonton Oilers in the spring of 1988, Courtnall was part of Wayne Gretzky’s last Stanley Cup team.

A small part.

With all the established talent on that Oiler team, Courtnall played an extremely limited role as a fourth wing, getting only three assists and no goals during that 1988 postseason.

“This game is such a team game,” Courtnall said. “When the team has success, everybody gets their rewards.”

Besides, at 25, Courtnall figured there would be plenty more to come.

It never quite worked out that way. During the summer after the winning of the Cup, Courtnall was traded to the Washington Capitals.

His stay there lasted only two seasons. Then, he was involved in an incident involving three other players and a 17-year-girl in a limousine. Although there were allegations of sexual assault, no charges were ever filed.

That didn’t help Courtnall. He was shipped to the St. Louis Blues and finally, in 1991, back home to Vancouver.

Courtnall couldn’t have been happier.

“It’s been really exciting for me to play in Vancouver,” he said. “It’s been nice to play at home. It’s been nice to play in front of family and friends.”

A happy ending?

Not quite.

Because on that long and winding road back home, Courtnall had picked up a reputation as a player who tended to let his mind, and body, wander on the ice, a player who would often get so focused on his offensive game that he would completely forget about his defensive responsibilities.

Enter Pat Quinn.

The Canuck coach has made Courtnall his personal project, keeping a close rein on his left wing and yanking on it loudly and forcefully whenever Courtnall suffers a defensive lapse.

“He’s a very talented guy,” Quinn said, “but sometimes, you get mad at him when he goes for the (big) skates. He’s like a lot of guys. He knows how to score and he tends to get stretched out. When he does that, he can’t help us defensively. But when he comes back into position and plays defense, he’s as good a wing as there is around. He just wants to score so much, that sometimes he’s not an asset back there. He leaves his position and makes himself vulnerable.”

Courtnall has been at his steadiest in the playoffs since returning home. In his two previous postseasons with Vancouver, he had nine goals and a total of 22 points in 18 games.

With his three points Sunday, he has a total of 13, including four goals, in 10 games in this season’s playoffs.

And he is bringing a smile to Quinn’s face with his defense.

Courtnall always believed that he would get here.

But he never thought it would take him 10 years to make a two-hour trip.