As training camp continues and fans restlessly dwell on the latest happenings and tweaks to the Senators’ line combinations, “What do you mean Colin Greening was getting a regular turn on the team’s top line with Kyle Turris and Clarke MacArthur yesterday in practice?!?!”, a surprisingly sober (no seriously, why was Greening getting a turn on the top line?) Senators head coach Paul MacLean appeared on TSN 1200‘s ‘In the Box’ yesterday to talk about the roster, the performance of some young players and how important internal competition has been to this year’s camp.
You can listen to the full interview by clicking here or by listening to the embedded audio at the bottom of this post.
As always, any thoughts of mine will be in bold.
On the camp being upbeat and the positive vibe around the team…
“Well, they do and I think having a sour taste in your mouth from the previous year can be a great motivator, as you know. Guys are coming in determined to make sure that they’re going to make a difference and also, there’s competition for jobs. That’s a good thing for any organization is to have competition from within – that makes you way stronger and way better sooner than trying to play competitively against somebody else. I think the internal competition that we have with this group has really made a big difference and I think we’ve asked them, some of our players, to be in this next stage of their careers as they move out of being a good young player and start to be a player in the National Hockey League, you’ll have to keep evolving your game and changing your game. We’ve asked some players to make some changes and I think their attention to those jobs has certainly made a difference as well.”
MacLean’s really been beating the drum of late that this team’s young players and prospects need to take the next step in their development. Looking at the team’s blue line situation, it’s a fair assessment of where the organization finds itself. It simply lacks the kind of reassuring veteran talent that can insulate this team in the event that players like Cody Ceci, Jared Cowen and Patrick Wiercioch simply aren’t ready to play meaningful minutes and tough competition. Earlier this offseason, there was speculation that the Cowen/Ceci duo would form the team’s second pairing, but with Marc Methot’s lingering back problems keeping him on the sidelines, Cowen has been tabbed as his place holder.
Even though Erik Karlsson seemingly can make anyone look effective — Filip Kuba being the perfect case study — Cowen has never really measured up to the expectations that come with being a high draft pick selection (ninth overall, 2009). Injuries have obviously played a huge role in the formative years of his professional development, but the combination of his pedigree, the physical tools that management and coaches fawn over and a lack of quality alternatives, have afforded Cowen more opportunities and some accompanying patience from the organization to figure out his game.
Maybe Ottawa’s patience will be rewarded this year, but MacLean is right. They need Cowen to stop being an error prone liability on the ice. They need him to develop into a good NHL player or else they’re in a bad spot with their defence.
On this being the second phase of camp and it being a little easier to get a grasp on things…
“Well, I think it is, yes. Even though having 30 (players left in camp) is a big number too, but we made a real decision this year to make sure that we started at (point) A or chapter one or however you want to say it and not try to get too far ahead of ourselves. And having a bigger number of people forces the coaching staff to slow down and to make sure that you do things and cover things, I believe, in a much more detailed fashion. That’s been a big part of it. I think in evaluating our training camp last year, we tried to do things ‘Speed, speed, fast, fast, let’s go fast,’ and we left out some pieces in our game that were glaring in our game later on that we assumed or figured were already in place and we had to go back and redo them. So we really wanted to make a conscious effort this year to make sure that we started at chapter one and having a bigger number of players on the ice forces us to be a little bit slower and go through that.”
On the problems in the defensive zone and how the team seems to be focusing on compete drills and focusing on that area’s problems last season…
“Well that’s been… that was our Achilles heel last year was (our play) defensively. Again, maybe we did things ‘too fast, too fast, too fast’. This year we’re trying to be more focused on those… the biggest, number one thing you need to be good defensively is to be competitive. You need to be competitive at the puck. That’s something that we’re really focusing on. In order to do it, we don’t want to get really, really good at it playing defensively in our zone (ie. we don’t want to be the team that spends all of our time their defending/practicing it), like we don’t want to become known as that kind of team. But at the same time, if you’re going to be an elite team, you have to be efficient and you have to do it the right way. I think that’s the direction that we’re taking is that we’re going to be competitive when we’re in there and we’re going to be hard to play against when we’re in our zone.”
Having shipped out Jason Spezza, the Senators punted skill for a more blue collar approach that focuses on strong two-way play. Should the Senators have success in the early going, you know exactly what the narratives is going to be. But if they continue to struggle, the blame assuredly will be left at Paul MacLean’s door.
On how much team speed they have down the middle…
“Well and Zack Smith’s no slouch either. Like we really feel that our center position is in good shape and we’re going to be able to skate the rink and be in good spots. But, those guys are no good if the (defencemen) can’t get them the puck. We can have all the good forwards we want, but our forwards have to be there to help the defence so we can get pucks moving in the right direction. We have to have a good scheme and in order to do that, we have to be competitive on the puck. But you’re right, that’s speed we have through the middle of the rink and I think with guys like Mike Hoffman and Alex Chiasson, they’ve added to the speed of our wingers. Dave Dziurzynski is here, he adds some speed. Colin Greening is still a big, strong guy that can get up (and down the ice). Like we don’t have a lot of bad, bad skaters – even at forward – but what we need to do is make sure that we’re patient and be explosive after we get the puck; after we do our work and be competitive and turn the puck over. Now we can use our speed and we can use it not only going offensively, when we don’t have the puck, we can use that foot speed to be better in working quicker to get pucks back.”
It sounds like there was an emphasis on making this team faster in the offseason and hopefully that goal was accomplished. Too often at times last season, the Senators looked painfully slow. Perhaps that was a product of poor puck support and too large of gaps between the forwards and defence or maybe it was a personnel issue. Hell, it was probably a little bit of both.
The Senators may be fighting to compete for a playoff spot, but if they can play a faster and more structured game, fans will have an easier time accepting the team’s shortcomings.
On the bubble candidates sticking with the team throughout the week instead of going with Binghamton to play in France…
“Well, they’ve earned that opportunity. We felt that even a couple of the guys that we ended up sending over to France were very close. I mean, we had some really tough decisions on Shane Prince. I thought he had a very competitive training camp coming out of the rookie camp and even into our training camp (he) really showed that he was willing to be competitive. Patrick Mullen certainly played well enough that he could have stuck around. Mike Sdao, I mean, he got put into the game and played very well. He gave a good account of himself. He was competitive. He was big and was strong and made simple plays with the puck, but at the same time, we can only keep so many guys. So in these three guys’ situations, we were like, ‘Well, we kind of figured that they were going to end up there.’ So I know it’s disappointing for them right now, it was an opportunity to go to France and play that you don’t really want to take away from somebody either when inevitably that’s where they’re probably going to end up. But the guys that we kept here are guys we feel that are really pushing – not only pushing their way into our training camp, but pushing our players to become better players. And I think that internal competition, as you mentioned earlier, is a real important factor.”
It was nice to see Shane Prince’s name brought up by the coach – even if he never had a legitimate chance of cracking this year’s roster because of the number’s game.
On whether he expected this kind of performance out of Matt Puempel…
“Well, all I know is that anytime you score 30 goals in the American Hockey League, you’re a pretty good player. It doesn’t happen by accident. Matt, he also had a great offseason. His skating and his strength on the puck, his strength skating through checks, being involved, being competitive and winning competitive battles, it has been very good. So he’s given a good account of himself. Buddy Robinson is another good, young player that has done the same thing and we play them on a line and they play great. They play fine. So I mean, all three of them (including Curtis Lazar) are pushing real hard and that means that incumbent players that are here, you have to make changes or upgrade your game and that only makes us better.”
Again, and this has been written about ad nauseum here, but the Senators have a lot of young depth within its organization and yeah, it’s enviable. There’s nothing wrong with having young talent that can step in and seamlessly transition onto the parent roster without there being any kind of drop off in team success. It’s part of what made the lockout shortened season such an endearing year for the ‘Pesky Sens’. Now in saying that, it’s hard not to bring up the fact that these young prospects, who are all on the cusp of playing in the NHL, are being boxed out of jobs by overpriced veteran talent.
Even looking at the recent line combinations being used during practices, if David Legwand is going to see a regular turn playing with Colin Greening and Chris Neil, how soon before we start asking ourselves whether it was necessary to bring him into the fold if that’s how he’s going to be used?
On how tough it may be to cut particular players because of how contract situations and the business of sport affect the decision-making process…
“Well in order… there are still spots on our team. There are things that we can do if (Matt Puempel, for example) merits the opportunity. If he’s one of the best players, we have to work very hard to make sure that the best players are here. Now the big evaluation that comes for a guy like Matt Puempel is, is this as good as he’s going to get or if he has a chance to get better, where is he going to get better? Playing in the NHL or playing in the American Hockey League playing top minutes on their top line, top line on their power play and playing there for another season potentially? Is that going to make him a better player? Or does he go there and play three months and he’s a better player? Or do we have to do something right now? If we feel that he’s (NHL ready), how many minutes is he going to play right now? Is he going to play eight minutes? Seven minutes? Those are the decisions we have to make. If we’re going to be able to play him in a situation where he’s going to have a chance to succeed – which is what we always try to do with our players is put them in a place where they can succeed – he’s going to have to play in the top six minutes and that might be a little bit harder for him to get that opportunity. But if he merits it by the way, that he plays and continues to play and everyone’s evaluation is the same thing. If we’re forced to do something to have the best player on our player, by all means, let’s do it. We’re here to win and I think that’s the most important thing – to try to get the best players, our best players, on our team. But as you say, contracts and one-ways, like the business of hockey gets in the way all the time. It gets in the way in the summertime. It gets in the way at free agent time. So it’s no different now at the end of training camp that at some point, in some cases, the business of hockey maybe gets in the way and somebody maybe feels that they got shorted. But that’s life and you have to come back and make sure that they don’t do that to you again.”
I’m all for clearing roster spots so that this team’s young players can develop at the game’s highest level. I feel more strongly about this for a player like Jean-Gabriel Pageau since he has spent a little bit more development at the AHL level than Matt Puempel, who only has one professional season under his belt and will likely get more time in the minors to iron out the wrinkles in his game.
On having confidence that some of these young players are going to come up and get into some games this season…
“Well, if you’re going to be an elite team, you’ve got to have more than 23 players. Like, you need 30 guys and if you’re going to have any kind of chance to have success as you get into April and May and particularly when you get to June, you need more than 23 players. And that’s what we’re trying to get and identify here. Are these the 30 best players that we have in our organization that are going to give us a chance to be an elite team? Yes, they can play in Binghamton and they can come up here, play and be seamless coming into our lineup. This is encouraging for us to have this number of players and we’re willing to keep this amount of players right now. In the past, we’d (cut down our roster) and get going, but these guys have come in and really earned the opportunity to continue to show us that they can play in the National Hockey League. Frankly, it’s fun watching them. I think the pace and the tempo of practice is better with the numbers and them in it – even though it did slow down a little bit today with the 30 guys on the ice. But when they go, they go! When it’s their turn, they go. I think that’s contagious for all of our older players and even our veteran guys, ‘Look at that guy go!’ They’ve got to go. They’ve got to go. So I think that’s been good for us.”
The basic nature of training camps serves a breeding ground for optimism and positivity and everyone loves shiny new things that distract us. There’s a reason why a lot of digital ink is spent on players like Curtis Lazar and Matt Puempel even though there’s a very realistic possibility that neither player will be on the team after its first ten regular season games. When sports franchises aren’t winning, they sell hope. Here in Ottawa, they sell the depth and quantity of young players pushing their vets for spots.
Like MacLean said, it’s exciting to see that vets are being pushed by these players, but at the same time, there’s this proportionate response from me that wonders when they’re actually going to get an opportunity to step in and be regulars. Injuries will happen and create opportunity, that’s a guarantee, but at some point, you have to wonder when the organization is going to shake up its roster and start moving some of these placeholder vets.
On any chance Condra or Methot could skate this week…
“Well we’re hoping that Erik Condra can participate in practice tomorrow. We’re going to see how it is. He had a little skate yesterday, I guess. A little public skate and it went pretty good for him. Today was another good day, so we’ll see. Marc Methot is the only one that we have a big… we want to be very cautious. We can’t just… we can’t afford to just throw him out there to say, ‘Go ahead.’ Like he’s had some issues the last three weeks or two weeks leading up to training camp. Then he comes into training camp and the issue flares (up) again. We’ve got to get this figured out. We’ve got to get this figured out and there’s no sense in us playing him or rushing him out into practice and rushing him into the lineup, if this thing is going to flare up and cost us more games down in the end. Our goal is to get it healed, get it healthy and then get him back into the lineup when he’s ready.”
Although Paul MacLean stopped short of saying it, it sounds like Methot’s injury is pretty serious or serious enough for them to treat with the utmost precaution. In consideration of Methot’s free agent status at the conclusion of the season, it’s completely understandable for the Senators to bring him along slowly rather than risk Methot re-aggravating the injury and missing more time later on in the season when they need him healthy to either win games or recoup value in a trade.
I was already worried about the prospect of him (or Bobby Ryan for that matter) getting hurt at some point during the season since it could potentially limit what the Senators could receive in a trade in the event that they cannot sign him, so hopefully he gets on the mend quickly.
I suppose there could be people out there who believe that any kind of prolonged absence by Methot could give the Senators a little bit more leverage in their negotiations on an extension, but with these kind of lingering back issues, would the Senators think twice about extending a veteran with those kinds of complications?
Other News and Notes:
– The Senators officially announced that they have reduced their training camp roster by 21 players. Nick Palmeri was released from his PTO and the following players were optioned to Binghamton: Chris Driedger and Andrew Hammond; defencemen Guillaume Lepine, Daniel New, Troy Rutkowski, Michael Sdao and Chris Wideman; forwards Carter Camper,Jakub Culek, Ryan Dzingel, Derek Grant, Alex Guptill, Danny Hobbs, Darren Kramer, Max McCormick, Brad Mills,Shane Prince, Cole Schneider, Garrett Thompson and Brandon Wong.
– Stefan Noesen, one of the pieces sent to the Anaheim Ducks as part of last year’s Bobby Ryan trade, has was cut by the Ducks and returned to the team’s AHL franchise in Norfolk.
– Via the Senators, here is tonight’s 25-man roster for Ottawa’s exhibition game in Winnipeg. Of note, Mark Borowiecki injured his hand in practice this morning and is out with a contusion. Jared Cowen will be called upon to replace him in the lineup which is interesting because Patrick Wiercioch skated with Cody Ceci as a pairing this morning. Cowen had skated with Ceci earlier in camp, but with Methot’s prolonged absence from the lineup, Cowen has filled in as Karlsson’s partner instead. Will Cowen’s presence tonight bump Wiercioch from the top pairing with Ceci? Stay tuned.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
