From a washroom in the bowels of an arena bathrin Lyon, France, Senators assistant general manager joined Chris Stevenson and Steve Lloyd on TSN 1200’s ‘In the Box’, to discuss the Binghamton Senators’ trip overseas and to comment on today’s exciting news.
I did not transcribe all of the interview, but if you want to give it a full listen, you can click here or listen to the embedded audio at the bottom of this post.
As always, my thoughts are in bold.
On how the process came about for the Binghamton Senators to play over in France…
“Julien Brisebois, the assistant GM of Tampa Bay, has a good relationship with some of the people over in France – specifically Lyon, France. And he approached them or they approached him about doing this sort of pilot project to promote hockey in France and also give two American (Hockey) League teams sort of a unique opportunity for their preseason games. So when they approached us, we talked about it. I talked with Bryan Murray and Paul MacLean to see what they thought and then when I went to Luke Richardson and said, ‘Do you want to play two games against Syracuse?’ and he says, ‘Oh, whatever. Whatever you think.’ And I said, ‘But, they’re going to be in France,’ and he said, ‘Oh, this could be fun.’”
Apparently TSN 1200 will broadcast one of the team’s games versus the Syracuse Crunch from Lyon on Sunday afternoon. Grady Whittenburg will have the call.
On how the players have handled the trip to France and the disappointment of not being in main camp…
“Yeah, I think initially they were disappointed about not making the team and not staying longer in camp, but when they realized the opportunity, a lot of them were very excited. We’ve had some players wearing the GoPro cameras on their uniforms during practices. We’ve had players travelling, taking cars and travelling to Geneva yesterday. They’re really making the most of it. It’s a really good teambuilding and team bonding opportunity, so as much as they’re upset about not staying with the camp, I think they’re pretty excited about this opportunity because many of them have never been to France and some of them have never been to Europe.”
An all expenses paid trip to Europe sounds like a pretty rad parting gift for not making the Ottawa Senators.
On what the expectation level is for the team in Binghamton this year…
“Oh, I think we’re going to be a really strong team. The signings we did with the veteran defencemen are really going to help us out. I think a lot of our young guys are ready to take another step. I think Andrew Hammond has proven himself to be a really capable American (Hockey) League goaltender and I think overall, the prospects are bright. I think even within the American (Hockey) League team, they realize there’s going to be a lot of competition for jobs. When we added Alex Guptill with the trade and the signing of (Ryan) Dzingel and (Max) McCormick and then Garrett Thompson, there’s a lot of new bodies coming in. Plus, there’s a lot of bodies who played well last year, so it’s going to be an intense camp here.”
On the Ohio State products Dzingel and McCormick and the expectations that these two can have an impact…
“Definitely, but they realize that there’s a lot of guys ahead of them that have played well and they’ll have to really fight for their ice time. So it will sort of be a new phenomenon for them, so instead of being the go-to guys, they’re going to have to earn their ice. And I think they’re up for the challenge.”
Technical difficulties cut Dorion’s answer short, but after a few moments, the call was reconnected.
“Good competition, but as I was saying, because of the fact that they were college players, they didn’t have the opportunity to come to rookie tournaments and training camp, that now they’re realizing how big a step it is to the American (Hockey) League let alone how big a step it is to make it to the NHL, so these guys are very highly motivated.”
I think of the less heralded prospects within Ottawa’s farm system, I’m really intrigued to see what these two Ohio State products can do at the professional level. Although he only got into one of Binghamton’s playoff games last season, Ryan Dzingel had two goals and seven points in his first nine regular season games. The 2014 Hobey Baker Finalist also scored a goal in the lone preseason game that he played for Ottawa.
McCormick on the other hand has not played professionally yet – whether it’s in the NHL preseason or in any kind of competition at the AHL level — but he does offer some offensive flair. In 35 games at Ohio State last season, he tallied 11 goals and 37 points.
On how far Matt Puempel’s come in his development…
“Yeah, that’s correct. There’s times that I would come back from viewings and I would talk to Bryan (Murray) and Pierre (Dorion) and I would say, ‘I’m not sure about this guy. I don’t know if he has the skating and the compete level to make the next step.’ We like his skill level, but as Bryan said, he doesn’t want just guys who can play. He wants guys that compete and can win in the playoffs. And I said I had serious reservations about him, but then I saw how much he committed to his development. He invested in himself in terms of working on his skating, working on his conditioning, spending a lot of time with Chris Schwarz — our conditioning coach – and he’s turned into a player. As you can see, the 30 goals (in the AHL last season) were no fluke and it wasn’t just the 30 goals, but he was a more competitive guy. He was harder on the puck. He was better without the puck. He even got into a couple fights in Binghamton – which is not usually part of his game, but he was doing it for the right reasons like sticking up for his teammates. And I’m glad that those guys who invested themselves get rewarded by staying longer in camp. It’s a great gesture on our part.”
In case you haven’t noticed in recent years, the Senators have made a habit of rewarding players who work hard during the offseason, even if they ultimately land back in Binghamton. Case in point, last year the Senators sent a message to Mika Zibanejad because they felt that he wasn’t playing with a certain state of urgency in his game and in part because they felt like Stephane Da Costa had put in the work and followed through on his commitment to invest in himself. It’s great that Puempel is re-establishing himself as a legitimate prospect, especially when the Senators lack some good left wing options, but ultimately, there’s no room for him on the parent roster at this time.
On his reaction to today’s news that Erik Karlsson was named captain and Bobby Ryan was re-signed…
“Well, it’s great for the organization to get Bobby locked up to that term. I didn’t know Bobby that well and Bryan (Murray) knew him more from his Anaheim days, but one thing that really impressed me about Bobby is, as a former conditioning coach, I’ve seen guys go through lower abdominal tears and the fact that he played through that and didn’t let anybody know and he was having the sort of controversy about the U.S. Olympic team that he could have used that as an excuse, but he didn’t use an excuse. It just showed me a lot about his character. Gerry Townend, the therapist and I, would talk to him on a daily basis and say, ‘This is tough now. You’re going to feel a lot of pain. You’re going to have to take days off. You’re going to have to figure out how to manage the injury and he played through it quite well, so I give him a lot of credit about that. And the decision on the captaincy? I think it’s great. I’ve really seen Erik grow a lot. I think he recognized some of the stuff that he could improve upon last year and he seems just more mature; really relishing the challenge and I thought this is a great opportunity for him and I think it’s a great opportunity for the organization because the kid is a winner.”
In retrospect, it was kind of crazy to look back and think about all the unnecessary drama that stemmed from that ESPN feature that chronicled U.S. Olympic hockey selection process. To his credit, Bobby Ryan handled the situation incredibly well — even going so far as to include the word ‘Intense’ when autographing memorabilia to demonstrate that he could actually spell it. Like Randy Lee said, knowledge that Ryan was suffering from an injury wasn’t commonly known and for a team that was desperately vying for a playoff spot, Ryan gutted it out for as long as he could without complaint.
On expanding upon Karlsson’s growth and maturity…
“Yeah, and some guys are good role models and they work hard and stuff, but leaders to me are guys who can make other players do things they have to do for the team to win and I think he can do that. I think he can inspire guys, he’s just not going to be an elite player, but I think he really cares about the city, he cares about the team and I think he wants to win here – which I think is a great thing. I think he’s going to use that sort of rallying point to get his message across and I think he’s going to do a good job and he’s got a great support cast. We’ve got a good collection of leaders in that group and I think it’s going to be a good opportunity for everybody.”
Erik Karlsson’s not an elite player? Come on Randy, that’s just crazy talk.
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