EDMONTON — Mattias Janmark is the spare key you hid under the rear wheel well, when you lose your keys on a hike at that campground that’s well out of cell phone range.
He’s the flashlight you charged up, the generator you bought, the extra blanket you stored when the power goes out and nobody is sure when it’s coming back on.
And today, as it becomes clear that top-line left-winger Adam Henrique will need more time to recover from his suspected ankle injury with Round 2 set to begin Wednesday in Vancouver, it’s clear now why Edmonton invested ice time all season long in a 31-year-old playoff veteran. Ahead of that sexier, 21-year-old prospect the fan base likely would have preferred to see.
“Throughout my career, I’ve done exactly this,” Janmark said after practice on Tuesday morning, where he skated on Connor McDavid’s left side, in lieu of Henrique. “My first year (in Dallas), we were down 3-0 in Game 7 after the first period, and I got to center a line with Jamie Benn and Jason Spezza the rest of the game.
“Throughout my career, maybe not in the playoffs as much but throughout the regular season, I’ve been able to go up and down the lineup, so it’s nothing new, really. Playing with Davo, every time you get the chance you want to take advantage.”
“Davo,” of course, is the Oilers captain and meal ticket, a.k.a. the best ice hockey player currently residing here on earth.
It’s not easy, they say, to step in beside the prodigal talents like McDavid, Sid Crosby or Wayne Gretzky. It’s a concept that has always intrigued, that the pressure to perform next to the very best can expose the shortcomings of those who are unworthy, or perhaps just strip a player of the confidence that such an assignment requires.
Somehow, however, this intelligent, sneaky funny Swede has always been up to the task.
There’s an Ikea joke in here somewhere, something about a player who slides into any arrangement as seamlessly as a Billy bookcase.
“I think it’s been pretty easy, to be honest. That’s how I feel,” Janmark said, with a look that is almost apologetic. “I would think the hard part is the expectations. You can play a really good game and if you don’t come up with something on the score sheet, it’s going to be viewed upon as a bad game.
“You have to level up your game and you’ve got to contribute. You can’t just look good out there,” he said. “But as far as playing with (McDavid), I feel like it’s been very easy every time I’ve gotten a chance.”
Janmark will play the first few shifts on the top line Wednesday, and after that head coach Kris Knoblauch will begin a process at which he has proven adept. The first penalty kill will employ Janmark, not McDavid, and when the penalty ends you’ll see Leon Draisaitl next to McDavid at five-on-five.
After that, Janmark will mostly hold down the gig as long as it’s working, and the Oilers are ahead. If they’re trailing, the score clock will hasten the deployment of Knoblauch’s top two weapons on the same unit, and Janmark will find his place elsewhere.
“I think it’d be a little more ‘by committee,’” was how Knoblauch described Henrique’s replacement. “Janmark, definitely will be there for some shifts. But whoever’s playing well, moving up and down… Janmark is a huge part of our penalty kill, so making sure that he’s fresh and ready for that… And, you know, we have a lot of guys that we think can move up and play there. periodically.”
Down the lineup, Connor Brown will get his first playoff assignment as a fourth-line right-winger in Game 1. When he signed, this scenario would have been impossible to imagine. But Brown’s season went where it went, and Janmark, as is his wont, has simply logged another year as the dependable pro he is.
There is always a prospect who makes you wonder why he’s in Bakersfield and Janmark, a 20-point, blue-collar guy, is on Edmonton’s fourth line. And to be honest, if this was Anaheim, or even Calgary, we would question the same thing.
But without Janmark, Knoblauch may be tempted to elevate a young Dylan Holloway, who has finally found a footing on the third line.
Give Holloway a shift or two with No. 97 in Game 1? Sure.
But the last thing the kid needs is to lay his head on the pillow on Tuesday night knowing he’s playing with a superstar the next evening— not when he’s only recently found comfort playing next to Ryan McLeod in an NHL bottom six.
No, this is why you have Janmark. He buys development time for Holloway, and if Holloway passes him by, he’ll quietly return to his role.
Not using him now, in this situation…? Why did you even sign him in the first place?
“The principles are the same, I think,” he said of moving up to the top line. “You’ve got to play to (McDavid’s) strengths a little, and that will help your game a lot. So it for sure changes — but the principles don’t change.”
He’ll play the same responsible game he always plays, a staple of a guy who will play 1,000 games in the league one day. And if he bangs in a goal, nobody will be surprised.
Because Mattias Janmark, simply put, is a pro.
And that’s what pros do.