In his first media availability on Day 2 of Ottawa’s training camp, Senators head coach D.J. Smith said he couldn’t be more pleased with the conditioning of his players.
Kudos to them, because the Senators haven’t played a hockey game since March 11 and won’t play another until Jan. 15 when this unusual NHL season begins. Smith was particularly impressed with the readiness of his veteran players.
“It is good to see and good for young guys to see what it takes to stay in the National Hockey League and continue to be competitive,” Smith said, on a Zoom call with reporters Friday afternoon. “These guys have been away a long time and they’ve put the work in. They’ve come ready and they’re some of the best conditioned guys at our camp at this point.”
As an example, Smith cited forward Artem Anisimov for his strong play early in camp.
“You would think a player who’s been around and is as good as Arty, might be rusty,” Smith said. “And he has arguably been one of our best players. I'm really not disappointed with anyone. Our competitive level is where it’s gotta be.”
As for that supposed competitive advantage for players who had been participating in games in Europe in October and November? That has worn off, according to Smith.
“Unfortunately, for the guys who played in Europe, when they come over here, they have to quarantine,” Smith says. “So the advantage you had kind of subsides when you sit there for 14 days.”
With Ontario under strict lockdown, media are not allowed into the Canadian Tire Centre to watch training camp. For now, Smith is going to be our eyes and ears.
Here are some highlights of what he touched on during a wide-ranging interview session with media:
Skate or perish in the Canadian division
Not surprisingly, the first two days of Ottawa’s camp have focused on conditioning. Saturday will bring the first scrimmages and on Sunday, the focus is special teams. Monday is a scheduled day off.
Conditioning will be next to godliness for an Ottawa team that doesn’t have the skill of a Toronto Maple Leafs or Edmonton Oilers in the newly formed North Division.
“One of the strengths we’re going to have to have is to be able to skate with these teams,” said Smith, a former Maple Leafs assistant. “You look at the Canadian division and the amount of talent, especially high-end talent -- if you can’t skate with them you are going to be in trouble.
“So one of the things we are going to have to do is make sure our conditioning is at the level where we can skate all night.”
With that in mind, the first phase of analysis by Smith and his staff will involve identifying which players are in the best shape.
“You have to be ultra competitive and in order to be that, you have to be in really good shape,” Smith says. “So, the guys that check off the boxes as the best conditioned players we move to stage 2 and see what you do in the scrimmages, see what you do in the practices.”
For safety and health reasons, there won’t be exhibition games this season.
AHL resumes factor in roster selection
“You’re going to have to make a decision based on practice,” Smith said. He added that for younger players, their performance in the AHL last season will be taken into account, as well as the input from Belleville Senators head coach Troy Mann.
“We’re going to have to trust the coaches down there and their development. But to this point, all the young kids have looked great.”
Head start helps
Ottawa was one of the seven teams allowed to open camp three days earlier than the franchises involved in play-in and playoff rounds this past summer and fall. Smith feels that is a help, especially for a team that has made as many personnel changes as the Senators.
“As you go through it day by day, you find things you haven’t touched on and to have this (extra time) allows us to get the skating out of the way so we can get down to systems and special teams,” Smith said. “They're so important when the season starts.”
Advantage, Paul Maurice
Exhibition games are not only beneficial for young prospects, they also allow incoming veterans -- like Erik Gudbranson, Josh Brown, Evgenii Dadonov, Alex Galchenyuk, just to name a few -- a chance to apply a team’s systems. This is Smith’s second season as head coach, and he will be working with a very different roster from his first season.
“You can’t touch everything. And you have so many new bodies. And with no exhibition games you’ve really got to use these practices to get your systems, and your faceoffs -- there’s so many things that go into it,” Smith says.
“And that’s probably the advantage of having a coach that has been with his group for a while. Like Paul Maurice (with the Winnipeg Jets).
“Players know what to expect from him. They know a lot of things he does and they hit the ground running.
“We have so many new pieces. But as we continue this journey here and continue to get better, you are just going to plug pieces in. I always talk about the Boston Bruins and how they were good for a long time. No matter who they plugged in they kept chugging along. And that’s what we’re trying to be.”
Most rookies in great white north
With all the talk of Ottawa’s prospects from Belleville not getting an opportunity because of the influx of veterans in the off-season, Smith would like everyone to appreciate just how young his team could be.
“I think we’ve done a good job, Pierre (Dorion, GM) has, of bringing in players that know the league and if our younger players are ready, they’re going to play,” Smith said. “Regardless of what happens, we are going to have the most rookies in the Canadian division. By far. Maybe more rookies on our team play this year than in the whole division combined.
“Younger players are going to play. That’s not the issue. It’s just when they’re going to play and how much they’re going to play.”
Like Dorion, Smith wants to see the prospects earn their NHL spots, rather than have them be anointed before camp.
“When you make a young guy earn his spot, it gives you a better chance that kid is not going to go up and down, up and down,” Smith says. “Sometimes when you see a guy given a job, a lot of times it’s overwhelming and 20 games in you’re bringing a veteran in to do that job and the kid goes back to the AHL.
“If a young player outplays an older player and takes his job, the likelihood is he’s ready.”
Tapping into taxi squad
Smith fully expects to make good use of the expanded rosters this season, with as many as six players on a taxi squad.
“I think that is what has to happen,” he says. “We have to have a ‘next man up mentality.’ For us to have success and take a step this year we have to do it with depth.”
To outwork other teams in a compressed schedule, Smith plans on rotating different players in and out of the lineup.
“We’re going to need fresh bodies,” he said. “There’s going to be back-to-backs. Guys will sit out and then come in and help.
“I don't want to rock guys' confidence, making them nervous every night (by being scratched). “But there are going to be some guys who come in and out and that’s going to make us more competitive.”
NHL group set after six, seven days
The Senators will likely break into two groups, with an NHL group and a so-called AHL group, after six or seven camp days. But players from that AHL group can rejoin the other at any time. Four players are not yet here, with recently acquired U.S.-based players Derek Stepan, Cedric Paquette and Braydon Coburn having to go through protocols before joining camp. And prospect Tim Stuetzle is still in Edmonton playing the world juniors.
Smith will not use any set line combinations until all the players are here, and hinted that his lines could vary during the season depending on whether his team is home or away.
Stepan can mentor young centres
Stuetzle will start the season at left wing, Smith confirmed. And the coach relishes his new depth at centre with the additions of Stepan from Arizona and Paquette from Tampa Bay.
“There is going to be a deeper battle at centre,” said Smith, who plans to move centres to the wing as needed, as the Lightning so often did en route to winning the Stanley Cup.
Whether Stepan displaces any of the centre prospects, he will help them get better, Smith says.
“Stepan can protect young centres, whether it’s Logan Brown or Josh Norris,” Smith said. “He can play the hard minutes. He can play against the league’s best.”
Smith noted that in Toronto, Auston Matthews benefitted from playing behind Tyler Bozak and Nazim Kadri. It was similar for Bo Horvat behind Henrik Sedin.
“Stepan is going to help Norris or Brown,” Smith said. “He can show them the way.”
Stuetzle is ‘special’
Like everyone else in hockey, Smith is enjoying watching Tim Stuetzle dazzle and dominate at the world juniors. But he will need time to adjust to the NHL.
“When you see a special player play, that’s why you draft them first, second, third overall,” Smith said of Ottawa’s third overall pick in 2020. “They’re franchise changers sometimes.
“When you watch that kid play against his peers, it’s just incredible.
“People watch that and expect him to do that right away (in the NHL) but these are the best defenders, the best players in the world. You’re going to be out there against Auston Matthews and Bo Horvat and all these players on a nightly basis that have been through this grind.
“He’s still going to have some growing pains. But as a finished product, Tim Stuetzle looks like one heck of a hockey player.”
Brannstrom stays at left D
With six NHL starters on defence, the Senators don’t have a lot of room for Erik Brannstrom to crack the roster as a regular, but Smith said there is no plan to have him shift to the right side. Brannstrom has said he is comfortable playing the right side, though he shoots left.
“We have a lot of depth on the right side at this point,” Smith said.
“I think he’s going to be a better left defenceman. I think he’s able to make more plays on that side. And it’s an unfortunate year with a short AHL season, or whatever happens, a lot of the younger guys aren’t going to get the minutes they would have had -- whether you’re playing in the America League or NHL, you’re always playing.
“He’s going to be a very good player when his chance comes. If it’s right away, middle of the year or whatever it is, he’s going to be a very good player.”
Old school divisional rivals
Smith said the all-Canadian division, with teams playing a rival as many as nine or ten times in a single season, is going to fuel resentment. But in a good way.
“It really is like old school hockey when it comes to inter-divisional play. In our division (Atlantic) we might play the Maple Leafs in October and then not see them till January.
“Now you’re going to play them maybe three times in a week. It’s going to be really competitive.
“You’re going to know guys' tendencies. And obviously it’s going to come down to talent and ability but it’s also going to come down to will and which team wants to play the hardest every night.”
