Confident, never complacent
Senators’ Borowiecki says ‘I work harder than anyone else in the off-season’
Mark Borowiecki has all the time in the world for Andreas Englund and Christian Jaros, hard-hitting defencemen who could one day replace him as regulars on the Ottawa Senators blue line.
Yet the way Borowiecki sees it, that day is somewhere way off in the future.
“You always have guys pushing you, new guys coming into the league,” the trimmer, 205-pound Borowiecki said on the opening day of training camp Thursday. “But the way I play and what I do, it’s pretty unique. I’m not too worried about losing my job or my position. By no means am I standing here complacent. You guys know me, that’s not who I am. I can honestly say I work harder than anyone else in the offseason and not just in the gym. I work on my skills, too.”
Borowiecki, 28, has always been tough, but he found an additional niche for Senators coach Guy Boucher last season. Opponents had their heads on a swivel when Borowiecki was on the ice, well aware of his penchant for quickly erasing space in the neutral zone before delivering crushing open ice hits. He led the league with 364 hits in 70 games, an average of 5.2 per game — well ahead of hits runner-up Radko Gudas of Philadelphia, who checked in at 4.2 hits per contest.
Borowiecki also paid the price for that punishment. The ducttape approach to taking care of his long-standing ankle and shoulder injuries ran out two games into the playoffs, forcing him to watch the Senators’ extended playoff run from the sidelines. The beating caught up to his body.
The silver lining is the break allowed him to avoid off-season shoulder surgery, a procedure that could have kept him out until December.
“The injuries feel fine,” he said. “I was a little cautious about doing certain things in the summer, which I think was smart. Maybe that’s me getting a little bit more mature as I get older and not being such a meathead in the gym.”
He dropped 10 pounds and has an eye toward contributing at least a little more offensively.
“I’m not going to say I’m going to play like Erik (Karlsson) out there, that’s just stupid,” he said. “But I think I can activate a little more, be a little more confident using my shot in offensive zone, think shoot first rather than just laying it in the corner.”
Every improvement helps keep the potential replacements from overtaking him.
At the same time, Borowiecki says he’s doing whatever he can to help Englund and Jaros develop. He spent time with Englund, a Swede, when the prospect was first called up to the NHL last season on the Senators’ California road trip. He worked out with Jaros, a Slovak, throughout the summer in Ottawa.
If they put in the time and effort, he says, they’ll make it to the big leagues.
“They are two guys I’m rooting for,” he said. “I spent some time in the minors, fighting 20 times a year and riding buses around. It’s no fun.”