IF SENATORS DON’T RE-SIGN DUCHENE, IT’S THEIR LOSS
Two separate questions were thrown simultaneously at the men of the moment.
The first, for Pierre Dorion, had to do with whether Kyle Turris asked for a trade when it became apparent contract talks were going nowhere.
“No, they never requested a trade as far as ‘we want out’ (or) ‘we’re not going to play.’ A formal trade request, as far as Kyle coming into the office and slamming the door, and saying ‘I want to be traded,’ that never happened,” said the Senators GM, after which the room fell silent and all eyes turned to Matt Duchene, whose turn it was to explain how “strange” it would be to face his old team in his first games with his new team.
“Yeah,” started Duchene, who had been glued to Dorion’s response. “On a lighter note …”
Before he could continue, the assembled crowd cracked up.
Turris, a nice guy and good hockey player, never had the ability to do that. He spoke quietly and mostly in clichés. Does it matter? Not if you only care about end results. But in the entertainment part of the business, his contributions were strictly on ice. He wasn’t exactly quotable.
In Duchene, the Senators have added a lot of colour. He is an interviewer’s delight. You’ll see. Oh yes, and he is also one of the most exciting players in the NHL.
Whereas Turris was effectively workmanlike, Duchene will lift you out of your seat with his speed and spectacular skills. Like Martin Havlat in his heyday.
If the persistence to acquire Duchene was in any way ownership driven, it wouldn’t come as a surprise. He should be able to create a stir and boost attendance in a market that appears to be lazily waiting for the playoffs.
On Saturday, after boldly predicting that Duchene would be on the Senators’ charter to Sweden, I wrote that, statistically, there wasn’t a huge difference between him and Turris. And with the latter, you always knew what you were going to get — solid, dependable and a good teammate.
I also wondered why Duchene had been the subject of trade rumours for so long. I thought he might have had a problem with Joe Sakic, the Avalanche GM.
That notion was squelched Monday.
“There’s no such thing as a perfect human being, but for me Joe Sakic is pretty darn close,” Duchene said. “He’s a guy I’ve looked up to my whole life. A lot of people, I think, pitted us against each other a little bit at times, and it was never that way. We had a great relationship the whole time.
“We both had a tear in our eye yesterday, when he talked to me (after the trade). I have nothing but great things to say. It was my favourite team as a kid, and it was an honour to play there.”
On Sunday, after learning the deal had been done, my gut reaction was that the Senators gave up too much: two firsts, a third and Turris for a player who only has a season and 68 games left on his $6-million-per-year contract.
I thought that at this time next year, with Duchene approaching free agency, the Senators will be in the same boat as they were with Turris.
But now, if the six-year contract he signed with Nashville was never tabled here, my hunch is that Turris wanted to move. And while he’s won a lottery landing with a contending team in tax-free Tennessee, I think Duchene feels that way about being in Ottawa. I think that because I believe, for him, getting out of Colorado really was all about wanting to participate in the NHL playoffs.
If the Senators can just give him that, I think Dorion can work something out with his good friend Pat Brisson (Duchene’s agent), and suddenly those draft picks they lost won’t matter so much. Duchene will be in Ottawa for years to come, and the Senators will have won the deal.
If they don’t re-sign him, it’s their loss.
The loss of Turris will be felt greatly by the Capital City Condors, a family of hockey teams with players who have developmental and/or physical disability. And Turris — who along with wife Julie has worked closely with the Condors since being introduced to them by former Senator Matt Carkner — will miss them too. “It was really difficult,” Jim Perkins, the co-founder and president of the Condors, told TSN1200 of getting the call from Turris at about 6:45 p.m. Sunday. “Every time we tried to talk Condors, the three of us got pretty emotional. They were as devastated as many of us feel. Poor Julie would try to say something about what they would do, and what they were promising to do, and she couldn’t even get the sentence out.” … Craig Anderson has the mark where he was hit in the throat by that shot on Saturday. “Sometimes you get hit in the throat and your throat kind of closes up, you can’t breathe,” he said. “It was one of those where it felt kind of OK, but I just wanted to slow things down in case something did kind of come about. Started tasting a little something different. Not blood, but you get that taste in your mouth. That was it, really.” … Ryan Dzingel was asked if he’s faster than Duchene. “I don’t know, the guy can move,” he said. “I’m excited to see him out there.” My money says Duchene is the team’s new fastest skater.