Wolanin’s injury opens opportunity on Sens’ blue line
As Christian Wolanin was walking around with his left arm in a sling Thursday, fellow Ottawa Senators defenceman Max Lajoie was going through a full range of emotions.
Lajoie, 21, knows the injury thing well enough. After making a stunning NHL debut with the Senators following training camp last season, his game slipped and he tried to play though a painful sports hernia injury for months before finally having surgery in April.
“It sucks,” Lajoie said of Wolanin’s torn labrum, which will keep him out of action for at least four months. “We’re pretty close and we’ve got a friendship there.”
At the same time, getting ahead in the hockey world is also about taking advantage of opportunities as they arise.
Wolanin’s absence means that players such as Lajoie and Erik Brannstrom suddenly move up the defensive depth chart, sitting behind Thomas Chabot, Nikita Zaitsev, Ron Hainsey, Dylan DeMelo, Mark Borowiecki and Christian Jaros.
There’s more hype surrounding Brannstrom, of course, but if the Senators want him to fine-tune the holes in his game in Belleville, the door could again open for Lajoie.
He was in the right place at the right time last September, following the Erik Karlsson trade. He caught the eye of former head coach Guy Boucher early in training camp and kept on rolling into an unlikely spot in the top four as Cody Ceci’s partner.
Lajoie had a goal and an assist in the season opener, his NHL debut. Three games later, he scored twice and added an assist. Six games into his NHL career, he had four goals and three assists, an early front-runner in the league rookie and defenceman scoring races.
He was regularly topping 22 minutes of ice time in the opening months of the season.
Lajoie de vivre, indeed.
“It was pretty unreal last year,” he said. “I didn’t think I was going to be (at training camp) for that long, so it was pretty cool for me, and with the hot start it was even more impressive for myself.”
As the games and losses wore on, however, Lajoie lost his edge — offensively and defensively — and much of his ice time. Like many young players, he tried to push through the pain of the injury. He finished with seven goals, eight assists and a plus/minus of minus 25 in 56 games.
When Lajoie was finally sent to Belleville late in the season, and ultimately shut down for surgery in April (there was a 10-week recovery process), Wolanin benefited by coming the other way to Ottawa.
“It’s back to normal, 100 per cent,” Lajoie said of his current health situation. “My body is feeling really good. I’m excited to get started again.”
So, too, is Brannstrom.
After being acquired from Vegas at the trade deadline last February, the Senators haven’t been shy about promoting the 20-year-old who has an offensive flair.
He’s unquestionably talented, but training camp will also show whether he has enough poise and polish to step directly into the NHL.
With new coach D.J. Smith talking over and over again about drastically cutting down the club’s goals-against totals, there will be little room for defensive shortcuts.
“I’ve been looking at some videos from Belleville (last season) and I tried to get heavier in the summer
It doesn’t really bother me. I just come in and play my game. It’s going to be a really competitive camp.
so I could be better in the defensive zone,” said Brannstrom, who is officially listed at 5-10 and 183 pounds.
“I was better at (the rookie tournament). I felt good. I’m watching the videos and I’m working on the details.”
Belleville coach Troy Mann, who has a fine eye for the intricacies of the game, says Brannstrom has a tendency to wind up for the big slapshot even when the quicker release of a wrist shot could be more beneficial.
“I think I need to work on everything,” Brannstrom said. “That’s a good point ... more wrist shots than slappers. It’s something I work on every day after practice. I have to be a little bit faster thinking out there.”
Wherever Brannstrom has played in the past, he has been a power-play presence. Before his injury, it looked like Wolanin had the inside track on running a second unit — Thomas Chabot will be the first-unit quarterback — with the man advantage.
It’s a position that Brannstrom will now receive a chance to fill.
Lajoie, however, plans to push to be in the mix.
“It has been like that every year, through my whole career, in junior,” he said of being under the radar. “It doesn’t really bother me. I just come in and play my game. It’s going to be a really competitive camp.”