Mitchell’s career was built on drive
Despite bouncing around the NHL, veteran has been a rare healthy scratch since 2007 debut
It was 10 years ago when Torrey Mitchell signed an NHL entry-level contract with the San Jose Sharks, told the University of Vermont he would not be returning for his final season and headed for Massachusetts to join the American Hockey League’s Worcester Sharks to start his professional hockey career.
The Greenfield Park, Que., native was driving a 1999 Nissan Pathfinder with 225,000 kilometres on it that he had purchased from his father for $2,000. His dad paid for the insurance, which cost $2,100.
It was March 22, 2007, and Mitchell was in the middle of a 31/2-hour drive along Interstate 89 when I reached him on his cellphone.
“I’m going to maybe try to drive this bad boy into the ground and then maybe this summer consider getting something else,” Mitchell said about his new/old wheels. “We’ll see what happens. I’m excited ... everything is happening so fast right now.”
Mitchell is driving a much nicer car these days after earning more than US$13 million during his 10 seasons in the NHL. Not bad for a fourth-round pick.
Mitchell didn’t spend much time in the minors after arriving in Worcester. He played 11 AHL regular-season games and six playoff games before making the jump to the NHL for the 2007-08 season, playing in all 82 games as a rookie.
Before the start of this year’s playoffs, the 32-year-old had only been a healthy scratch twice during his NHL career — once with San Jose and once with the Minnesota Wild, both times during the regular season.
So for a kid who grew up on the South Shore of Montreal cheering for the Canadiens, you can imagine how tough it was for Mitchell to be a healthy scratch for the first two games of the Eastern Conference quarter-final series against the New York Rangers.
“It wasn’t very easy,” Mitchell said Wednesday in the Canadiens’ locker-room while the extra players were the only ones to skate. “But you guys saw me … I just tried to support my teammates and stay ready, practising. There are five or six guys on the ice right now … I was in that group. It’s not an easy thing. The mental toughness starts kicking in.
“To be honest, I don’t really know if there’s a handbook to handle that. I think you just take it day by day and try to come in and just work hard, put your head down, don’t complain. That’s probably what I did.”
Mitchell has played in the last two games and scored the Canadiens’ only goal in a 2-1 loss Tuesday in New York. With the series tied 2-2, you can expect to see him back in the lineup for Game 5 Thursday at the Bell Centre.
“It would have been a lot better if we would have got the win, obviously,” Mitchell said about his goal. “But it felt good.”
Coach Claude Julien has been using a rotation on his fourth line since the regular season, which has created a fierce internal battle for a spot. Mike McCarron, Brian Flynn and Andreas Martinsen sat out Tuesday’s game, while Mitchell played with Steve Ott and Dwight King.
“I think we have a lot of guys on the fourth line that are pretty mature,” Mitchell said. “We’re not very fragile, I guess, if (Julien) has to rotate other guys in. And there’s a lot of competition ... a lot of competition among our line, specifically. So just really (we) can’t take a shift off, I guess, which is probably the mentality that everyone needs to have.”
While Mitchell should be back in the lineup for Game 5, it will be interesting to see if Julien takes King off the fourth line. That seems doubtful, however. While King’s lack of speed was obvious while playing with Mitchell and Ott, Julien loves the veteran’s experience and, after Tuesday’s game, had nothing but praise for the 6-foot-4, 229-pounder acquired from the Los Angeles Kings at the trade deadline.
If Julien does decide to make a change on the fourth line, Flynn would be an option. Flynn is Mitchell’s best friend on the team and helped him through a tough time while being a healthy scratch.
“We’ve been talking to each other quite a bit,” Mitchell said. “I feel for him and he’s working hard and he wants to play, too. We could bounce our thoughts off each other.”
While standing in the Canadiens’ locker-room Wednesday, Mitchell was asked what was going through his mind on that day 10 years ago when he was driving the old Pathfinder toward his future, which now includes a wife and two young daughters.
“Wow ... that’s a good question,” he said. “Just excitement. Probably just exciting to be starting my professional career and journey.
“It goes by so fast … you know how time flies. I try and pinch myself sometimes, especially now playing for the Habs.”