A first for Ryan
Senators winger, who was raised in California, was more familiar with roller hockey than outdoor ice rinks. So tomorrow’s NHL 100 Classic at TD Place will mark his hockey debut in the great outdoors
Use the term ODR around any serious hockey player and he’ll identify it as quickly and easily as he does NHL.
The ODR is where they spent all their time growing up. It’s where they lived.
It’s also where they unwittingly honed their skills, simply by doing what came naturally and having fun with their friends.
Bobby Ryan, however, had little or no experience on the outdoor rink.
“Like everybody, I think I started on one in New Jersey, but not like the Canadian guys, nothing like that,” the Senators’ superbly skilled 30-yearold said in the lead-up to Saturday’s NHL 100 Classic at TD Place against the Montreal Canadiens. “This will be first for me.”
Ryan moved to El Segundo, Calif., when he was 10. He was blocks from the beach. Hockey was in his blood from his singledigit years in Cherry Hill, N.J., when he idolized the Philadelphia Flyers. But he couldn’t pretend to be one of them by putting blades on his boots, so he found another alternative.
He played roller hockey outdoors, next to the ocean. With grown-ups.
“Men who were playing on their lunch break every day,” specified Ryan. “And I was home-schooled, so somebody would pick me up, and somebody would drop me off. Or I’d roller-blade the four miles down there to go play with them every day. And they were hard on me.”
They also helped develop him into the player he is now.
“I looked up to the rollerhockey guys when I got there,” said Ryan. “They kind of took me under their wing. When I was 12, I was playing more roller hockey than ice by far. I was with those guys every day, and they kind of groomed me a little bit.”
After such a strong playoff last spring, Ryan does not have the Christmas time numbers he wanted or expected. He didn’t have a bad start. He had six assists in the first eight games. But then he suffered yet another broken finger than kept him out for almost a month.
When he returned to the lineup, he was paired with newcomer Matt Duchene. They didn’t have the desired immediate chemistry, and because his finger wasn’t fully healed, Ryan was having obvious difficulty shooting the puck.
He finally scored his first goal on Dec. 1, when a shot went in off his skate.
But in Wednesday’s slumpbusting 3-2 win over the New York Rangers, Ryan looked a lot more like his old playoff self. He scored a goal with a strong one-timer. He had an assist. And, in perhaps the most positive sign of all, he attempted a onehanded, backhand toe drag.
It is not a move made by a man who is suffering from self-doubt.
When did he last try to pull one of those off?
“Plenty of times,” Ryan said after the game, grinning. “It didn’t work now, either. It never works. I was stuck in the middle, I had nowhere to go and I figured why not?”
Regaining some confidence is “huge,” said Ryan, for him and for the team which has now won just twice in 14 tries.
“This was a big one,” he said. “You know, we still had belief in everything. Not only each other and the system and whatever, but it wasn’t like the outside world was talking about. We had belief. We just needed to have a night like tonight. It means a lot.”
From the bad came some good. Ryan and Duchene finally started to develop some chemistry. It began in Saturday’s 5-0 loss to San Jose. He noticed it continue in Buffalo. They saw results against the Rangers.
“For it to finally come to fruition means a lot for him and I, because we were working at it ad nauseam.,” said Ryan. “We’re excited about what we’re building.”
Guy Boucher plans on keeping the pair together, alongside Mark Stone, for Saturday’s against the Habs.
If you see Ryan attempt a one-handed, backhand toe drag, it will be a good sign.
“It’s easier with roller blades, because you can just glide through it,” said Ryan. “Those are moves you generally try to save for outdoor roller hockey. As much as I still keep in touch with some of them, I hope they don’t read they were not nearly as good as whoever I tried to pull it on tonight."