Marlies’ challenge not lost on Gauthier
It was in the regular season when the Marlies were on a road trip through New England that Frederik Gauthier’s analytical mind came to the rescue with his teammates in peril.
They were trapped — by design, of course — in an escape room. It was a team-bonding exercise and the Marlies were divided into three groups. The only one that made it out in the allotted time, by deciphering the clues, was Gauthier’s group.
“He’s definitely an analytical guy. He’s very smart,” linemate Colin Greening said of Gauthier. “The way his mind works, he’s an outside-the-box thinker.”
Gauthier — who does 1,000- to 2,000-piece puzzles to relax — took no credit for the escaperoom success.
“It was a team effort,” Gauthier said, “but I’ve done them before and I knew what to ex- pect. You find clues and figure out what they mean, maybe a password or a lock combination. Maybe a calendar has three, five and seven circled and somewhere there’s a combination lock.”
In a way, Gauthier is his own puzzle.
After a mediocre season, the 23-year-old centre has been playing some of his best hockey entering the Calder Cup final against the Texas Stars, which starts Saturday at Ricoh Coliseum (4 p.m., TSN2).
The first-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs, 21st in 2013, is also heading into restricted free agency this summer and Leafs GM Kyle Dubas will have to make a call.
Gauthier has been called up multiple times over the past three seasons, but has not stuck. He had one goal in nine games with the Leafs this past season, his last appearance a minus-2 effort against Colora- do on Jan. 22.
“Going back (to the AHL) is tough. I think a few weeks after that, it was a bumpy road,” said Gauthier. “But we had a little break and I came back strong.”
He is “six-five all the time,” as Leafs coach Mike Babcock likes to say of the big centre, but elements of his game are lacking. He doesn’t have that wow factor when he plays, but he was only ever considered as a checking centre even when he was chosen. His competitive nature is sometimes questioned. Maybe he takes the regular season too easy.
Still, he has champion pedigree.
He led the Rimouski Oceanic to the QMJHL’s President Cup and a Memorial Cup appearance in 2015, plus gold with Canada’s world-under 18 team (in 2013) and at the world juniors (in 2015).
He was the Marlies’ No. 1 centre in last year’s playoffs until a thumping check in the second round detached his hamstring. The Marlies were eliminated shortly after. “When we lost him in Game 2 of that Syracuse series, that really hurt our team,” said Marlies coach Sheldon Keefe.
“He was playing excellent hockey for us. Not having a player like that was a significant factor.”
Gauthier says he’s feeling no residual effects of that injury now, but did earlier in the sea- son.
“They told me within a year I should be all right, and now it’s fine. Feels normal,” said Gauthier.
“I didn’t do anything in training camp and started late here. So obviously it took me a while to get back into a routine.
“My leg was getting sore early. Now it’s better. It still gets sore now and then, more than the other leg.”
His skating is far better than it once was, and during these Calder Cup playoffs he has been far more dynamic, playing with the six-foot-two Greening and six-foot-three Pierre Engvall, a towering line that plays a relentless forechecking style.
“With Freddie, it’s just a matter of how much he really wants to dig in and really work,” said Keefe. “He’s a big, heavy body that takes real effort to move around. When he’s dialed in and competitive and he’s skating, he’s a real hard player to play against.
“He carries the play a lot. He doesn’t spend much time in his own zone. He’s not going to wow anybody with skills or making plays, but he’s in the offensive zone a lot. The puck doesn’t go in our net very much when he’s out there.”