Drouin watching, waiting for his turn
A “Welcome To The NHL Moment” can come in a variety of different forms.
It could be losing a tooth from a high stick, having your nose broken in a fight or even getting chewed out by the coach after taking a bad penalty.
For Jonathan Drouin, who hails from Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, his introduction to how different things are in the NHL came while munching popcorn from high up in the press box.
“It definitely is different,” the 21-year-old said of being a healthy scratch in 12 of the team’s 15 playoff games. “At this time of the year, you’re usually playing and helping your team, but there’s not much I can do about it.”
This is a first for Drouin. He never sat out games in junior. Even as a 17-year-old long shot at the world junior championship, where he “wasn’t expecting to play,” Drouin ended up in a top-line role for Canada. But as a rookie with the Tampa Bay Lightning, he has struggled to play significant minutes or even get into the lineup.
Drouin was a healthy scratch six times this year. And though he played in the final 35 games of the season and had four goals and 32 points in 70 games — 11th among rookies — his ice time was reduced to a little more than 13 minutes.
For the No. 3 pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, it has to be frustrating.
Players like Nashville’s Seth Jones, Carolina’s Elias Lindholm and Calgary’s Sean Monahan, who were selected right after him, are being asked to make a difference for their teams. Even Sam Bennett, who is one year younger, played a prominent role for the Flames in the playoffs.
“I want to be in the lineup every night, but we have a good team,” said Drouin, who has no points and is a minus-4 in three playoff games. “I’ve said it many times, there’s only four teams left in the NHL. It’s still a good situation to be in. But what do you want? You want to be on the ice.”
It is difficult to argue against head coach Jon Cooper’s decision, especially after the Lightning defeated the New York Rangers 6-2 in Game 2 to tie the Eastern Conference final 1-1.
“Put (Drouin) on a different team and who knows, he could be playing 20 minutes a night,” Tampa forward Brenden Morrow said. “The type of player he is maybe just doesn’t fit right on a fourth-line role.”
There is some truth to that. After all, Drouin combined for 213 points in his final two seasons in junior. He is a natural-born scorer. But if you are replacing Brian Boyle or even Morrow, maybe someone like Jonathan Marchessault makes more sense. The bigger reason might be that this is becoming the Tampa Bay way. The team is trying to be more patient with young players.
Cooper has said that Drouin has to get stronger and realize “there is more than one net in a rink.”
But the bigger message is that ice time — at least in Tampa Bay — has to be earned and not given.
“Some guys it helps, some guys it doesn’t help,” Drouin said of sitting. “We’ll see at the end of the day if it helps me or not.”