YOUTH MUST BE SERVED
Like 29 other teams, the Senators dream of winning the Stanley Cup.
Like six others, they dream of being the first Canadian team to win since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens.
For Ottawa, that day is not imminent, and doesn’t have to be. Yet. It’s enough for this franchise, at this time, to provide a sense of faith and hope to its fan base. Faith that this ownership and management group can put the pieces in place to take a legitimate run at the prize. Hope in the future of its young players, that enough of them can rise into starring roles for the hockey club, in the way that Daniel Alfredsson, Marian Hossa, Erik Karlsson and others did before them.
With 26 games remaining and a playoff berth at risk, the onus is on this group to finish strong and leave ticket holders with a fresh taste of optimism.
One of the reasons this season has been a disappointment for the most passionate of fans — there hasn’t been a large progression among the younger players at the NHL level. Off the cuff, it’s a struggle to name a first- or second-year player who has taken great strides this season. Smith Surprises: Second-year forward Mark Stone and centre Jean- Gabriel Pageau are two that have followed up on the big steps taken in 2014-15. With his secondperiod goal Thursday, Stone has six in his past six games. And it’s the line’s surprising left winger, erstwhile fourth-line centre Zack Smith, who has made the biggest leap from last year.
With 12 goals, including three in his past three before Thursday, Smith has erased the memory of his injury-plagued, two-goal campaign last season. He already has three short-handed, behind Pageau’s five. Smith is just two away from his career high of 14 goals in 2011-12, so hot he can score without trying.
“To be honest, I was just trying to get out of the way and it hit me,” Smith said of his goal, off a Mike Hoffman shot, against the Red Wings in a 3-1 loss Wednesday. “I’m not going to lie and say I was trying to tip it with the shaft of my stick.”
At 27, Smith is finally showing his full potential, including his sense of humour.
“I have 12 goals right now, I’m not on Hoffman’s tail here, or (Steven) Stamkos,” Smith said.
Maybe not, but he’s certainly hotter than Stamkos at the moment.
“The first 10 games, I think I had more than (Sidney) Crosby, too,” Smith says.
After arriving here as a thirdround draft choice, up and down between AHL Binghamton and Ottawa his first couple of seasons, Smith had settled in to be a third- and fourth-liner. Usually at centre.
No one imagined that with left winger Milan Michalek hurt and now traded, and with left winger Clarke MacArthur still recuperating from a concussion, that Zack Smith would fit the bill as a top-six winger, earning power play time.
Confidence is a hockey player’s best friend, it can sprout wings on skates. Smith has confidence to burn at the moment.
“It has a lot to do with it for sure,” he says. “Offensive success is something I feel I’ve been missing for the last year and a half. Playing with guys like Pageau and Stone, if you have a little confidence and you’re going to the net with your stick down and you’re ready for the puck, you’re going to get chances.”
In the four games preceding Detroit, the Smith-Pageau- Stone line had produced 20 points in four games. And they’re still rolling.
A tough kid out of the WHL, Smith was better known for his bare fists than his soft hands. In his final junior season, Smith had 22 goals and 136 penalty minutes. His is a wonderful story of blooming late. As recently as last winter, mid-season, Smith took advantage of a lengthy rehabilitation (3½ months with a broken wrist) to work on his skating and conditioning.
“When I came back, I struggled a bit with confidence,” he says. “But my skating was the best it had ever been. I was in good shape and that kind of took things to the next level. I don’t think I’ve ever been in that good of shape at that time of the year ... it lit a fire under me for the summer. I had a lot to prove to myself, being out that long and losing confidence — that I could still play and was a good player.”
If the Senators don’t reach the top eight this spring, and even if they do, they’re going to need more inspiring tales from younger prospects to fuel interest in next season and beyond. Down, Sticks Around: How quickly a callup’s status can change in hockey. One moment, forward Nick Paul was holding court with reporters, talking about the possibility of facing his boyhood hero, Jarome Iginla of the Colorado Avalanche. A short time later, Paul was sent back to Binghamton, his NHL debut on hold. At least he was spared the drive. The B- Sens play at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday, so Paul can stick around.