Adapt, or get left behind
That’s the advice veteran Spezza has for the youngsters
Jason Spezza didn’t get to 1,000 NHL games simply based on skill. Ron Hainsey didn’t get there simply based on grit.
And as 26-year-old Justin Holl got into his third career NHL game — the defenceman’s first of the season — the lesson to longevity is adaptability.
“There’s no real secret, you just have to put the work in,” said the Dallas Stars’ Spezza as he prepared to play career game No. 1,001 Thursday night against the Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena.
“There are going to be good times and bad times in your career. You just have to find a way to work your way through it.”
Spezza was an elite offensive talent when the Ottawa Senators drafted him second overall in the 2001 draft and was a point-a-game player for most of his time in Ottawa.
As he’s aged — he’s 35 now — his roles have changed, at times used as a checking centre in Dallas, and now back to some power-play time under new coach Jim Montgomery.
“You change your game, you just have to figure out where the game is going, to what is in-trend, to what coaches are looking for, and adapt,” said Spezza.
“There have definitely been different periods of adapting for me. “I work on my skating and work on my puck possession time more than I ever have. Handling pucks in corners. I think if I was this good at it as when I was in my prime, I would have been real dangerous. I wish somebody would have told me to work on these things.”
Spezza played half a season in the minors before making the NHL more or less for good, though he spent another full season in the minors due to the 2004-05 lockout.
Hainsey, whose 1,000th game was Thursday night, had a tougher path. A first-round pick by the Montreal Canadiens in 2000, Hainsey spent the better part of five seasons in the minors until making it for good in 2005-06 with Columbus.
“Five years in the minors and 15 years in the NHL — we all get in a big hurry to get there, the idea is to get there when you’re ready and play as long as you can,” said Leafs coach Mike Babcock. “Ron is a great example to our young guys who are dying for an opportunity.”
Hainsey is an example for Holl, who at 26 made an NHL team out of training camp for the first time. Thursday’s game against Dallas was his first of the season, having sat the first 12 games as a healthy scratch.
Given he started out in the ECHL five years ago — after four years of college — his stretch in the press box was a breeze by comparison.
“I’ve got through way more difficult things,” said Holl.
“I played (in the ECHL) for a year. You know what they say about that, easy to come, hard to leave. That’s the league. Getting to this level, making it to the NHL is a big hurdle.
“I’m not comfortable just being here. But being here was a step. Then the next step is find- ing a way to play every day.”
Spezza says he has some wonderful memories over his career, perhaps capped by the Senators’ 2007 Stanley Cup final appearance.
“Those teams we had in Ottawa in the mid-2000s, where we were winning every night, went to the finals,” said Spezza. “We had some teams every night we went into building expecting to thump someone. It’s nice being the team that had that feeling all the time. That was the most fun I’ve had over a couple-of-- years period.”
Last year was probably his lowest point, with just eight goals and 18 assists in 78 games; he was in then-coach Ken Hitchcock’s doghouse.
“I’ve been able to maintain good numbers my whole career, and that’s because I’ve been able to adapt. Last year I had a s—ty year, but this year I’m in a role I’m more comfortable with. You have to figure out ways to contribute, figure out what your role on the team is, and then get good at it.”