(Kanata) If the Calder Trophy had been awarded on 1er November, Shane Pinto would certainly have won it.
Finally recovered from a shoulder injury that cost him almost all of last season, the center player began his first “real” professional campaign at a breakneck pace. Seven points, including six goals, in eight games, a good showing for October’s NHL Rookie of the Month.
Since then, it has calmed down quite a bit. Six points in 20 games, and an unfortunate differential of – 6.
“I started strong, maybe a little too much,” the 22-year-old forward said with a smile Tuesday morning on the sidelines of optional Ottawa Senators practice.
“Never too much,” corrected his teammate Josh Norris, sitting right next to him in the locker room. “But it’s true that you were hot “, he nevertheless added.
Hot or not, Pinto had no choice but to jump on the bandwagon. Because the events jostled for him.
Small parenthesis: although the Sens organization was already full of talented young attackers, the arrival of Pinto was eagerly awaited. In 2021, he came within a whisker of the Hobey-Baker trophy, awarded to the most outstanding college player in the United States, capped over the wire by Cole Caufield. That spring, after his club was eliminated from the NCAA, he had 7 points in 12 games in his debut with the Senators. Nothing to lower expectations of him.
After a lost season, he showed up at the most recent training camp and logically inherited a supporting role, with the two main positions at center being filled by Norris and Tim Stützle.
PHOTO SEAN KILPATRICK, THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Josh Norris
Quickly, the portrait changed. Norris suffered a serious shoulder injury after just five games, earning Pinto his first promotion. It was around this time that his production began to slow down.
A few weeks later, and after he had found his bearings at the wheel of a trio completed by Alex DeBrincat and Drake Batherson, his destiny still seems destined to change. Also hit in the shoulder, Stützle fell in action Monday night against the Anaheim Ducks. We do not know much about the recovery that awaits him, but it is certain that he will not face the Canadian this Wednesday.
In the short term, and despite his 45 games of NHL experience, Pinto “will most likely become our first center,” admitted head coach DJ Smith on Tuesday morning.
This is, we will agree, no small task.
Trust
There is a portion of helplessness in this remark by Smith. Nobody, and especially not him, wanted him to lose his two main center players.
However, he pointed out, it is in this position that he has the greatest number of options, and Pinto is one of them. In this, it is good news for the young man.
In addition, the line he pilots is currently the most efficient of the Senators. Since the three forwards were reunited on November 27, DeBrincat and Batherson each amassed 8 points in as many games. No question, in these circumstances, of dismantling an effective combination. It is probably to Derick Brassard or Rourke Chartier that will return the mission to replace Stützle in the center of Brady Tkachuk and Claude Giroux.
“We need everyone,” Tkachuk summed up.
PHOTO JAYNE KAMIN-ONCEA, USA TODAY SPORTS ARCHIVES
Brady Tkachuk
The Sens captain says he has full confidence in Pinto for the challenge that awaits him. “It’s a chance for him to raise his game. He’s been very good for us so far,” he said.
DJ Smith was also full of praise for the young man, whose self-confidence and hard work he praised. “Whether it’s a good or a bad game, it remains the same,” he stressed.
All is not perfect, however. While a solid defensive tightening will be needed during Stützle’s absence, it is precisely this aspect of Pinto’s game that Smith wants to see improved. Although the rookie player should expect increased responsibilities, his coach will not fully open the floodgates.
“He will always have good attacking instincts, […] but like the young centers, he must adapt to play against the best players of the opposing team. Josh Norris discovered it, [Tim Stützle] too. We don’t really want to throw him into the lion’s den. At home, we have the luxury of the last change, we can protect it better. »
We will have to use it intelligently.
Ottawa Senators head coach DJ Smith on Shane Pinto
The main concerned seems to take the situation with candor. Rather than talking about himself, he outlines in broad strokes how much the loss of Stützle, combined with that of Norris, will hurt his team. “We never have a break,” he said.
He believes that sooner or later he will regain his offensive “momentum” from the start of the calendar. “It will come back,” he promised. I will not worry about it. »
In any case, he intends to stay the course, “one day at a time”. “It’s my first full season in the NHL, it’s not an easy league. I learn new things every day. »
It was, anyway, what he expected. Although it probably happens a little faster than expected.
Travis Hamonic’s teeth
Defender Travis Hamonic claims not to be on social media. His notoriety of the moment therefore takes him a little by surprise. Last weekend, Hamonic unwittingly became the star of a viral video. We see Thomas Chabot, furious, sit on the bench and smash his stick… just before the camera moves away and shows Hamonic in pain, his face between his hands.
Chabot, who thought he was alone at the end of the bench, apologized to Harmonic. “My face just ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. […] It’s nothing serious, I’m already missing some teeth,” Hamonic laughed on Tuesday, showing his missing incisors. Chabot has since confided that he bought her a gift to apologize, without revealing the nature of it. “We are going to maintain the mystery”, said Hamonic again, assuring that, “30 seconds later, we were laughing at it”.