It’s a smiling Julien Gauthier who appears before the media for an intimate press scrum, Saturday morning, in the downtown hotel where the Ottawa Senators are staying.
Smiling because the colossus native of Pointe-aux-Trembles will play in front of twenty relatives at the Bell Center, in the evening, against the Canadian. But also smiling because he gets the new start he wanted for a long time, he who was looking for his place with the New York Rangers.
Last April, during a visit by the Canadian to New York, Gauthier lamented the lack of communication from the Rangers towards him. Obviously, the situation had not changed much, until the New Yorkers traded him to the Senators last week.
It’s not easy when no one talks to you, you don’t have ice time or a defined role. There, it feels good to have a fresh start. I still thank the Rangers, it was a great experience, but it’s fun to continue with a young team and to have the confidence of the coaches.
Julien Gauthier
Gauthier will play his third game on Saturday in his new uniform. Friday, Carolina, the former pick of 1er tour was allowed 11 minutes of play. Nothing to write home about, you might say, but for a player who played barely eight a game in New York, and only four in his last game with the Rangers, it is a nice improvement.
In two outings with his new team, Gauthier got three shots and distributed four body checks. This end remains important for a guy of 6 ft 4, 224 lbs, who is linked by the gang to the Rougeau family.
“They told me that I was going to have the chance to show myself off. I have to work hard, show what I can do, skate, hit, go to the net,” he summarizes.
The Senators had practice off Saturday morning, as they arrived at the hotel around 2:00 a.m. that night. Impossible, therefore, to know what their training will look like, especially since DJ Smith indicated that there were a few uncertain cases in his camp. But late in Friday’s game, Gauthier was employed on a line with compatriot and former St. John’s Sea Dogs teammate Mathieu Joseph.
The only certainty: the giant goaltender Mads Søgaard will defend the net of the Senators, a good incentive to learn the shortcut to write the “o” crossed out. On a Mac, “Option” and “O” keys simultaneously, for the curious.
Teams to double
The Senators arrive in Montreal in a strange position in the standings. They are six points from last place giving access to the playoffs, a gap hard to close with less than a third of the season to play. But they only played 57 games, three less than the Capitals – already in selling mode – four less than the Panthers and five less than the Islanders. All of the teams they have to overtake.
The problem is that the Penguins, Sabers and Red Wings are also in the picture, too with 57 games played. So that’s a lot of teams to get ahead of, not always an easy task in a system where a team that loses in a tiebreaker still gets a point.
Not easy, therefore, for the general manager, Pierre Dorion, to choose whether to sell or buy. The picture will be clearer by the deadline, March 3; the Senators play four games by then, including two against the Wings, direct rivals in this race.
Can the ranking be used by DJ Smith to motivate his men, in this context? ” Not really. In today’s world where information is readily available, guys know the scenarios on the table well, explained the head coach.
“We play very hard. We just faced the two best teams in the NHL, the Bruins and the Hurricanes. We worked very hard in these two games, we had our chances of scoring. We just haven’t finished the work on the power play. But the 5v5 effort was there. We know what awaits us, we want to finish February above .500 and we have three games left to get there. »
“Whether your team is successful or not, you never want to see guys leave, you want to build your team,” said defender Thomas Chabot. We want to force Pierre to look for assets to help us get into the playoffs. »