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- 2002-10-07
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ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – It was only a practice, a split-squad practice at that, but Alex Chiasson says he felt some jitters before stepping on the ice Saturday with his new Ottawa Senators teammates for the first time.
“To be honest, I did have a little bit of butterflies coming into this,” said Chiasson, the one NHL player included in the trade which sent Jason Spezza to the Dallas Stars on Canada Day. “It’s kind of neat going here. This is the time of year to bond with the guys and get to know them a little bit better, build some chemistry and battle for some spots on the team.”
Chiasson, a right winger, doesn’t have to worry about winning a spot on the roster. What he does want to establish, however, is that he can be a front-line player, doing everything he can to help the Senators make the playoffs. He’s anxious to bounce back from a 2013-14 season which started with so much promise, but faded away after a stomach virus arrived and his confidence disappeared.
Right off the bat, he’s getting a shot at playing on a line with Milan Michalek and Mika Zibanejad. That unit will be place for the Senators’ instrasquad game Sunday afternoon at the Mile One Centre and Senators coach Paul MacLean says he’s going to be patient, hoping chemistry develops. It’s definitely a sizeable line (Michalek is 6-2, 216 pounds, Zibanejad is 6-2, 211 pounds and Chiasson is 6-4, 205 pounds) and all three have had impressive scoring stretches during their careers.
“I thought we made some good plays out there and you can tell those two guys are really skilled,” said Chiasson. “It’s always good to play with guys of that calibre.”
Chiasson, who is from Montreal, says he accepts the pressure and high expectations that have come with the trade and in playing for a Canadian team. At the same time, he can’t allow himself to think he can replace Spezza himself.
“I feel like the trade can really be a big opportunity for me to bring my game to the next level,” he said. “That’s how I see it. If I sit here and think I’ve got to be who Jason Spezza is, I’m not going to benefit from that. There’s a chance for me to step in and contribute to the success of the team and have a role and be an impact player, but that’s up to me. That’s being ready. I worked really hard in the summer on different things that I thought needed to be worked on last year.”
When Chiasson first joined Dallas late in the lockout shortened 2013 season, he owned the NHL’s version of the Midas touch: Everything he touched turned to goal. In his first seven games, he scored six goals – on only 13 shots – along with one assist.
The 2013-14 season began the same way. He scored in each of his first three games.
Looking back, he says “when I started, I thought I had soccer nets out there, everything I touched was going in.”
Then came a bad scoring slump, where he lost his confidence and ice time. Before Christmas, he had a major health scare – it was eventually diagnosed as both a stomach virus and tonsillitis – which resulted in him losing 12 pounds in only five days.
“It happened two games before the Christmas break, when we were flying into San Jose,” he said. “I played that night, but I don’t know how I did. I couldn’t even drink water on the bench. Between periods, guys were saying ‘we’ve got to get this kid out of here’.”
Chiasson says he never felt quite right until after the Olympic break. By then, his ice time had dwindled to as low as 10-12 minutes a game, down from 16-18 minutes at the start of the year. His magic scoring touch was gone (he finished the year with 13 goals and 22 assists) and he had a plus/minus of minus-21. In Dallas’s seven-game playoff loss to Anaheim, Chiasson scored one goal, but was a minus-7.
During the summer, he reviewed some of the highlights (and lowlights) of his career to date, trying to figure out what had happened to a game that had seemed so simple only a year earlier.
“I had so many point blank opportunities, where I just missed or I was robbed by the goalie,” he said. “That just goes with experience. It’s something that’s going to help me going forward. I’ve lived it a little bit now.”
The July trade allowed him to hit the re-set button. His first practice with the Senators Saturday felt like a fresh start.
“Playing for a Canadian team, is kind of a dream come true for a kid from Quebec,” he said. “It makes me feel a bit nervous, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing being a bit nervous.”
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“To be honest, I did have a little bit of butterflies coming into this,” said Chiasson, the one NHL player included in the trade which sent Jason Spezza to the Dallas Stars on Canada Day. “It’s kind of neat going here. This is the time of year to bond with the guys and get to know them a little bit better, build some chemistry and battle for some spots on the team.”
Chiasson, a right winger, doesn’t have to worry about winning a spot on the roster. What he does want to establish, however, is that he can be a front-line player, doing everything he can to help the Senators make the playoffs. He’s anxious to bounce back from a 2013-14 season which started with so much promise, but faded away after a stomach virus arrived and his confidence disappeared.
Right off the bat, he’s getting a shot at playing on a line with Milan Michalek and Mika Zibanejad. That unit will be place for the Senators’ instrasquad game Sunday afternoon at the Mile One Centre and Senators coach Paul MacLean says he’s going to be patient, hoping chemistry develops. It’s definitely a sizeable line (Michalek is 6-2, 216 pounds, Zibanejad is 6-2, 211 pounds and Chiasson is 6-4, 205 pounds) and all three have had impressive scoring stretches during their careers.
“I thought we made some good plays out there and you can tell those two guys are really skilled,” said Chiasson. “It’s always good to play with guys of that calibre.”
Chiasson, who is from Montreal, says he accepts the pressure and high expectations that have come with the trade and in playing for a Canadian team. At the same time, he can’t allow himself to think he can replace Spezza himself.
“I feel like the trade can really be a big opportunity for me to bring my game to the next level,” he said. “That’s how I see it. If I sit here and think I’ve got to be who Jason Spezza is, I’m not going to benefit from that. There’s a chance for me to step in and contribute to the success of the team and have a role and be an impact player, but that’s up to me. That’s being ready. I worked really hard in the summer on different things that I thought needed to be worked on last year.”
When Chiasson first joined Dallas late in the lockout shortened 2013 season, he owned the NHL’s version of the Midas touch: Everything he touched turned to goal. In his first seven games, he scored six goals – on only 13 shots – along with one assist.
The 2013-14 season began the same way. He scored in each of his first three games.
Looking back, he says “when I started, I thought I had soccer nets out there, everything I touched was going in.”
Then came a bad scoring slump, where he lost his confidence and ice time. Before Christmas, he had a major health scare – it was eventually diagnosed as both a stomach virus and tonsillitis – which resulted in him losing 12 pounds in only five days.
“It happened two games before the Christmas break, when we were flying into San Jose,” he said. “I played that night, but I don’t know how I did. I couldn’t even drink water on the bench. Between periods, guys were saying ‘we’ve got to get this kid out of here’.”
Chiasson says he never felt quite right until after the Olympic break. By then, his ice time had dwindled to as low as 10-12 minutes a game, down from 16-18 minutes at the start of the year. His magic scoring touch was gone (he finished the year with 13 goals and 22 assists) and he had a plus/minus of minus-21. In Dallas’s seven-game playoff loss to Anaheim, Chiasson scored one goal, but was a minus-7.
During the summer, he reviewed some of the highlights (and lowlights) of his career to date, trying to figure out what had happened to a game that had seemed so simple only a year earlier.
“I had so many point blank opportunities, where I just missed or I was robbed by the goalie,” he said. “That just goes with experience. It’s something that’s going to help me going forward. I’ve lived it a little bit now.”
The July trade allowed him to hit the re-set button. His first practice with the Senators Saturday felt like a fresh start.
“Playing for a Canadian team, is kind of a dream come true for a kid from Quebec,” he said. “It makes me feel a bit nervous, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing being a bit nervous.”
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