Spezza is what he is — get used to it
Now that the current captain of the Ottawa Senators is gone from the building, alone with his thoughts on whether he’ll return to the Scotiabank Place stage, it’s time to turn our attention to the next captain.
Jason Spezza is a great subject, if only because the mere mention of his name often causes loud debate, dividing Senators fans.
Barring a Stanley Cup victory, Spezza, who turns 29 in June, will probably live with the conflicting views of his game — alternately seen as an offensive genius who makes his linemates better or a defensive liability prone to bad turnovers — until it’s his turn to make his own decision on retirement.
With the first-round playoff loss to the New York Rangers still fresh, it’s fair to say that Spezza didn’t do enough to lead his team into the second round. Coach Paul MacLean is probably still shaking his head, wondering why his star centre kept passing up so many golden shooting opportunities. Spezza had only three goals — one into an empty net — and two assists in the seven-game series. He didn’t make the difference on the power play, where his talent should shine brightest.
Yet for all the critics who wholeheartedly agree with that, ask yourself this: without Spezza’s performance in the regular season, would we have enjoyed the thrill ride of the playoffs?
Spezza had 34 goals and 50 assists in the regular season, fourth in the NHL scoring race. He was one of only 10 players who topped a point per game and that includes Washington’s Nicklas Backstrom and Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby, who each played less than half a season.
Without Spezza, would Erik Karlsson be in line for the Norris Trophy as top defenceman? Would Milan Michalek have scored a career-high 35 goals? Would rookie left-winger Colin Greening have scored 17? Would Kyle Turris have been able to make such a seamless adjustment into the No. 2 centre spot without Spezza taking some of the defensive attention away from him?
Spezza’s shootout success alone helped earn the Senators a crucial few points that put them on the right side of a playoff berth.
There were lots of impressive stories along the way, but Spezza was central to many of them.
After a preseason game last September, I had a drink with a long-time NHL executive as we talked about what we both thought would be a long, difficult season ahead for the Senators. When he asked if I thought there was any chance the Senators could be competitive and challenge for a playoff spot, I suggested only if goaltender Craig Anderson could steal them at least half a dozen games. He said the Senators wouldn’t get there because Spezza couldn’t get them there. I’m guessing he wasn’t alone in his opinion at that time.
Again, his playoff performance showed that a defensively-sound team can frustrate him and force him into mistakes. He turned the puck over too much and made too many of those blind passes that used to cause Jacques Martin to grind his teeth on the bench.
Since those early days, though, Spezza has matured. He isn’t as sensitive to the criticisms as he once was.
“I understand my position on the team and I understand that comes with a lot of scrutiny,” he said during an end-of-season interview Saturday. “Really, there’s only one team that doesn’t get criticized and it’s the team that wins. Does it make it tough sometimes? Yeah. But as a player you understand that comes with the territory and you have to believe in yourself.”
After the testy words MacLean sent Spezza’s way early in the series against the Rangers and Spezza’s benching in Game 6, the relationship between the two is going to be fun to watch in the future. Spezza respects MacLean, even as MacLean pushes the student to continue to improve.
“I felt like I had a good season, I pushed myself to change some things in my game,” he said. “Whenever you lose, you feel like you could do more, but I’ve felt like I made some changes in my game this year and adapted with what Mac wanted to do and grew as a player and stayed healthy, which has been a tough thing for me the last couple of years.”
Now that the down time has arrived, Spezza will use it to spend time with his second daughter, Nicola, born during the stretch run to the playoffs.
When he returns in the fall, he may have inherited the additional responsibility of taking over from Alfredsson as the next leader of the team.
Great article Ken. It’s disappointing to hear Sens fans complain about Spezza game in and out. He is a career point per game player and he makes players around him better. As good as Karlsson was all year, he was truly the MVP of this team. There are at least 25 other teams that would love to have a dynamic offensive player as good as he is. His skill alone is one of the reasons I continue to buy season tickets.
I thought Spezza was okay in the playoffs this year. Never really shone, but was hardly deserving of being the scapegoat either.
Let’s also point out that he tied Brad Richards for the most points in the series…
I’ll address the comments here first, then Ken’s article:
PG: Career PPG player…so what? So was Pierre Turgeon and what did he ever win?
Elite players elevate in the playoffs and it took a prime Daniel Alfredsson, prime Dany Heatley (he is persona nongrata now but he was elite then….) to ge tthe team to the finals.
BT: BRad Richards has won and been a Conn Smythe winner, he can be afforded some slack. Spezza? Not so much…
@Ken Warren:
No sir, I will not “get over it” because that’s loser talk.
How sad is it that we have to damn Spezza with faint praise by saying he is “mature”? He is an adult isn’t he? An adult that’s almost thirty years of age and has two children? One would hope he is “mature”. You don’t hear about Danny Brière being mature, or Martin Hanzal being mature, or Chris Kreider being mature…because it’s the least you should be able to say about someone that is an adult.
His 80-odd point season and Karlssons 70+ point season and Michalek’s 30+ goal season. Where were they in the playoffs? Karlsson had ONE goal in seven games. Spezza had what, two of them? Michalek was completely invisible, which brings me to my next point…
The regular season in the National Hockey League is played at half-speed. It’s “easy” getting your points when other teams are in various states of preparedness and nothing is really on the line…ask Phil Kessel and his 80 points or Steven Stamkos and his 60 goals…but the playoffs are where men are seperated from the boys.
Spezza was a no-show in all but one game of these playoffs. Useless in game 1, invisible in game 2, non-existent in game 3, adequate in game 4, good in game 5, nonexistent in game 6 and a no-show in game 7.
Ken, Senators fan friends, this man is going be our and YOUR CAPTAIN.
Does it not worry anyone that our future CAPTAIN cannot elevate his game when it matters most? Does it not concern anyone that the chosen one, our future leader cannot and will not outwork, outplay or outscore the opposition in the tightest games, that he can’t win one for Sens Army?
It worries me, because if Jason Rocco Spezza is going to be our captain, he needs to find a gear and mode beyond “Regular Season Statpad”. If he doesn’t, there will be a lot of first or second round exits in this team’s future and we won’t be getting over it as the criticistm will increase tenfold.
@RecalSentrant
Brad Richards deserves no more slack for his play this year in the first round than Spezza does. Past accolades have no bearing on current performance.
But that’s ignoring the main point – he had more points than any other Senator in the series, and more points than all but 1 Ranger. Same for goals – more than any other Sen, more than all but 1 Ranger (Boyle in this case).
Because of how the NHL does the tie-breaking for each ranking, he was given “Series Leader” for both of those categories over Richards and Boyle respectively.
And as much as he’s been ragged on for not shooting enough, only 4 players (Karlsson, Alfie, Richards and Boyle) had more shots per game in the series.
He may have failed to step up his game, but even so he topped the charts.
Wow why are people mad at Spezza and the sens players??? did anyone but me notice that the Rangers had the lowest goals against in the east, had a vezina trophy goaltender in Henrik Lundquist in net, and had all their players blocking anything they saw? Look at Los angeles, they beat Vancouver because they were a defensive team that blocked shots and had a Vezina trophy Goalie in Quick and Henrik Sedin had only 5 points also. So stop trying to blame people, if so blame the New York Rangers for having a Vezina Goaltender and players that are good at blocking shots.