The American Hockey League is set to begin the shortened 2020/21 season on February 5, 2021, but the Belleville Senators and the rest of the North Division still don’t have a schedule.
Despite the Laval Rocket and Manitoba Moose already receiving provincial approval to play, the B-Sens and Toronto Marlies are still waiting on the OK from the Province of Ontario, while the Stockton Heat are moving up to Calgary to join their parent club and are still getting settled.
As they wait for the go ahead, the B-Sens have opened training camp in Ottawa with 26 players and are preparing to begin competitive games as soon as they can.
Quinte News caught up with B-Sens Head Coach Troy Mann for a “QnA” on preparing for a season with so much uncertainty and what life has been like in their team bubble in Ottawa.
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QN: We spoke a couple of weeks ago when the roster was smaller, but what has changed since Ottawa’s camp ended and what’s the routine like right now?
TM: To be honest with you not much has changed. We have players out of quarantine so that’s very helpful in terms of the body count being higher than it was. But the logistics of the COVID testing on a daily basis, the workouts that are in groupings of 10-or-less because of the spacing where you can’t do a full team workout and the practice hasn’t really changed. Our body count at least, in terms of practicing, has increased to allow us to start working on structure and systematic play to help once games do arrive.
QN: Who are some of the guys in camp that fans should be keeping an eye on?
TM: There are certainly some familiar faces. I say this to everyone who asks me about the American league, but the turnover is usually 50% or greater and certainly that’s the case with us right now. There are some familiar faces like Logan Brown, Alex Formenton and Erik Brannstrom. Now the AHL-contracted players have gotten out of quarantine so guys like Hubert Labrie, Joseph LaBate, Jack Doherty and Cole Cassels who was with us for half the year last year). All of a sudden these guys are part of the mix because they’ve served the 14 days. But then we also have a number of young rookies that were basically an extension of the NHL camp with Lassi Thompson (a first round pick two years ago), Igor Sokolov (a recent a second round pick), Ridly Greig is here as an 18 year-old (also a first round pick this past October). Now if the WHL gets going in Manitoba and Saskatchewan as we’re hearing, he would not be able to play any games for us, he’d have to report to Brandon. But we also have another draft pick Cole Reinhardt (taken in the late rounds) that’s with us as well. So, lots of young draft picks that are part of the mix as well to go with some of the returning guys.
QN: How difficult has it been preparing for the season given the uncertainty, the long offseason and the restrictions.
TM: It’s not easy, but when you’ve been off from March 11 on, you make it work because you’re just excited to be at the rink and run practices. Obviously, you want to get to playing games and that’s the goal. I tell the players; their focus is to try to get better on a day-to-day basis and from our perspective, we’re trying to prepare them for a season with five-on-five play. We spent a tremendous amount of time on skill development and small area battles when our numbers were pretty low, but now that we’ve got two groups going on the ice, we’ve been able to at least talk about how we’re going to play and refreshers from some systematic play we did last year. Also, some things that the Ottawa showed in their training camp that maybe some players had forgot about, or for the new guys who have joined us. There’s lots going on and lots of work to do, but we have to prepare as if we’re going to start in mid-February and play hockey hopefully until the end of May.
QN: How unique is the living situation with everybody, including the coaches, living out of a hotel?
TM: It’s probably the longest amount of time I’ve spent in a hotel. I’ve been here since December 30th, because I was the only coach that came to the Ottawa Senators’ main camp, so I checked in the day before they started on the 31st and I’ve been here ever since. It’s not quite as long for some of our other staff who came in more towards the middle of January. It’s unique in the fact that you’re not going out to restaurants to eat, everything’s being done individually in your room. Whether you’re ordering from Uber Eats, or going to pick it up, or using the restaurant here at the Brook Street Hotel, so that’s different. There is a bigger ballroom that the hotel has set up where guys can go down and watch some TV, they’ve got a ping pong table in there, they can play cards, but that’s only available to us when the NHL visiting team isn’t here. So that’s been nice for the last 16 days since Ottawa has been on the road, but then they come home from Montreal and Montreal comes to town. So that particular ballroom that’s set up for social distanced socializing won’t be available, but it has been the last two weeks which has been nice.
QN: With a decision on when and where to start playing still up in the air, added to the current living situation, is there a preference of where you’d like to play out of this season?
TM: I think first and foremost from a coaching and playing perspective you just want to play. Whether the decision is Ottawa or Belleville you’re going to accept that because the priority is to play. I don’t want to speak for all of the players, but I do believe Belleville would be our choice, only because of the logistics with such a great set up at CAA Arena, it just gives us everything we need. Here the logistics just aren’t quite as good because you don’t have your home locker room and your home gym, your just doing makeshift because you don’t have access to Canadian Tire Centre. My understanding is if we were to play at Canadian Tire Centre it would be for games only, so I guess time will tell in terms of where the decision goes. The nice part is that numbers are starting to go down across the province, and I know Belleville area is excellent when it comes to that, so we’ll see when we get the green light to play around the middle of the month.
QN: Is the middle of February the target date to get started, especially with Stockton having to move up to Calgary and take those precautions?
TM: I’ve talked to Marlies Head Coach Greg Moore and Stockton Head Coach Cail MacLean is a good friend of mine, so we’ve kept in touch all along since last spring. We just banter back-and-forth without any real official information, but things have come our way in terms of hoping for a mid-February start, now that the league is officially going to start in the States. Best case scenario you’d love to start the following Friday on the 12th, but that might not be possible, so you may have to slide into the middle or the end of the following week only because of the Ontario (lockdown) situation and with Stockton needing some of their players and staff to finish their quarantine. Much like us, once the Calgary Flames settled on their roster, they only had a training camp of 17 players and as we know, that’s not enough to play an AHL game. So once their quarantines are over, they’re going to probably want to practice, so it all fits in terms of hopefully the 15th to 19th start date for us. That’s what we’re preparing for as coaches.
QN: As far as you’ve heard, the option to play in Belleville is still on the table?
TM: My understanding, even though it’s been a few days since I was last updated is that there are proposals on the table for both Belleville and Ottawa. Obviously, the government and the health units will make that decision, whether it’s better for us to stay in Ottawa with the protocols already in place, or do we go to Belleville where we have to set up the protocols. The one thing I do know is we’ll definitely be following the NHL protocols if we get the OK to play in Belleville, unlike the AHL in the US where they’ve got their own protocols which are a little bit different from the NHL ones. My understanding is the Canadian division will 100% be doing NHL protocols, which is great. We’ve been testing every day and getting it in both nostrils. So, knock on wood, things have been smooth when it comes to the COVID factor here so far.
QN: Is the roster ready for that mid-month start, or are there holes still to fill and how difficult is it to fill those gaps in the current situation?
TM: There are certainly plenty of free agents out there looking to play, so I don’t think it will be tough finding players. From our perspective we don’t have an ECHL affiliate and we don’t have guys playing in Brampton, so our roster size will be a little bit bigger. I don’t think we’ll be moving forward with any signings until we get the go ahead, but from the defence perspective we’ll have to sign one, maybe two guys just to protect ourselves. We do have seven right now with Aspirot coming back today and Brannstrom going up to the taxi squad, but that’s probably not going to be enough to get through 36 games. You also have the Ottawa Senators playing and injuries and COVID are always a concern. Up front right now we have 16 forwards, which for me is plenty. That does include Ridley Greig who will most likely have to return to Manitoba and do a short quarantine before the WHL starts up, so I guess I’m not really counting him yet because we believe the WHL will play and he’ll have to leave. That puts us at 15 forwards which is a decent number. Again, we don’t know what’s going to happen with Ottawa moving forward because we’ve got a couple forwards here who are really close to becoming NHL players and I’m sure they’re going to get opportunities as we move ahead.
QN: There was a lot of back and forth on the roster the last couple of seasons. What do you think of the taxi squad and how will that impact call-ups this year?
TM: There won’t be as many call-ups. Ottawa is carrying 29 players but theoretically you have to create roster spots for that taxi squad. You can’t just all of a sudden decide to put Erik Brannstrom in the lineup, you’ve got to create that spot whether it’s through injury or waivers and right now that roster is full at 23, unlike maybe the Toronto Maple Leafs or Vegas Golden Knights who are carrying 21. You can flip guys on the taxi squad as long as they’ve cleared waivers or are on entry level deals, but that doesn’t guarantee you playing time in the NHL because ultimately there has to be a roster spot of some sort cleared for that. The goaltending situation is a prime example because, yeah Joey Daccord is on the taxi squad, but you’ve got Matt Murray signed on a long-term deal and Marcus Hogberg signed. The only way you can get Daccord in there to start is if there’s an injury or you waive someone and as an organization I highly doubt that’s going to happen. The taxi squad is more protection for COVID than anything else.
QN: What have you made of Ottawa’s start to the season, especially the performance of some of the guys who played under you the last couple of years.
TM: I think any time you start with the record they have (1-8-1) you’re disappointed and I can feel for those guys. I went through it as a head coach, not at the NHL level, but in the ECHL when my team started 1-10-1. Thankfully we turned it around and made playoffs, actually making it to the conference final that year, but we had a lot more games to play with than just 56. I certainly feel for the coaching staff in terms of dealing with that kind of start. It’s not easy, but all you can do is take it one game at a time, one week at a time and try get that next win under your belt to get some confidence. In terms of the Belleville players, it’s exciting and great to see, because ultimately as an AHL coach that’s what you want. Your job is to develop these players and get them to the next level. Nick Paul has taken another step this year and Drake Batherson looks much more ready than he did when he got his first opportunity out of camp last year. Josh Norris has also made the jump. Christian Wolanin is injured right now but I don’t foresee him coming back to the AHL anytime soon. Obviously, those guys are doing well and leading the charge, the young players from my perspective have been the better players so far. There are also probably two-or-three guys here that are chomping at the bit to get an opportunity there and are close to being ready as well.
QN: If we’re aiming for the middle of the month start, what does the time between now and then look like in trying to prepare for that?
TM: We’ve gotten into a pretty good routine of three days on the ice and then a skills optional day on Thursday. We go back at it Friday and Saturday with two hard skates and then Sunday has been a day off, that’s pretty much what our structure has been for practice. The guys work out daily with Strength and Conditioning Coach Jeremy Benoit as well. We’ve tackled a lot more team video since Monday after doing mostly individual stuff, specifically with the younger players who have joined the organization. Now we’re getting into more team play anticipating a mid-February start and we’ll continue with that. We haven’t touched much special teams because we’re not quite sure what our team might look like four-or-five days from now, that’s one area we’ll kind of wait on until we’ve got the green light. But we’re going to continue to add parts of our game on a daily basis so we’re ready to go.
