While Tim Stützle looked on from between the benches, Lars Eller returned to the ice for Ottawa Senators‘ practice Monday after returning from Milan.
Having failed to qualify for the Olympics in 2010, the 36-year-old finally got an opportunity to represent his native Denmark on the grand stage. With a 4-3 win over Latvia, the Danes were pitted against Czechia in the Playoff Qualifying Round. Eller and his teammates, who included Belleville Senators’ goalie Mads Sogaard were eliminated from the Olympic tourney, losing a tight 3-2 decision to the Czechs.
Filling a shutdown centre role, Eller registered one assist over his four games played.
Lars Eller’s Olympic Experience
“It was great. It was alway a good time putting on the Denmark jersey. And this was a new environment, but the with the same old guys. And it was just a cool thing to check off your bucket list, been there, done that, and, yeah, it’s fun still hockey at the end of the day, just different jersey and different guys and on the bench, but same old game,” said Eller.
On facing Senators’ captain Brady Tkachuk versus USA; “Faceoff battles, I mean, Brady is just a guy who welcomes the contact and the battles and so do I. So we had some good ones in front of the net and the dot whatever. And then you catch up after the game, and it’s good times. So fun, fun to go to battle against him, and it’ll be fun to go to battle with him here in a little bit as well. So yeah, a little bit weird playing against some of your teammates, but yeah, as a hockey player, you’re used to having to adapt all the time and new places, new everything. So it’s not unfamiliar for us players.”
On playing on a smaller ice surface; “We were talking about it with some of the guys. It felt like the small rink (Milano Rho) where we played two games felt sort of a little bit smaller than the big rink over there, which I don’t know if it was, but that’s kind of what it felt like. It’s just one of those things, again, where you’re used to having to adapt to new things and not making excuses. It’s not like good or bad, it’s just a little different, but, it is, I would say it was a little bit of a different type of game than what you’re used to in the NHL. You only have so much time to get structure and x’s and o’s together when you’re together for 10 days, whereas here it’s really everything we do. It’s really imprinted on the on the backbone of everybody’s mind is; there’s a lot of automatics of everybody knowing the system where you come together as a National team. It’s a little sometimes, maybe playing on instinct then, than every system being in place correctly. So it was just different. You have to adapt,” Eller explained.
Unfortunately for Eller he wasn’t able to view alternative events due to scheduling and traveling back and forth between arenas, but he enjoyed his time sight-seeing in Milan.
Eller told Hockey Hot Stove, “No, it was more like seeing a little bit of the city, seeing Milano. “It wasn’t an ideal setup for going to watch other events, as it was kind of spread out, and we had only one other athlete in Denmark who was competing in speed skating, and didn’t line up great with what we had to do. So it was mostly like watching hockey games on the TV, and then in a lounge in the village. And then some of the days off, you got to see a little bit of a cool major European city where I hadn’t been before. So that, that part was great.”
Eller Prepping For The Senators’ Stretch Drive
“Every time you you get a little bit of change of scenery, something new, it can rejuvenate and you know, spark something. But I do think we had a really good thing going here at the end before the break, that we just need to catch up on again. So some guys have some time off, and some guys been away playing, and now we just gotta come, come together again and happy, be excited for this, for this stretch coming up.”
Senators Recall Reinforcements
Mainly due to icing a shortened roster for practice, four Belleville Senators, forwards Tyler Boucher, Arthur Kaliyev, Oskar Pettersson and defenseman Carter Yakemchuk took part Thursday to provide balance the team with four lines and six d-men.
Monday, Boucher, Yakemchuk along with forward Stephen Halliday received official recalls from the American League due to the lifting of the NHL Olympic Roster freeze. Boucher was loaned back to Belleville upon conclusion of Monday’s skate.
Per head coach Travis Green, there’s “a good chance” Halliday will remain with the Senators when they play the Detroit Red Wings Thursday in Ottawa. Recovering from sports hernia surgery, David Perron will join the club on their trip West next week, pending medical approval.
Olympians Return
With Eller and Stützle already in Ottawa and the arrival of Nik Matinpalo shortly, Green expects to have Brady Tkachuk and Jake Sanderson in the Senators’ lineup Thursday. After winning Olympic Gold for USA, Tkachuk and Sanderson will attend the State of the Union speech in Washington, DC Tuesday evening.
Coach’s Thoughts
On the benefits of Sanderson and Tkachuk participating in the Olympics; “I think both players are a little bit of different stages in their career as well. Sandy’s (Sanderson) gaining confidence, becoming a better player. Still, I don’t think we’ve seen his full capability, and that probably helped him more that way than it did Brady. Probably helped Brady as far as experience and being around those players, other leaders, and playing in those situations. So I think it probably benefits them both a little bit more or a little bit different.”
The Senators’ head coach on the game itself, Green noted his overtime preference was for five-on-five, and added he re-iterated this in an interview the week prior to the Gold Medal match.
‘What a game! You hope that you see a good game. You expect to see a good game. I think it’s pretty obvious they were the two best teams in the tournament. I thought Canada dominated the play, probably a little bit more than I thought they would. I thought (Connor) Hellebuyck was outstanding. Both teams played extremely hard. There wasn’t a lot of room on the ice. I think that a lot of people think there’s going to be a lot of offense in these games, and that’s because of their capabilities. There’s less offense because of how hard they defend and how hard they carry. That whole team put a great show. One team’s got to win.”
