Why Jason Spezza Deserves A Standing Ovation In Ottawa

My apologies in advance, as this will be a long one. So, in case you haven’t heard, former Ottawa Senators Captain Jason Spezza is returning to the Canadian Tire Centre tonight as a member of the Dallas Stars. Sigh, how things change. It wasn’t too long ago that Spezza was a key part of a Stanley Cup contender as the number one centre the team had lacked since trading away a malcontent Alexei Yashin. A trade which Spezza was ultimately a part of as the Senators used the New York Islanders 2nd overall pick to select the OHL star.

However, if you look on Twitter or read/listen to some of the Ottawa sports media you would think Spezza was some sort of villain, and perhaps only a rung or two below the likes of Yashin and Dany Heatley. The fact is, Spezza was a whipping boy for much of his 11 seasons here. The most common complaints were his lacklustre defensive game and penchant for drop passes that led to odd man rushes for opposing teams. Fair enough. I recall many a time I through my hands up in the air and tossed an expletive-deleted or twelve at the TV or in the arena after one of his blind passes was picked off. That being said, I can’t ignore all the good Spezza did in Ottawa, and neither should you.

I can’t take the constant harping on Spezza’s defensive game, drop passes aside, seriously. Yes, when he started here during the 2002-03 season, he didn’t put in much effort in his own zone. But over his 11 seasons, I got to see him play a lot, and I noticed he made great strides to play a more complete game. He became a face-off ace, and was used for defensive zone draws both at even strength and the on the penalty kill. He came back deep to cover his man on opposing rushes, as is the centre’s job. He actually worked to improve his defensive game and help the team in more ways. If you were expecting a Selke Trophy winner, then frankly your expectations were ridiculous. Guys like Pavel Datsyuk and Anze Kopitar are a rare breed of elite offensive skill combined with stellar defensive play. If you have one on your team, it’s great, but hating on an elite offensive player because he wasn’t as good as those guys defensively? I have to shake my head at that. People occasionally bring up this play as an example of how bad Spezza is defensively:

You know what I see here? I see Sidney Crosby showing why he’s considered the best player in the world today. That he’s a generational talent. Because if you watch that clip, he is being hounded by Spezza behind the net. In terms of his skating, Spezza’s acceleration, that first two-step explosiveness, has always been average at best. Yet there he is, keeping up with every quick turn and dash Crosby makes. Spezza circa 2003 may have allowed Crosby to walk out from behind the net and score here, but when this happened, Spezza forced him to play it back to the point. As a Sens fan, did it suck that it resulted in a Penguins goal? Absolutely. But I can’t fault Spezza for not doing his job and covering his man on the play. He did those things, and gave his all doing it. Meanwhile, the portion of the fanbase who thought the Senators would return to the hard-nosed “Pesky” Sens of 2013 without Spezza in the line-up turning over the puck are eating their words. Ottawa is again giving up a ton of shots, and now they don’t have an elite centreman to help generate some more offense. That 2013 team was an illusion backed by out-of-this-world goaltending. Spezza’s game was not the problem.

Which brings us to the cold hard facts. In 686 regular season games, Spezza notched 687 points, second in Senators history to only Daniel Alfredsson. The man was just better than point-per-game in his time here, and if you look at the rest of the Senators’ all-time leading scorers, there’s only one other guy who’s managed that: Heatley. And he did it over a much shorter period. Twice Spezza finished in the top ten in NHL scoring, getting as high as fourth overall in 2011-12 when Ottawa was expected to be a cellar-dweller but wound up making the playoffs. Spezza, alongside Erik Karlsson‘s Norris Trophy winning season and Craig Anderson settling in after a shaky first few games, were the biggest reasons why they made the post-season. Throw in 52 points in 56 playoff games, including tying for the league lead in playoff scoring with 22 points en route to the Senators’ first and only appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals, and you can see Spezza was a dynamic offensive player throughout his career in Ottawa. Case in point:

Now, I know some people will harp on Spezza for demanding a trade out of town. To that I say this: he was berated by a large portion of the fanbase and criticized in the media ad nauseam for 11 seasons. He was booed in his own building by Senators fans on occasion. Yet he always took it in stride. He was consistently on hand to answer the media after wins and losses alike. Playing in a Canadian market is hard given how much the game of hockey is covered and analyzed, yet Spezza played here at a high level for over a decade. If I got chewed out by people at my job as much as Spezza did with the Senators, I can tell you that I would’t wait even half that long to look for a way out or ask to be relocated. Throw in the rumours that MacLean shot down Spezza’s input when he was captain combined with Ottawa’s management opting to keep the coach on board last summer, and it’s easy to see why Spezza felt it was time to move on. The team was and still is nowhere close to being a contender, and the coach didn’t seem to care for him just as many of the fans didn’t. With all that in mind, I can’t fault Spezza for asking for a trade.

So ultimately, what we have is a high-scoring centreman who took the brunt of criticism for this team’s failures over his time here. But he was also instrumental in its many successes, including its biggest one: making the Stanley Cup Finals in 2007. Those years are among my fondest memories of the Senators. He also worked to become the more complete player fans, the media, and the organization wanted him to be over the many years he was here. For that, I say Spezza deserves a standing ovation tonight from the people of Ottawa. Whether or not he’ll get one, I really don’t know.