Nate Schmidt didn’t consult the player’s manual after he heard the news that he was getting healthy scratched last weekend.
Even if there was an inkling that it was coming down the pipe, as head coach Rick Bowness has suggested, it stung all the same for the veteran defenceman.
Last Saturday against the Edmonton Oilers was the first time since 2016 during his days with the Washington Capitals that he was sat out of the lineup based on performance.
“It was hard when I first got the call,” Schmidt said, reflecting back on the weekend. “I thought I did a pretty good job in Edmonton, all things considered. That game could have gotten way worse. But the message was received.”
Schmidt came within 11 seconds of writing the perfect blueprint on how to respond when a player is taken out of the lineup.
He scored the go-ahead goal with just over five minutes left in regulation against the San Jose Sharks on Monday, only to watch on as Tomas Hertl tied the game late and then Logan Couture won the game 1:21 into overtime.
Other than his team coughing up the late goal, Schmidt couldn’t have handled the situation more like a pro.
“He’s a good teammate and he handled it like we expected him to,” head coach Rick Bowness said.
For Schmidt, he leaned on what he had learned back during his time in Washington, from vets like Brooks Orpik, who took him under his wing all those years ago.
There’s a right way to handle such a demotion, and there’s a wrong way.
“The moment you turn sour, it’s really quite noticeable,” Schmidt said.
Few people light up a room like Schmidt does with his infectious smile and happy-go-lucky attitude. Even fewer can hold that same pose when life gets tough.
Put it this way: if your life was going south as it does in many country music songs — you’ve lost your wife, your dog and your truck — you’d want Schmidt around.
But he’s only human.
If Schmidt is having a bad day, everyone knows it. Not because he’s walking around cursing everything in sight, but because his infectious smile, one rarely absent from his face, isn’t as wide.
On those days, Schmidt does his best to make a conscious effort to stay the course.
“It affects more than just myself,” he said.
Once a protege to vets in Washington, Schmidt is now the guy Winnipeg’s young players look up to, and look to when they’re in and out of the lineup.
It’s his cross to bear, being one of the NHL’s brightest beacons of positivity, and Schmidt knows it.
He walks along a knife’s edge, trying to balance being the guy that everyone can turn to for a quick pick-me-up and the rigours of his own life.
“Sometimes it would be just nice to come in and fly under the radar for the day,” he said.
Schmidt admits there’s an expectation that he’s the guy that’ll keep it light, but that’s because he’s placed it upon himself.
Especially at the moment, when the Jets have struggled to find wins and morale isn’t where it’d be if they’d won eight of their past 10 rather than the opposite coming into Wednesday.
“I like to try and make sure that I have that kind of mentality when I come in every day because I do find that when things are bad or when things aren’t going well for yourself or the team, it kind of gives the sense that this guy still has a good attitude about going out and working,” Schmidt said. “I don’t let that bleed into a laissez-faire attitude when I’m on the ice.”
The hardest thing in sports is to be positive when it isn’t going well, Schmidt said.
There’s also pressure to be pissed off and unhappy because of the circumstances in that situation.
“But sometimes you have to remind yourself why you do it,” he said. “And you have to find that part of you because if you lose it, and I have before, it really brings you down.”
It’s that knife’s edge though, however, where Schmidt is comfortable.
“I love living there,” he said. “Showing what it’s like to be a pro.”
Stanley looking forward after trade request
Logan Stanley didn’t want to say much about a report from last week, one suggesting he’d submitted a trade request ahead of last Friday’s deadline to do so in the NHL.
What he did want, however, was to ensure there were no questions about his commitment to the Winnipeg Jets.
“I love Winnipeg,” he said. “Since the day I was drafted here, everyone’s treated me amazing. Other than it’s a little cold in the winter, no complaints about the city, the organization. I’ve been treated, and my family’s been treated, really well since I’ve been here.”
Stanley admitted he’s disappointed to not have featured more this season but is also cognizant of the amount of time he’s missed due to injuries. Fully healthy now, and back in the lineup on Wednesday against the Minnesota Wild, he’s content with looking forward.
“I’m happy I’m still here, honestly,” he said. “The team that drafted you, it’s always the team that you want to play for a long time. We have a great group in here and a lot of good friends and we’ve got a good enough team that we can do some damage in the playoffs here.”
sbilleck@postmedia.com
Twitter: @scottbilleck
Post a Comment