The last game before Christmas break for the Ottawa Senators was on the road against the Florida Panthers. Center Matt Duchene could have stayed in the sun and away from the ice.
"Screw that, man," he said with a smile. "Christmas is about the snow and the cold."
Duchene kept his skates out of his bag and took them home to Haliburton, Ontario, where he and his parents have homes about 100 yards apart on a lake. Tucked in there is a little bay that has less wind, fewer waves and smoother ice.
He wore the same skates he uses in the NHL, because, he said, he's a "feel guy" who doesn't like change; his Team Canada track suit from the World Cup of Hockey 2016, when he won gold in Toronto; and his Senators toque from the 2017 Scotiabank NHL100 Classic, a 3-0 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Lansdowne Park on Dec. 16.
Before that outdoor game, Duchene talked about how much he loved skating on the rink he and his dad used to build on the driveway of the family's old bungalow on Riverside Drive in Haliburton. He said when he left to play junior, his dad kept building it for his sister, and he skated on it when he came home at Christmas.
The colder, the better, he said.
He wasn't kidding.
He went home and skated on the pond during the bye week last season when he played for the Colorado Avalanche. This Christmas Day, he, his sister and a cousin played 3-on-3 against his dad, his uncle and a cousin for more than an hour, shoveling snow every 20 minutes. On Boxing Day, he played a 3-on-3 tournament with a bunch of his buddies for a couple of hours.
There were no heated benches like at an NHL outdoor game, but there was a fire. There were no fans, but there were family and friends. There was no politics, no pressure, just play.
"I mean, the business is tough sometimes," Duchene said. "Obviously I went through it last year with Colorado. We're going through it a bit right now here. But at the end of the day, you've just got to love what you're doing.
"There's days you don't, for sure. You hate it. You cuss it. But that's the purest form of hockey right there, and I mean, I have a lot of fun with my friends back home doing that. You get back to your roots a little bit, and when you come back here, I find it helps."
Last Christmas, Duchene asked for a trade from Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic, his idol growing up. He didn't want to be part of a rebuild; he wanted to play in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He had to wait.
He waited through the second half of the 2016-17 season, finishing with 41 points (18 goals, 23 assists) and a minus-34 rating in 77 games as the Avalanche finished 21 points behind the rest of the NHL. He waited through the off-season. He waited through the first 13 games this season, in which he had 10 points (four goals, six assists) and was plus-1.
Then, in the first period against the New York Islanders at Barclays Center on Nov. 5, while on the bench next to forward Nail Yakupov, he saw the trainer take a call. He knew what had happened because he knew a conversation was being had at game time.
"Yak, I just got traded," Duchene said.
"Seriously?" Yakupov said.
"I think so."
Duchene left the Avalanche during a stoppage and the arena during the game. He was headed to a team that came within one goal of the Stanley Cup Final last season, losing Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final to the Pittsburgh Penguins in double overtime. He was relieved, excited.
But since Nov. 6, the Senators have gone 6-14-4, worst in the NHL in that span, and sunk to 15th in the Eastern Conference. Duchene has had six points (three goals, three assists) and a minus-10 rating in 24 games. The Avalanche, who received a package of assets while center Kyle Turris went from the Senators to the Nashville Predators, have gone 12-10-3 and are three points out of a playoff spot in the West.
Duchene feels his process has been good. But the puck hasn't gone in for him and his linemates, and anyone else, really. His shooting percentage for the Senators is 5.4; his career average is 12.0.
"There's times you go crazy and you lay awake at night, but that's why you get through it," Duchene said. "If you don't care, guys fall off the wayside. So I think you've got to just keep the pedal down and keep working and stay as positive as you can. You've got to keep the faith in the player you are and what you're capable of. That's why I'm trying to do."
What happened in that 3-on-3 tournament on the lake?
"My team finished dead last in the round robin," Duchene said, "and then won the championship."
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