Following Artem Zub's injury against Los Angeles, JBD will make his season debut on Thursday night against the New Jersey Devils.
Douglas MacArthur once said, "There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity."
After Jacob Bernard-Docker's four goals and 14 points in 72 games last season, it would have been fair to assume that a player coming off his first season as an NHL regular would have an edge to start the 2024-25 season playing regular minutes on the third pairing.
It has not shaken out that way.
The 24-year-old defenceman has been a healthy scratch in the team's first three games, giving way to the veteran Travis Hamonic.
It would be easy to assume that being on the sidelines would weigh heavily on a young player, but Bernard-Docker met with reporters yesterday and portrayed a mature perspective.
"I think just play my game," explained the defenceman. "Obviously, I've been out for the last three (games), so I've been in good shape. I'm just doing lots of workouts and some bag skates, so I'm ready to go."
When defenceman Artem Zub suffered a concussion in the opening minutes of Monday's matinee against the Los Angeles Kings, it opened the door for Bernard-Docker to get playing time. He expressed regret that his opportunity to draw into the lineup came at the expense of a teammate's health, but Bernard-Docker fully recognizes the opportunity that lies before him.
"Yeah, obviously it sucks that (Zub) gets injured," he said. "It's just an opportunity, hopefully, for me to come in and do my thing and hopefully help the team."
Bernard-Docker will be reunited with University of North Dakota teammate Tyler Kleven. The duo were never consistently paired together during their one season in Grand Forks, but they inevitably played shifts together during the 2020-21 season.
"I've known (Kleven) for a long time," said Bernard-Docker. "It's always nice playing with a guy you're familiar with and have a little bit of rapport with, so it'll be good."
"We'd get out there every couple of shifts," recalled Kleven. "But, not too much. He was a junior and I was still trying to make my way through the lineup as a freshman. We didn't play a whole lot (together) there, but I've watched his game a lot as a pro, and I think that we can work well together."
According to Evolving-Hockey's combos tool, the two only shared the ice for 4 minutes and 42 seconds together at five-on-five last season, but they spent 51 minutes and 30 seconds together during the 2022-23 campaign.
To their credit, the pairing was effective. Granted, it is an incredibly small sample size of data, but it is not like the numbers were terrible. When they were on the ice together, the Senators generated 66.69 percent of the shots (CF%), 72.80 percent of the shots on goal (SF%), 50.39 percent of the goals (GF%), and 78.64 percent of the expected goals (xGF%). The rates at which they allowed goals and shots were suppressed, too.
They are encouraging numbers, but they occurred over a season ago, and again, we are talking about a very limited sample here. Still, being good in a limited sample is more inspiring than being horrendously porous.
Having two young defencemen manning the third pairing could be worrisome, but having two collegiate teammates who have been around each other for years and are familiar with each others' game should theoretically work in their favour. It is naive to believe that the pair can approach the underlying numbers they put up in 2022-23, but both players are young enough to have untapped potential. If they can play effectively and provide reliable defence, they will give the Senators' lineup a dynamic they have lacked for several seasons: a credible third pairing.
Without solid internal options to steal his minutes, Kleven is a relatively safe fixture in Ottawa's lineup. Bernard-Docker, on the other hand, may feel guilt that his opportunity is coming at the hands of an injured teammate, but tonight's game represents an opportunity. He's a young defenceman with no previous working experience playing for his head coach. It represents an opportunity to open that door and ensure it does not get closed again.