First-year captain, despite challenges of larger role in leadership and two separate goal-scoring droughts, reached the 20-goal mark for the eighth time
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Playing in his 13th full season in the NHL, the challenges, and more of them, became quite different for Brayden Schenn.
Not only was he named the 24th captain in franchise history, but the responsibilities that go along with it fell on the shoulders of the 32-year-old as well.
He wasn't scoring and contributing on a regular basis, the team wasn't winning initially, the coach [Craig Berube] was fired in December and Schenn felt the burden on his shoulders.
Despite his two longest scoring droughts (16 and 18 games, respectively) of his NHL career, Schenn was able to reach the 20-goal mark for the eighth time in his career when he scored seven times in the final 16 games. But his 46 points in 82 games, his second straight season of playing a full schedule, was his lowest output since 41 points in 2013-14 with the Philadelphia Flyers.
But nothing changed as far as a skater who checked, played a responsible two-way game, played physical and fought when called upon and led by example.
The forward, through a coaching change, switching in and out from center to wing, learned plenty as the leader guiding a team through a transitional period, one in which saw the Blues, who finished 43-33-6, improve by 11 points (92-81) from last year.
Schenn's end-of-season thoughts last week reflect a veteran player who thinks the Blues aren't far from being a playoff team once again. He spoke of that, reasons falling short this season, his thoughts on what it was like being a first-year captain, the transition from Berube to Drew Bannister and more:
When you look back at the good numbers that you had, do you believe you should still be playing?
Yeah, it's not an easy league. Put it that way. There's some really good teams that obviously missed or teams that were in the playoffs last year that didn't have great years. You have to be consistent. I think what we feel good about our team is we played with the top teams, we beat the top teams all year long and I think when we played teams below us in the standings, we weren't able to find the points or win the hockey games and ultimately, that bit us in the butt at the end of the year and probably a huge reason why we're not in the playoffs right now.
Why couldn't you find the points against those teams below you?
Early on too, you look at Chicago early, I think that one game against Columbus before the All-Star break, we came out of the All-Star break not playing as good as we needed to and after the All-Star break, we kind of were chasing it after that and it's hard to do on the second half of the year. I think if you look at the past three years, even the year we went to the second round of the playoffs there, our starts haven't been where they needed to be and then we're always chasing or have to get hot throughout the course of the year, so I think that's something that we really have to focus on next year is banking points early and not chasing it towards the end of the year and try and get in the playoffs that way.
Being the captain, feel more of an onus of trying to get this right?
Oh yeah, absolutely, 100 percent. I'd be lying to you if I didn't go home some days when you're not winning and not playing the way you want, to say that I'm not thinking about it, yeah, you're always trying to find ways to get yourself to play better, the team to play better, guys to buy in to what we're kind of trying to create here. That comes from learning and that comes with talking to guys and leaning on guys around you. We feel like we are going to get this right in here. It's funny. We're not sitting here and we're saying that we're happy with the position we're in because we're out of the playoffs, but we feel like we're a lot closer than what maybe people think. We have good pieces in here. We have two stud goalies that some teams don't even have one, right? Right there alone, that gives you a chance to win every single night and that's why we feel like we can make some steps moving into next season.
What did you learn about yourself wearing the 'C' this year? Anything new?
Yeah, a lot. I felt early on, it's funny, you try and get everything to go right ... you want everything to go right and you want everything to go your way and sometimes it doesn't. I think early on, you worry about everything else that's going on around you and sometimes you kind of forget about worrying about yourself and not saying that selfishly, I'm saying that you have to be able to perform and not let certain things affect you early on, which maybe I did. I thought the second half of the year, you kind of just relaxed a little bit and played hockey. I think just through the first (year) being a captain, you definitely learn a lot, you learn to lean on the people around you, teammates around you, people from in the hockey world too. I think I've learned a lot and it's going to help me heading into next year and years to come.
Is it different than you thought it would be?
It's a good question. I don't know if "different" is the right word. I think just a lot early on. I think partially too is I got named captain a couple days before the season started, and with me not knowing it. ... You want everything to go right early and obviously it didn't. We were in a bad spot, we fired our coach and obviously you put pressure and expectations on yourself that you're a reason the coach got let go early and there's different emotions and stuff like that. Like I said, I learned a lot over the course of this year and I felt like being a leader is not always easy sometimes and you have to learn and keep on growing. It's funny when you think you know a lot or everything and you kind of realize you don't know a whole lot, you just keep on learning and that's the best part about it. I'm lucky to have guys in the organization and people inside this locker room that you can lean on and they definitely make you better as well.
If you had to describe this season and team in one word, what would it be and why?
One word ... oh man. I don't know if I can get one word. I just think like I was talking before, I just think we're closer than what people think. I think there's a lot of good pieces in this locker room that can get us to where we want to be a lot faster than what people think. You've got skill up front, you've got good goalies, a couple studs on the back end, a guy like Colton Parayko who plays against McDavid and MacKinnon and is able to shut those guys down. I just think there's a lot of pieces here where we can fix this quick and on top of it, you've got guys like Jake [Neighbours] who had a great year, 'Boldy' played well at the end of the year. That shows that he can score some goals. There's some excitement and pieces where we feel like we can get to where we want to be next year.
On relationship with Drew Bannister and the job he did, following along in what decision management goes in who they hire:
Whatever happens, that's obviously Army's decision and his (management team) that he relies on decision, but with Drew, he came in a tough spot because everyone loved 'Chief.' 'Chief' was obviously a face for the city, a face for the organization, the first coach to ever win the Cup. So when you come into that, it's hard for everyone, but I think Drew came in and did a great job. We've got a great record underneath him. Obviously it's a learning curve for him too, right? First time being an NHL coach. I think we bought into what he was doing and we came together as a group and were able to have a good record. Whatever happens there, I guess we'll all be following along and see what 'Army' and Drew have to say.
