It was just 16 years ago that former Senators forward Shean Donovan was holding court in front of reporters in the dressing room at Canadian Tire Centre.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Thursday, it was his son Jorian\u2019s turn. No longer the blond-haired kid running around dodging the Senators crest in the middle of the floor, this time\u00a0Jorian was the man speaking to the cameras and microphones.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is definitely new, this is awesome, just excited to be back in the home barn, I\u2019m fired up,\u201d said a passionate Donovan after morning skate on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m extremely excited to be home, I mean, I\u2019ve grown up here, I\u2019ve been in this barn quite a few times, whether it was [when] I was ten years old with my shirt off in the stands trying to get on the jumbotron, or just like, being in the room with my dad or something like that, so no, I\u2019m excited to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The debuts of Donovan and Yakemchuk in Detroit were one thing, but the pair will face a new test on Thursday night in Ottawa \u2014 their long-awaited introductions to a home crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as I want to think about playing and being here, I\u2019m trying to not, so I can get some sleep,\u201d said Donovan. \u201cI think that\u2019s the biggest thing, just trying to not think about it as much as I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yakemchuk, much more reserved than Donovan, laughed when he was asked if he\u2019d ever be able to get used to the gaggle of almost two dozen cameras and microphones that greeted him when he returned from morning skate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI probably feel the same [as Donovan], I mean, it\u2019s really exciting to be playing, a lot of nerves going into it for sure,\u201d said Yakemchuk, the seventh overall draft pick in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought [Nolan Baumgartner] did a good job sliding him in when he could, kind of feeling his way through it, and he made two big plays,\u201d said Green of Yakemchuk\u2019s two-point debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this time of the year, sometimes you just need a play, the games are so close. And that\u2019s why players that have skill and play a team game are really important, because they can make a play that can change a game, and he made a couple. Especially his goal, [it] was a play that a lot of defencemen don\u2019t have that natural instinct, and it was a real good shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Jorian\u2019s debut on Tuesday against the Red Wings, the Donovans became the first father-son duo to play for the Senators. Awaiting him and the Senators on the opposite side of the rink tonight are the Penguins, foremost amongst them Erik Karlsson, his father\u2019s former teammate.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was my favourite player growing up, so it\u2019s pretty cool to be able to play against him,\u201d said Donovan.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably expect him to get a few more minutes tonight now that we\u2019re at home and we can get the matchups,\u201d said Green about Donovan, who played 4:42 in his debut, recording a shot.<\/p>\n
Green also stressed that he didn\u2019t want to rein in any of Donovan\u2019s energy ahead of another big game in the standings. \u201cI don\u2019t ever want to change a person,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talk about bringing energy to every game, he\u2019s got a lot of it. He\u2019s got a high compete level, as well, he\u2019s not afraid to drop the gloves. He hopefully has a bright future in the NHL, [Baumgartner] is doing a lot of work right now with some of these young D, using that energy in the right areas, not getting ahead of yourself, and defending hard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was just 16 years ago that former Senators forward Shean Donovan was holding court in front of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-563260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}