(Denver) It’s starting to get late, in the bowels of the Ball Arena. The Colorado Avalanche locker room is deserted. The reporters have left the premises, and a few players silently complete their post-game routine in the adjoining gymnasium.
Posted at 4:30 p.m.
Jonathan Drouin, walking lightly, returns to the team headquarters after going to give a television interview. A few minutes earlier, with eight seconds left in the third period, he scored the tying goal that allowed his club to force overtime – and win the game against the Buffalo Sabres. A lightning shot fired from the enclave.
He himself had asked the representative of The Press if he could wait until he fulfilled his obligations. We were in no hurry and, evidently, neither was he.
The Quebecer’s rebirth in the Avalanche uniform was widely documented last year. After a shaky start to the campaign, he found his bearings and posted the best offensive haul of his career. Come summer, he didn’t want to play anywhere else. Other teams contacted him, but “out of respect” for the organization that had given him another chance, and after “loving” his first year there, he signed a new one-year contract.
It is difficult not to be struck by the serenity displayed by the young man. Although not so young anymore, with all respect, since he will celebrate his 30th birthday next March. “Just another year added,” he said about it, smiling.
A sign of the passing of time, Drouin and his partner saw the birth of their second child last September. A little girl, who arrived at the beginning of September, who now sleeps through the night, but who, nevertheless, makes “life quite rock’n’roll at home”. Life goes fast, he admits. “But we like it! »
PHOTO GRAHAM HUGHES, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Jonathan Drouin
Above all, fatherhood had an unsuspected effect on him. “It helped me in hockey, having children,” says the forward.
But still? “I’m someone who thinks about hockey so much… That’s the fun of being a dad, instead of thinking about the game the day before or the day after, or practice, whatever. That was one of my problems, with anxiety: I was never able to turn off my brain, for hockey. It helps, just being a dad when I come home. »
Mental health
Jonathan Drouin, in fact, was one of the first hockey players to publicly address his mental health issues. While he wore the Montreal Canadiens uniform, he skipped the end of the 2020-2021 season and the playoffs that followed. The following fall, he revealed that he had been dealing with anxiety and sleep problems for years.
The episodes of distress are now far behind him, even if certain situations still make him fragile. Some evenings, when the children are in bed, the hamster starts running fast again. “But it’s a big difference from what it was in Montreal,” he insists.
There are days when you live with it, you can’t get rid of it 100%. But now, with the experiences I’ve had, there are a lot of people I can talk to if it happens. And I have plenty of tools to help myself.
Jonathan Drouin
That being said, Drouin’s beautiful zenitude has been put to the test this season. As of Thursday night, he played only his seventh game of 2024-25, after an “upper body” injury forced him to miss two stretches of 16 games.
He was injured for the first time during the Avalanche’s inaugural game. His return, in November, lasted only four matches, since he was hit in the same place – “bad luck”, according to the principal concerned.
The second convalescence affected his morale more than the first, he concedes. “When you start from scratch everything you just did for five weeks, it’s more difficult. But I got back on the peak. »
Simple things
“On the peak”, he indeed is. He started the game against the Sabers on the second line, but was moved to the main unit in the second period, along with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen, as his team tried to overcome a 3-0 deficit.
His coach had a lucky hand, since number 27 was on the ice for five of the locals’ six goals in a 6-5 victory. Including his own, which he celebrated without restraint in front of raging supporters. Here he is now at eight points in seven games.
Facing a series of injuries, the Avalanche would like to be in a less precarious position in the standings, while they barely remain in third place in the Central division.
The situation has finally stabilized in front of the net, but the cycle of bad luck never seems to end on the infirmary side. After Drouin returned to the game, Valeri Nichushkin and goaltender Scott Wedgewood fell in battle during the last few meetings.
In these circumstances, “we have to keep things simple”, summarizes the winger. And don’t rely excessively on the big offensive stars like MacKinnon, Rantanen or Cale Makar.
On this account, a 6-5 match, do we like it or not? Here he hesitates. “Not too often!” », he concludes.
However, if any team has the arsenal to fight in this type of duel, it is the Avalanche. Arsenal of which Jonathan Drouin is now an integral part.
