FIGHTING FOR EVERY INCH: Senators coach D.J. Smith draws on inspirational Al Pacino speech

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If you’ve never listened to Al Pacino’s motivational speech in Any Given Sunday, do yourself a huge favour, watch the nearly-five-minute clip. Immediately.

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Pacino plays a football coach who, “pissed away all my money and chased away anyone who’s ever loved me.” He is trying to rally his battered, divided team to win the “big football game.”

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Turns out Ottawa Senators coach D.J. Smith has listened to the words of inspiration, which talk about chasing the inches that can make a difference.

Even the most meek will want to put on a helmet and pads and crash through a wall for a fired-up Pacino, whose words include: “You find out life’s this game of inches. So is football. Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small.

“One half step too late or too early and you don’t quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast, you don’t quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They’re in every break of the game. Every minute, every second.

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“On this team, we fight for that inch. On this team, we tear ourselves and everyone around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch.

“Because we know … when we add up all those inches, that’s going to make the f–king difference between winning and losing.

“I’ll tell you this, in any fight it’s the guy who’s willing to die who’s going to win that inch. And I know if I’m going to have any life anymore, it’s because I’m still willing to fight and die for that inch because that’s what living is, the six inches in front of your face. Now I can’t make you do it. You have to look at the guy next to you, look into his eyes.

“I think you’re going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. You’re going to see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team because he knows when it comes down to it, you’re going to do the same for him. That’s a team, gentlemen.”

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Fight for every inch. It’s not a football thing, it’s not a hockey thing, it’s a life thing.

Smith’s Senators have an 8-8 record so far this season, with some good sprinkled in with two much bad. Inconsistency and lack of attention to detail have hurt them.

So, the coach is asking his players to fight for the inches, one by one, that can win or lose a game.

“I’m fortunate I’ve been around some teams that have won and that’s exactly what happens,” said Smith following Sunday morning’s practice at Canadian Tire Centre. “When you get into the big game, it’s inch by inch. But that mentality has to be every regular-season game.

“Sometimes,  just make the simple play. It might not result in anything offensive, but it doesn’t result in a game change. It doesn’t result in momentum going the other way. The other team doesn’t get to play with the puck. When you talk about inches in football, that’s what it is in hockey, which obviously moves significantly faster. But it’s puck placement, it’s taking care of the puck. Those would be our inches.”

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It’s really not complicated. If each player can focus on his own responsibilities, good things can happen. Individually. And, as a team.

“Sometimes you get lost thinking about the finish line,” said Smith. “Just have a good first shift, have a good second shift, get to the TV timeout, the six-minute mark, the 14-minute mark and to the end of the period . Before you know it, you’re chipping away and you’re playing good hockey. If every player has that mentality to take care of his own side of the street thing, eventually add all those up and you have yourself a solid hockey team and a solid game.”

LINE-JUGGLING

As they prepare to play the Florida Panthers on Monday night at home, the Senators did some line juggling Sunday. Tim Stutzle was back between Brady Tkachuk and Claude Giroux.

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Josh Norris was at centre between Drake Batherson and Mathieu Joseph. Rourke Chartier was between Dominik Kubalik and Vladimir Tarasenko. And, Matthew Highmore was skating with Parker Kelly and Zack MacEwen.

“Florida poses things to think about,” Smith explained. “You’ve got (Aleksander) Barkov on one line, (Matthew) Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe on another line. The combinations we went with, in my opinion, give us the best chance to match up against those two (lines).”

Brady Tkachuk, who’d been lining up with Norris in recent games, said: “They (Stutzle and Giroux) are two very special players and they’re two of my best buddies. They’re very similar in speed.”

Asked if he now had to adjust his game, he said: “Not really. I just try to be hard on the forecheck, win puck battles and try to get it to them.”

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ICE CHIPS: Any time the Senators play the Panthers, it’s special for the Tkachuk brothers and their family. “I’m excited to see Matthew, of course,” said Brady. “Our parents and grandparents are here, so it’ll be a nice little dinner to catch up. But it’ll be all business (Monday).” … A day before the Senators have Hockey Fights Cancer Night, there was a nice moment during practice when former vice-president of marketing Jeff Kyle, who is battling brain cancer, had his picture taken with the team. Said Smith: “Any time you have an opportunity to brighten someone’s day, today was one of those days. It’s an awful disease. Hopefully one day there’s a cure for it.” … Joonas Korpisalo returned to practice Sunday. And, soon after practice was finished, the Senators sent goalie Mads Sogaard and forward Roby Jarventie to their AHL farm team in Belleville. 

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