Q & A With Former Ottawa Senator Matt Carkner

A few weeks ago, I chatted with former Ottawa Senator Matt Carkner for a long read on Silver Seven.

The 35-year-old is currently with the New York Islanders' AHL affiliate in Bridgeport, four years after an exciting career in the nation's capital.

This is the best from our talk.

How did the idea of becoming a player-coach with Bridgeport come to fruition?

“I was with the Islanders when I had a back surgery and those are never good for hockey players. I tried a comeback and at the end of the year, decided to come down to Bridgeport and try to see what I could do. I finished the season – not too many problems - and I decided I didn’t want to end my career with an injury, so I wanted to sign another deal and try to play. So I talked with Garth Snow and I came up with this idea of transitioning from playing to a coaching role so I could be down (in Bridgeport) mentoring the young players and eventually turn my attention towards coaching.”

How has that been working on a day-to-day basis this season?

“Right now I’ve been mostly a player. I have sat out quite a few games, I think 10 games. During those games I’ll still go through the game day routine – I’ll still skate as a player and keep myself in shape for games and whatnot, but when it comes down to before the games, I’m in on the meetings and I’m kind of just there to take it all in and see how things are done. I’ll write up the game lineups on the official sheet, just simple things like that to get my feet wet. I’ve had a cool experience seeing the other side of it, the decisions the coaches go through, the decisions they have to make, what players they have to play, what kind of dynamic they want in their lines. It’s been fun in that sense, but in the other sense I love playing and I want to be a player. I want to be a player until I’m 90, but the fact is that you can’t do that, your body can’t keep up. Doing this, starting as a player-coach has been a good transition. I’m not totally transitioned into coaching obviously. I want to play out this year and see how it goes. I just knock on wood everyday and hope that my back holds up because it was a pretty good surgery that I had there. I’m just happy every day that I get to go on the ice and hang out with the guys.”

Take me through the triple OT goal in Pittsburgh. That must’ve been pretty special.

“That moment was obviously the highlight of my career. It’s one of those moments you always dream of as a kid, getting in the playoffs and scoring a big overtime goal to win the game. I remember that game. It was a tough battle. I think everyone was just spent. We all played, that night, triple overtime so it’s never easy. I hopped over the boards and basically I was just praying that I could get through that shift, fortunately Alfie passed me the puck and it went in the net after I took a quick slap shot. That was quite a moment.”

A couple years later, in the Rangers series, you had quite a big impact. First off, with the Boyle incident in Game 2. Did you guys go into that game with a plan after seeing how Boyle was treating Karlsson?

“Me and Zenon Konopka were watching (Game 1) and we saw how Boyle was trying to rough up our future Norris Trophy winner at that time. Karlsson played a skilled game and they were trying to rough him up and we didn’t like that at all. The next game we were inserted to the lineup and we had a talk amongst ourselves. I didn’t know what I was going to do, to be honest with you. The moment presented itself to hit him and I knew I wanted to try and start something. And he’s a big guy, so I thought he might actually try to fight back, but that wasn’t the case. So emotions took over and I did what I did. The craziest thing about it was my teammates, they got a lot of energy from it. They were high-fiving me after the game and saying ‘that was unbelievable.’ I was just super excited that they pulled it together and killed off my penalty and they ended up winning the game. We played great the rest of the series. I had some knee issues at the time and I had a little bit of a flare up going into Game 7. I really wanted to play that game, but everybody with the Sens, the coaching staff, all the players were like ‘we’re going to win this, we’re going to the second round, so get some rest and we’ll use you in the next round.’ And unfortunately that didn’t happen.”

The other big postseason moment for you must be the pass to Michalek in Game 4.

“I think that was the game I came back, because I remember I was suspended for a game in that series. I came back and I wanted to contribute. I wanted to be a little bit of a difference maker. I’m not the point guy, I’m usually the shutdown guy and the physical presence, but the moment presented itself. I came out of the penalty box and it wasn’t a real breakaway, the guys were catching me so I just stopped up and saw Michalek come through the middle. When he put it in the net it was kind of a surge of energy and it was a real exciting moment for me, too. The team played hard and I really did think we could’ve done great things. Sometimes you end up on the wrong side of it.”

You obviously did some great work around the community in different areas, but being a part of the Capital City Condors is what a lot of people remember as one of your greater gifts.

“It was one of the fun things I got to be a part of. The Condors are a great organization run by great people. Jim and Shana Perkins started it and they’ve kept it running and built it into an incredible organization for special kids. I was just happy I was lucky I stumbled upon it. I like to give back a little in every community I’ve ever played in and so I talked to my agent and they hooked me up with Jim. They said there was a cool little thing going on. The team, at the time, was around 20 or 30 players and they said they could use some help with some gear or some mentoring or maybe just showing up and raising awareness for it. It was really cool when I first met Jim and met all the kids there. It was a really awarding experience, being a part of special needs hockey. And I continue to keep my hand in a little. In Long Island I was with the Long Island Blues, another great organization. Here in Bridgeport, I’m with the Southern Connecticut Storm. So just simple things like tickets and locker room tours. We like to get them out on our ice with some of the pro players and do a little bit of a clinic and some shinny hockey. It’s just a lot of fun for us players and it’s a lot of fun seeing the smiles on their faces.”

And then you handed off the duties to Kyle Turris in 2012.

“When I left Ottawa, I didn’t want the thing I was doing to die out - the kind of mentoring I was doing within the NHL team and the special needs team – so I talked to Kyle Turris about it. I mentioned that there were some great people involved and he took over. He’s like a part of the family now. He’s there as much as he can be and he’s done an incredible job continuing to be the honourary captain of the Condors. Funny enough, I did the same thing when I left Long Island with Thomas Hickey. He took over with the Long Island Blues and he’s doing the same program.”

Do you still keep in touch with the Condors to this day?

“We work through email and text messages and I catch up once in a while and I see the articles. I talk more closely with Jim Perkins, who is the president, and he fills me in on everything we’re doing and how everyone’s doing. Kyle took over for me and I think Erik Condra was involved pretty heavily and I know Patrick Wiercioch has been as well. Great families, great people and I couldn’t be happier for the Condors to be left in such great hands.”

Who was your biggest influence during your career with the Senators?

"I was with the Sens organization for about five years, I was in the minors for two. I had Cory Clouston through that time and he got to know me pretty well. I like to think he gave me my opportunity there. Some people like to say I played my way into the league, but sometimes you need a door opened. My first training camp I was playing as a forward, trying to fill the toughness role and whatnot, and one game one defenseman was playing rather poorly and obviously Cory knew I was a good defenseman so he put me back there and that’s when I made the team. So I like to think that he gave me an opportunity."

Who were some of the players that helped you along the most in Ottawa?

"I grew up in Ottawa and I remember watching Alfredsson play and watching Chris Phillips coming into the league, so to actually make it and play with those guys was an amazing experience. Obviously I hung off of every word that they said, they had great advice for me. Chris Phillips, especially, being that defensemen had just a solid, solid influence on me on and off the ice. The Ottawa Senators, they do a good job of picking character guys. Chris Neil was the other element. The toughness role, he helped me through that. He was my roommate my first year. Me and Neiler got along great. He grew up on that side of the game so he really helped me along. It was great having such great people giving me advice."