The 36-year-old center has fit seamlessly into Ottawa’s lineup right from the first game of the season — even without a proper training camp, due to an offseason procedure to address an abdominal issue and sports hernia.
Eller promised after his first skate in that training camp he was going to be a “better version” of himself with the procedure instead of playing through pain, like he had done last season, spent split between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals.
Early returns have proved just as much. Eller has found stability in his own game despite a rotating cast of linemates.
“Everybody’s treated me really well here, and it just feels like an easy fit inside the locker room,” said Eller on Friday morning, expanding on his comments from the night before.
“I feel very comfortable being part of the group and part of the organization, and it feels right. That’s it, it’s been a fairly easy transition, even though I got started a little later because of my offseason rehab and got started a little late in training camp, but I think I’ve caught up pretty quickly since then. After I got a couple games in the legs then my game is slowly coming back to where I’d like it to be… so far, so good.”
The versatile centre has scored twice and nabbed four assists in the team’s first 12 games while contributing in the faceoff dot (59.4 per cent), on the power play (1:45 average TOI), and on the penalty kill (1:09 average TOI).
“I don’t think you play in this league for a long time without being able to adapt [to play for] certain teams,” said Shane Pinto on Friday, whose shorthanded rebound Eller knocked in to tie the game at one in the first period. Pinto added the team had a “good feeling” Eller would be a fit in Ottawa.
“Coaches like players that understand the game,” said Travis Green on Friday. “I’ve liked his game. He gives us veteran leadership, he’s a good player, he understands the game, he’s smart.”
Heading to Montreal for a Saturday night tilt brings back some old emotions for Eller, who spent his first six full NHL seasons as a Canadien before being traded to Washington.
“I love coming to the Bell Centre,” said Eller. “As a Canadien, but also as a visitor, it’s an inspiring place to play with the history and the energy.”
Those emotions don’t extend as far back as 2012–13 though, when the Senators played the Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs.
Eller made sure to stress that despite the “hard-fought battles” from that postseason, it feels like “a part of the past where we’ve moved on from,” with Montreal winger Brendan Gallagher the lone holdover from either team’s roster from that season.
After his time in Montreal, Eller spent seven seasons in Washington along with quick stints in Colorado and Pittsburgh before returning to the Capitals early last season.
Eller’s wife, Julie, and children Sophia and Alexander still reside in Washington, but his young family has already made a couple of visits to Ottawa through the first month of the season.
During his second stint with the Capitals, Eller defeated the Canadiens in the first round of last year’s playoffs. He downplayed the extent that more recent familiarity with Saturday’s opponent matters, though.
“Obviously when you play a playoff series against a team, you get to know players’ tendencies a little bit more, and what their strengths and weaknesses are on an individual basis,” said Eller.
“But at the same time, I think for us tomorrow it’s going to be all about us. Getting a good start, how we approach our game, and what we need to do better. Because we’re going to face a good opposition every night. Even against Calgary yesterday, maybe a team that didn’t have a very good record, they came to play a highly competitive game. Every night is hard to get two points, I think for us we really need to dig down into what areas we can improve tomorrow, and if we keep doing that, we have a chance to get two points.”
