Stars' Methot ready to face former team

Stars defenseman Marc Methot will see some familiar faces when the Dallas Stars take on the Ottawa Senators Monday night at American Airlines Center. Monday's game will be Methot's first against the Senators since Vegas selected the veteran defenseman from Ottawa in this past summer's NHL expansion draft and then traded him to Dallas.
"I've thought about it. Of course I have," Methot said. "I knew they've been coming in, especially over the last two weeks. You see it on the calendar and it's like, 'Oh God, I am playing against my old team here coming up soon.'"
Methot, who played five seasons in Ottawa, has been down this road before. That won't make it any easier.

"That's hard. I still remember playing my first game against Columbus after being traded to Ottawa. It's not easy," he said. "You're playing against guys you know very well. I play a hard game. It's not like I'm going out there and handling the puck and not hitting guys. I've got to do my job. Again, no friends when I am on the ice."
But friends off the ice. He planned on having dinner with his old defense partner, Erik Karlsson, Sunday night. He talks a lot with Karlsson and keeps up with many of his former teammates who are going through a rough season in Canada's capital. The Senators, who made it to the Eastern Conference Final last season and lost in seven games to Pittsburgh, are well out of the playoff picture this season.
"I keep in touch with lots of the guys. If anything, I think I feel bad more for the fanbase than anything else just because the team is not gaining the success they had the season before," Methot said. "All the hopes are up, and there is a good feeling going into the year and then all of sudden you start losing lots of games, so I can feel for that. Obviously, I feel for lots of the guys, too. A lot of those guys are gone now, or at least a couple of them. The team is a little different looking, and that is the way it goes."

Methot is settling into his new home in Dallas after a tumultuous stretch back in June. He was left unprotected by Ottawa for the expansion draft, then selected by the Vegas Golden Knights and less than a week later traded by the Golden Knights to Dallas for goaltending prospect Dylan Ferguson and a second-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft.
"At that point, the only thing I could control was my no-trade list and trying to get myself to a good team that I knew would at least be a playoff contender," Methot said. "That's pretty hard to do when you can only block 10 teams. But when (Stars GM) Jim Nill called, and I saw his named pop up on my phone, I had a good idea that's where I was going, and I was so happy."
It was more than just coming to a good team for Methot, who and wife Elie welcomed a son, Jack, into the world in December.
"That and going to a nice place where we could raise our kid and be comfortable and have my family comfortable," said Methot. "Dallas was so good with that. Jim was so good with that. When they picked me up, they took great care of us when we came down here looking for a house. They had everything lined up. Those are the little things behind the scenes that people don't realize. This is a first-class organization."
Methot has been limited to just 24 games this season due to a knee injury, but he feels like he is starting to come on now that he's been back in the lineup for the past eight games.
"It was probably something lingering from the year before, and it just compounded as the season progressed at the beginning," Methot said. "I had a couple of months off to recover, which was great because I am starting to feel really good again. I am starting to find my game again and finding a role on this team, which is all I ever really wanted."

And the Stars like what he has brought to the team both on and off the ice.
"Now that he's come back in and caught a second wind, he's a guy that can play against weight and size," Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said. "When we went on the road and needed to make changes against Anaheim and Los Angeles, he had to play against weight and size, and he was effective. He and Stephen Johns have become a really good pair.
"The thing that Meth brings to us is a real accountability in between periods and postgame review. He spoke up today in what he saw in our game. Those things are valuable because it's like another coach without the coach saying it. That's what I like about Meth, his brutal honesty about what needs to change or what he likes is really good for our group because it is a quiet group."
A group that Methot is now happy to be part of after a summer of uncertainty that saw him leave the Senators after five seasons.
"It was difficult at first that summer with everything that happened. You feel all kinds of different mixed emotions. But, for me, I was ecstatic that I came to this group," Methot said. "I knew we had a good team here and it took a little while to get going, winning some and losing some. I think now we are finally finding our game and all the new guys we acquired are finally finding that chemistry.
"We're winning games, and that's all you can ask for at this time of year."

Notes

This story was not subject to approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mark Stepneski is an independent writer whose posts on DallasStars.com reflect his own opinions and do not represent official statements from the Dallas Stars. You can follow him on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge.