Sens counting on Duchene and Ryan to become dynamic duo Ottawa coach Guy Boucher says new acquisition could give his team elite scoring depth on the top two lines, Ian Mendes writes.

When Bobby Ryan and Matt Duchene hit the ice as linemates on Thursday night at Canadian Tire Centre, the two players are hoping to build on a relationship that actually started a decade ago.

When Ryan was a member of the Anaheim Ducks, assistant coach Newell Brown ran a summer camp in Orange County for the younger players in the organization. Brown would often invite his teenage nephew – an undrafted junior sensation named Matt Duchene – to join the professional players for several of the sessions back in the summers of 2007 and 2008.

“I’ve known Bobby for a long time. My uncle used to run a camp in Anaheim and Bobby would come out every year. I skated with him for a few summers and he’s just as talented as I remember,” Duchene said on Wednesday after his first practice with Ryan on his right wing.

For his part, Ryan was blown away at the skill and speed that 17-year-old Duchene possessed when they skated together.

“I got to know him a little bit and watch him go through the process. It was pretty impressive – he was that good at 17. I thought, ‘Oh my God – he’s talented’,” Ryan said. “It’s been fun to watch the trajectory of his career from breaking in at 18 to 20 to becoming an Olympian. It’s funny how you meet back up 10 years later.”

Duchene: Very excited for chance to play with Bobby Ryan Matt Duchene meets the media following Sens practice.

Not only are they meeting up a decade later, but now head coach Guy Boucher is hoping that Duchene and Ryan can become a dynamic duo for his club. Ryan was enjoying tremendous chemistry on a line with Brassard and Mark Stone in October before a broken finger sidelined him for the past three weeks.

There was obviously some temptation from Boucher to leave that trio intact as Ryan returns from the injury, but he believes the Senators could become an elite team if the Duchene-Ryan combination can find some success.

“If we’re able to have Duchene and Bobby work, we can end up with two first lines,” Boucher said. “That would be a one-two punch that the top teams have.”

For now, Boucher is going to try Ryan Dzingel on the left side with Duchene and Ryan, while Mike Hoffman will skate with Brassard and Stone. If these trios don’t work, it wouldn’t shock anybody to see Ryan return to the unit with Brassard and Stone, while Hoffman would likely shift to another line. But it just feels like everyone in the Sens organization wants the Duchene-Ryan combination to work out.

Ryan has had a revolving door of centreman on his line since arriving in Ottawa prior to the 2013-14 season.

When asked on Wednesday if he could recite every Senators centre he’s played with in chronological order, Ryan was able to name Jason Spezza, Kyle Turris, Zack Smith, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Derick Brassard. When told he accidentally left Mika Zibanejad’s name off the list, he quickly apologized for the oversight.

“Don’t tell him that,” Ryan said with a laugh. “I’ll have to text him later today to smooth that over. He was one of my favourites.”

But everyone could excuse Ryan for forgetting Zibanejad’s name, since he’s played with so many different centres in such a short window of time. Duchene will be the seventh different pivot he’s lined up with in less than five seasons in Ottawa.

General manager Pierre Dorion pulled the trigger on this deal because he felt like the left-handed Duchene could work well with the right-handed Ryan. In the past, it seemed as though Ryan struggled to find chemistry with right-handed centres like Spezza, Turris and Zibanejad.

In one of his first conversations upon finding out they’d be linemates, Ryan says he asked Duchene if he had a preference when carrying the puck up through the neutral zone.

“One of the first things I said to him was, ‘Are you as comfortable on your backhand as you are on your forehand when carrying the puck up the middle?’ Ryan said. “And he said he doesn’t care. I’ve asked other centres and they’ve said the exact opposite.”

That answer seemed to bolster Ryan’s confidence in his ability to click with Duchene, since his centre doesn’t have a preference on either side – and Ryan can play both left and right wing.

Ryan got a chance to play against Duchene on a regular basis while both of them were in the Western Conference and believes Duchene is one of the elite centres in the NHL.

“I had some tough nights against him in the past. He does everything well. He can shoot, he can score and he’s an elite centre in the league,” Ryan explains. “I think that kind of got lost in the shuffle because of all the stuff with the Avs organization in the past couple of years.”

The two players have each hit the 30-goal plateau in the past and Ryan believes their skill sets can complement each other as linemates.

“I think the way that we play is kind of similar. We both kind of like to grind down low and spin off and make plays in little areas,” added Ryan. “And we’re both not shy to get at the net. I think him and I will have a lot of chemistry in the corners.”