Belfast Giants centreman Pierre-Olivier Morin admits he has been pleasantly surprised by how quickly he has settled into life at the SSE Arena after rocketing in a hat-trick in their pre-season clash with the Carleton University Ravens.
The Canadian forward, who arrived in Belfast over the off-season from Danish side Aalborg Pirates, was front and centre against the college team as he fired in a treble to take his pre-season tally to five goals in three games.
So far it looks like the Giants have struck gold on their second line with Morin and Jordan Kawaguchi, who had a goal and three assists in his own impressive four-point night, with line-mate Kyle Osterberg also netting twice against the Ravens.
Last weekend it was Bobo Carpenter who filled that third slot alongside Morin and Kawaguchi and they still looked dangerous every time they took the ice, which should offer further encouragement to the Giants’ coaching staff.
And Morin has revealed that while they had to work initially during training camp to find that cohesion, it now feels like it’s easy every time they step onto the ice.
"I think overall I’ve adapted pretty well so far but I have to give credit to the guys I’ve been playing with – Kawaguchi, tonight I played with Osterberg and last week with Bobo. The chemistry has been working pretty well as a line,” smiled the 33-year-old.
"Sometimes it can take a bit more time because we all come from different Leagues and a different style of play. Hopefully we can keep it going. We’ve been working hard in practice and games to get rewarded, so we need to keep doing that, keep working hard to get to the net and make those plays.
"It did take a couple days, and those first few days practicing in Dundonald, trying to find out how we played together as a line. But it’s just kept growing and hopefully we can keep going because tonight was even better than the first two games.”
No stranger to putting the puck in the net before he arrived in Belfast, having joined following a 24-goal season in Aalborg, Morin was expected to be a dangerous player in the offensive zone for the Giants but even he couldn’t have anticipated his red-hot start to life in Northern Ireland.
While it is still just pre-season for the Giants, and they were facing a Carleton side that had disastrous preparation having only arrived in Northern Ireland on Friday morning, it’s never a bad thing to see the puck go in the net, but Morin says he is more concerned with his overall contribution.
"It’s still pre-season so I’m not going to think into it too much but it is nice,” continued the two-time Danish champion.
"But I like to think of myself as a two-way player, I can contribute at both ends of the ice, and I think that’s what I’ve done the first two weeks of pre-season.
"I’m lucky to be the one to bury those chances but I’m not trying to think about that. If I work hard, I’ll be rewarded.”
Overall it’s been an incredibly positive start to pre-season for the Giants, who have won all three of their games and have not just passed the eye test but have the stats to back it up, too.
That’s now 17 goals scored in just three games, with only four conceded, the powerplay is already looking sharp despite being without two key contributors in Scott Conway and Ben Lake and they are getting strong netminding from Tom McCollum and Jackson Whistle.
"It’s a whole team thing, right? So it starts with Tom, who’s been blocking a lot of shots for us, and then we have a really strong D who like to jump into the play,” explains Morin.
"That’s always a plus for us, that we have depth all over. When we bring the puck forward, we know the D’s are coming forward to support us and give us other options too.
"So far we’ve been playing pretty well. This weekend we had a tough challenge with the younger college guys coming here to show what they can do but we played pretty well as a team. We had some guys out, some guys away with Great Britain, so I think we managed pretty well tonight and managed puck possession well. Our line played well tonight but every other line did too, everybody contributed.
"But we have a tough test against Alberta (whom the Giants face in their final pre-season game on Sunday). I was playing in the CIS when I was in university and I know they have a good team too, some skilled players. That will be another challenge for us but we have to keep it rolling.”
