EDMONTON — Cody Ceci plays the piano “most days” when he’s at home, wavering from classical to rock, depending on his mood.
His grandmother taught him how to play, and unlike all those Ceci critics with access to the stats sites, Grandma Ceci knew what she was talking about.
If only she’d have given him some advice on buying pianos, not just playing them.
“I ended up with three somehow,” he said Tuesday. “One at my cottage, one at a friend’s place in Ottawa, and I’ve got one here. I’ve got to cut down.
“I wasn’t moving one out here to Edmonton, that’s for sure. But the store I got it from said they’d sell it for me when I’m done.”
Meet Cody Ceci, The Piano Man by day, Edmonton’s whipping boy the rest of the time.
As a stay-at-home defenceman, today’s analytics environment meets Ceci’s game like a Steinway thrown off a third floor balcony. The internet experts would trade him to Allentown for a bag of metronomes, until one night in the playoffs when the Oilers get outshot 33-13 in Los Angeles — win 1-0 — and Ceci leads the Oilers in ice time.
The next day one of the local voices was asking aloud on Twitter, “Why did we want to run out of town Edmonton Oilers‘ second most reliable playoff d-man?”
Darnell Nurse has the answer: “Who cares?!?”
Ceci, you see, is that rare player today whose numbers and style set him up as a target for those who see the game through a computer screen, while at the same time being one of the favourite teammates of every player who has sat alongside him in an NHL dressing room.
He is 2024’s Kris Russell, a defenceman for whom hockey analytics have not yet evolved to the point where they can quantify the subtle positives of his game as accurately (and punishingly) as they do the negatives.
“A lot of time when he’s out there, it’s not an easy matchup,” Nurse said. “He’s a guy who, most nights, plays a full, clean 60 minutes. You don’t really notice him because of how well he reads the game.
“When you’re out there against top competition, sometimes … it ends up in the back of your net. Sometimes that’s all that’s highlighted.”
To Nurse’s point, Ceci played 79 games this season — 20 minutes per night against the other team’s top units — and took just seven minor penalties all season. He sees zero power-play time and leads the D-corps in penalty-killing minutes.
A stay at home defenceman in a run ‘n’ gun town, Ceci wasn’t always this guy.
He had 60 points in 64 games for the Ottawa 67’s one year in junior, then 40 points in just 42 games the next season, before turning pro with the Senators, a 15th-overall pick in the 2012 draft.
“Early on in my career, coming into Ottawa, Erik Karlsson was the guy,” said Ceci. “I wasn’t going to beat him out offensively, so I kind of shifted my game.
“I always thought the game pretty well, so I just kind of shifted that into being a little more defensive-minded — because those were the minutes that were available. If I didn’t, I don’t think I would have played as much as I did in Ottawa when I started my career. I wasn’t going to beat out Karlsson for that job.”
From Zach Bogosian, to Rob Scuderi, to Brad Stuart, to Ken Daneyko, every successful team has had a Cody Ceci. They don’t get any ink all season long, and they don’t want any.
But ask the goalie about them, and he won’t shut up.
“He’s always clearing rebounds away, always boxing out for me,” said backup Calvin Pickard. “He’s easy to talk to on the ice, he’s a low maintenance guy, and he’s got an undercover bomb of a shot. I feel like he’s always got a chance to score from up top — he’s got a really hard shot.
“And the biggest thing is he’s an outstanding guy. Everybody wants to be around. He’s got great charisma.”
Of Edmonton’s Top 4 defencemen, none spent less time on the ice with Connor McDavid this season than Ceci. He has a worse seat to watch this power play than the guy in the 15th row, and god forbid the Oilers are down a couple of goals, Ceci’s name barely crosses his coach’s lips.
“I tend to play a little less if we’re chasing the game,” he said by way of understatement. “If we’re up a goal, trying to play a little more defensive, then I might get more minutes. If we’re not on the power play a bunch, and we’re killing penalties, then I’ll get more minutes.”
On a playoff run that is likely to have his team protecting some third period leads, Ceci will no doubt be busy in a role that promises to feature less shots for than against, more time in the defensive zone, and is likely not to produce the greatest plus-minus.
Some people will care about those things. None of them will have a stall in this Oilers dressing room.
“I’m a pretty low key guy — not very high maintenance. So I’m good with whatever role they put me in, as long as they fit me in on the team and I can help us win games,” said the 30-year-old, who is closing in on 800 career NHL games.
“On a team, you can’t have all guys that are just going for it and trying to pump up their analytic numbers. You’ve got to have a little bit of both — that’s key in winning games. I don’t spend a whole lot of time analytics.”
Ceci doesn’t need sheet music to know how to play. He can read a room.
“I’m more of a just-feel-it-out kind of guy.”
