Ron Wilson was sitting in his office last week when defenceman Francois Beauchemin walked in and asked the Toronto Maple Leafs head coach if he could try and shutdown Alex Ovechkin.

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Now that he has adapted to his surroundings, Francois Beauchemin is hitting his stride.

Photograph by : Getty Images

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At the time, the Washington Capitals forward was averaging nearly a goal per game and was considered the NHL most dangerous offensive player. Beauchemin, meanwhile, was a team-worst minus-9.

It was sort of like a teenager crashing his car and then asking for the keys to his father's Porsche.

Wilson, of course, did not look at it that way. He knew Beauchemin was better than his numbers suggested. And though it was a lofty request, he was confident his team would be in good hands with the 29-year-old at the wheel.

"He's a veteran," said Wilson. "He wanted toprove that hecould doit. I was gladhedid that."

Beauchemin repaid his coach's trust by limiting Ovechkin and the Capitals to one goal. Since then, Wilson has been more than happy to hand over the keys.

Against the New York Islanders, Beauchemin neutralized John Tavares. And he was a plus-2 while matching up against the Tampa Bay Lightning's top line of Steven Stamkos, Ryan Malone and Marty St. Louis.

"He didn't have to [ask] after Ovechkin," Wilson said. "Once he jumped in there and did that, it was pretty easy to see that he liked to be challenged. We'll try to get him against what we view as the other teams' top line."

The shutdown role is nothing new to Beauchemin. He and Scott Niedermayer won a Stanley Cup for general manager Brian Burke and the Anaheim Ducks in 2007 by shadowing the other team's best players.

But in his first month in Toronto, Beauchemin and the Leafs had difficulty taking care of the defensive end.

The team, which managed just one win in its first 13 games, had allowed a league-worst 49 goals during that period. Beauchemin was minus-7.

Part of the problem, said Beauchemin, was an inability to adapt to his surroundings. He was on a new team with a new coach and a new defensive scheme. But he was still playing the same aggressive style that had worked with the Ducks, even though the smooth-skating Niedermayer was no longer there to cover up for him.

For the native of Sorel, Que., who had been one of 36 players invited to Canada's Olympic orientation camp, losing and being scored on was a new experience.

"It was new everything," said Beauchemin. "Nothing much was going our way and I was trying to do too much. Sometimes you try to do too much and think more about yourself than the team. When you do that, you're not really doing what your job is supposed to be."

Like all defencemen, Beauchemin's primary responsibility is on the back end. But it does not end there.

Beauchemin can hit. He can fight. He can block shots. And with two goals and nine points in 23 games, he also has the potential to contribute offensively.

"There's no weakness that I see," said rookie Carl Gunnarsson, Beauchemin's defence partner. "I've got a lot to learn from him."

Beauchemin did it all against the Lightning. He led the team in ice time, fed Niklas Hagman with a breakaway pass that resulted in a goal and, most importantly, was not on the ice for a single goal against.

It was the type of performance that had been promised when he signed a three-year contract in the summer.

"That was my best game of the year," he said. "Overall, we didn't give them too much offensively. We did a pretty good job of standing them up at the line and forcing them to dump the puck in. And we got the puck back."

Beauchemin still has a long way to go before he turns that minus-9 into a plus-9 rating. But, as he says, "it's coming."

"He's stabilized himself," Wilson said. "If you look at his plus-minus now, it's not great but it wasn't great a month ago. So he's basically been even for 10, 12 games.

"He wants to play against the other teams' best players. He really wants to be pushed and challenged. And he's done a great job."

mtraikos@nationalpost.com