Stamkos itching to play competitive hockey
Steven Stamkos said he plays hockey almost every day. But the thing he misses the most during this NHL lockout is playing hockey.
Real hockey, that is. Not the kind that Stamkos plays on Thursday nights with his dad, or the kind that he and P.K. Subban are organizing with 30 other out-of-work NHLers at the former Maple Leaf Gardens this week.
Stamkos is talking about the kind where you could get hurt if you don’t keep your head up, where you have to backcheck and where the score actually matters.
It has been more than eight months since he played a game like that. And the time away is taking a mental toll on the 22-year-old sniper.
“It’s frustrating,” Stamkos said Monday in advance of Wednesday’s RBC Play Hockey Charity Challenge at the Mattamy Athletic Centre, formerly Maple Leaf Gardens.
“You do something for your whole life and you don’t really think anything of it. Everything you do is geared toward playing hockey. Now that you don’t have that, it’s tough.”
This lockout is tough for a player like Stamkos, who is not only missing a paycheque, but missing time building what his fans hope will be a Hall of Fame career.
Stamkos, who scored 60 goals last season and led the league in goal-scoring two years ago, was on his way to becoming one of the top scorers in league history. But the lockout might cost him another 50- or 60-goal season.
A similar situation occurred to Pavel Bure, who scored 60 goals in 1992-93 and another 60 in 1993-94, but finished with only 20 goals in a strikeshortened 1994-95. The Russian Rocket finished his career 63 goals short of 500.
Stamkos, who has 179 career goals, might have reached the 200-goal mark by now. Instead, he remains in perpetual offseason training mode for a season that might not come.
His days are spent working out with Gary Roberts, practising with an on-ice skills coach and skating with the Oshawa Generals and whatever other team will take him. What he has not been able to replicate is actual competition.
“I’ve just been trying to stay sharp,” he said. “I messaged Marty St. Louis the other day saying, ‘Hopefully we get back because I’m getting too big in the gym working with (trainer) Gary (Roberts).’ ”
Stamkos said he had options to play in Europe, but decided against it because he was worried about possible injury and heard of negative experiences from other players.
He also did not believe the stalemate would last this long.
And so, Stamkos will have to be content with playing beer league hockey and against faux competition in a no-contact charity game. It is not real hockey.
But it is the best he can come up with.