St. Louis still proving people wrong
He remains one of the big team in this town’s lingering regrets; its glaring missed opportunities. The mere mention of his name enough to trigger spasms of sorrow, murderous mutterings of ‘What if ...?’ among hockey habitués hereabouts.
“I always reminisce a little bit,” confesses Martin St. Louis of the infrequent returns to the place his NHL career began 16 long winters ago. Then a soft, wistful look of nostalgia crosses his face. “Especially in that corner.”
‘That corner,’ of course, happens to be the spot he beat Miikka Kiprusoff from 33 seconds into the second overtime on June 5 to send a taxing, tortuous 2004 Stanley Cup final back to western Florida for a decisive Game 7.
And the rest is, well … hard-to-take history.
“I’ve watched that game a bunch of times,” St. Louis admits, as Billy Joel, another golden oldie, launches into Piano Man on the boom box inside the Tampa Bay Lightning’s inner sanctum at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
“There was just no room out there. Nothing. I had zero shots until then. That was my first shot. When I look, as I’m watching the game, I’m thinking ‘Maybe I should’ve shot here or shot there.’ But there really weren’t any opportunities to shoot. It was SO tight. All the hooking, holding. “It was war.” When informed that the games of that era, so radically different from the sanitized version of today, were absolutely great to watch, he smiles. “Great to play in, too.” Now 38, with the one Stanley Cup ring, two Art Ross trophies, a Hart Trophy, five All-Star Team selections, six All-Star Game appearances and three Lady Byng awards to his name, Martin St. Louis has another milestone on his radar:
Fifty points shy of the epochmaking 1,000 barrier.
And the first 20 of those, as if anyone of a certain age around here needs reminding, were scored in Calgary Flames’ livery.
But then, adjudged too small, considered surplus requirements after sweeping changes within the organization, he was bought out and became an unrestricted free agent after being passed over in the 2000 expansion draft.
He wound up in Tampa Bay and carved out a Hall of Fame-calibre career.
“The people that liked me (in Calgary), cared about me, so to speak … they were all gone,” he reminds you, shrugging. “So it’s not like I felt betrayed. I felt good about what they were doing with me, and vice versa. Al Coates. Brian Sutter. Nick Polano, the assistant GM. I felt they could see that I had something, that it was kind of a matter of time, so to speak.
“I felt my role that second year I was here — I ended up playing 56 games — I was getting better. They had confidence in what I was trying to do. But when everybody gets fired, it’s hard. “So I don’t hold any grudges.” If revenge, however, ever was an issue, he’s exacted it, hundreds — no thousands — of times over. With every goal, each assist, all those richly-deserved baubles he collected wearing a tux, the double-OT shot from ‘that’ corner a decade ago that killed off the spirit of those Iginla-led Flames.
“We can’t say enough about his career,” said Tampa’s first- year full-time coach Jon Cooper. “When I first came in last year we talked about his career a little bit, to get to know each other and we talked a lot about the 2010 Olympics and how that was one of his biggest disappointments. And he always talked about being put on waivers by Calgary. I think he said he was put on waivers twice.
“Those were just things that he said ate at him but made him who he was today.
“It seems to drive him. You piss Marty off somewhere along the way and he will eventually show everyone wrong. And we, our organization, has been a huge benefactor of the adversity he’s seen throughout his career.
“I guess Calgary would be the one city where they had him and, for whatever reason, he was let go. Then he was the one that kinda put the dagger in their heart in Game 6. It’s amazing how things like that kinda work themselves out.”
This season, his first as captain of the Bolts, has presented its share of unique challenges. The broken leg suffered by sniper without peer Steven Stamkos seven weeks ago, the number of raw rookie recruits conscripted
I find myself shooting a bit more … MARTIN ST. LOUIS
for battle, have all placed added onus on the old fella.
“You lose a piece like Stammer … I’m trying to manage myself and really have a pulse on the team at the same time,” St. Louis said. “With all the young guys we have, they have to learn under pressure pretty quick. They’ve risen to the challenge. For me, I try to play my game, change it a little bit. No disrespect to those young guys, they’re playing really good hockey for us, but it’s a bit different when you lose a 60-goal guy.
“So I find myself shooting a bit more, try to create space for myself. Because other guys don’t get open like Stammer does. In a way, I’ve had a chance to prove to myself that I can still do it.”
Oh, he can still do it. No debate on that score. Thirty-eight points in 40 games working inside a defence-first Cooper-instituted system. A plus-12. A consummate role model. Not much missing there.
“We all went through that moment of pity-party when Stammer went down,” Cooper said. “But I think Marty looked inside and said ‘There’s no way we’re going down with this’ and he took it as a personal challenge. They were looked on as that one-two punch but you don’t want to be looked on like ‘I can’t do it. …’”
Upcoming, Tuesday and Hockey Canada’s announcement of the 2014 men’s team for Sochi. After being passed over four years ago for Vancouver, given his age and no guarantees that the NHL will participate four years hence in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the moment is here, is now.
The competition for spots is nothing short of murderous, of course. But if Martin St. Louis does get good news from his Tampa boss, Steve Yzerman, it’ll have been based strictly on current merit, not any sense of wistful nostalgia.
“I think it’s in the back of everybody’s mind,” said the one that got away, back in the place it all began for an infrequent visit Friday. “Not just me, but for anybody that gets a whack at (the Olympics), it’s something they cherish. Obviously they got to win it in 2010. I wasn’t so fortunate in ’06 but it was still a pretty cool experience. My kids were pretty young at the time. Now, they’d remember this. So for me, it’s not just what’s in it for me, it’s what’s in it for my family, to get to learn that.
“That’s why I’m pushing. I’m hoping I fall on the right side of the equation this time. If it’s not, you know, then it’s not. I’ve been blessed with the career I’ve had. The only thing you can do in this situation is give yourself and I feel I’ve done that.
“I’d be disappointed but there’ll be a lot of guys disappointed.”
Here’s hoping he’s not.