Game 7 is not always dreamlike
Oilers’ Lucic knows fairy tale can end badly
An ode t o Game 7 penned only by the victor would be a vapid transit of hockey’s highest plane.
For the vanquished, Game 7 is a brick wall, a broken heart, the last stop. Their pain is integral to the mythology. It’s also the strangest part of the reality.
Because t he Game 7s played on your cul- de- sac, back yard rink, in the alley, the tennis court, the boulevard, you never lost any of them. You were Bobby Orr, horizontal. You were Wayne Gretzky or Stevie Y letting fly down the wing. Your arms were always raised, teammates always mobbed you, the crowd chanted your name.
“You always win. It’s funny the way that happens when it’s going on in your head,” then- Oiler Chris Pronger said in 2006, on the eve of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Precious few of these Edmonton Oilers have turned their boyhood Game 7 dream into either version of the adult reality. Matt Benning, Drake Caggiula, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent- Hopkins, Darnell Nurse and others are all new to it, notwithstanding the fact they just won an elimination game.
Milan Lucic has Game 7 experiences good and bad. Patrick Maroon has played and Todd McLellan coached in the pressure- cooker of a Game 7. They’re not looking backward or telling old tales to the fresh faces in the Oilers room.
“If you think any of us are standing up on a soap box and telling the inexperienced people, ‘ I’ve been here before, listen to me,’ it doesn’t happen that way,” said McLellan. “We’ll talk about our group and what opportunity we have moving forward as a group. We get to make our own history. We don’t have to rely on another team’s.”
Before the puck drops on Wednesday, Edmonton’s most recent and relevant Game 7 was played 11 years ago. Going in, the 2006 Oilers had the dream. Pronger won every Game 7 he played on St. Charles St. in Dryden, Ont. Shawn Horcoff did the same in Castlegar, B.C. And Fernando Pisani in his Castledowns crescent. Until June 19, 2006. In the Stanley Cup Final.
“To lose in Game 7 in the first round, it’s disheartening. To lose in Game 7 in the Final, that’s just heartbreaking,” Pisani said recently. “There’s a difference. I just remember that feeling when that final buzzer went in Carolina, that’s the most gut- wrenching feeling you’ll ever have as a player.
“Looking back, you don’t get a lot of opportunities as a player to make it that far. To come that far and come up empty- handed, it’s probably the toughest thing to get over. And you know what, I don’t think you ever get over it, just because it’s always, ‘ we were that close.’”
Close enough to watch the Hurricanes raise the Cup. Close enough to hurt.
In 2014, Jarret Stoll and the Los Angeles Kings were down 2- 0 early in Game 7 in Chicago, the crowd was going nuts and it wasn’t looking good.
“But you get a timely save, claw your way back in and find a way to win the game," Stoll said.
The Kings won that Game 7 in overtime and went on to take the Cup from New York. And it helped heal the pain from 2006.
Today’s Oilers aren’t even close to doing anything that special yet.
There is a Game 7 to be played on Wednesday. Win it, and be halfway to the dream. Lose it, and be wiser for the experience.