PAST MEANS LITTLE IN GAME 7
Both teams have players who have seen highs and lows of ultimate game
John Tavares was trying to remember the last time he played in a Game 7. He thought it might have been when he was 10 or 11, with the Mississauga Senators.
“Actually,” the New York Islanders captain corrected himself, “it was Game 8. Ties counted. I believe it was minor peewee against the Red Wings. We lost.”
But that’s all right. Facing Monday night’s winner-take-all against the Washington Capitals at Verizon Center, some of Tavares’s teammates have plenty of Game 7 experience in the bank.
Johnny Boychuk, for instance. Just ask fans of the Vancouver Canucks, circa 2011, or better yet, ask the 2013 Toronto Maple Leafs.
Boychuk, the rugged former Bruins defenceman, helped knock off the Canucks in the 2011 Cup final, and participated in one of the most devastating comebacks/collapses ever in the first round two years later, when Boston rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the last nine minutes of Game 7 to beat the Leafs 5-4 in overtime.
Islander forwards Nikolay Kulemin and Mikhail Grabovski were both on the short end of that stick. So was assistant coach Greg Cronin.
The Capitals? Not many happy memories of deciding games in that locker-room. In the Alex Ovechkin era, the Caps are 2-5 in Games 7, including 1-4 on home ice, the one win coming six years ago against the Rangers.
So, either somebody’s overdue, or …
“A lot of our guys haven’t been part of that history — I haven’t. So it doesn’t mean anything to me,” said Washington coach Barry Trotz, whose previous 15 NHL seasons were in Nashville.
But a lot have been part of it. Besides Ovechkin, veterans like Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green, Brooks Laich, Karl Alzner, Jay Beagle, Jason Chimera — there’s no shortage of scar tissue.
“I think they’re sick of talking about us and we’re sick of talking about them so … it’s probably a fitting ending to go to a Game 7,” Trotz said. He’s looking forward to it. “It’s been a long time. I go back to when I was in the American Hockey League; it’s been that long. It might have been my last year there. We went to the finals, I think we were in three Game 7s. But that was a long, long time ago. That was when I had long hair and a mullet.”
We might need photographic evidence of that.
Boychuk has no difficulty remembering either of his famous Game 7 experiences. Or, for that matter, the infamous one: the Bruins against Philadelphia in the 2010 Eastern semis, when Boston led 3-0 in the series and 3-0 in Game 7 and lost. It’s the same lesson, either way, he said.
“You can’t have a lead, whatever it is, and feel comfortable, no matter what,” he said. “When you have leads like that — and we’ve had a couple throughout the season — you have to buckle down and do the right things. Get it in deep. Make sure you’re not just throwing it at the net in desperation.
“Little things when you’re up can make a difference in a series between winning and losing. Just like that game against Toronto.”
It was, he said, the craziest finish he’s ever been involved in.
“Oh, yeah. For everybody,” Boychuk said. “There were fans who were out the door but they quickly came back when they heard the roar.”
The Islanders, with a patchwork defence, eked out a 3-1 victory Saturday in Uniondale to force Game 7, on a third-period goal by Kulemin and an emptynetter. The game ended with a mini-brawl set off by a John Carlson slapshot at the buzzer on New York goalie Jaroslav Halak.
“Even if he didn’t shoot it late, he shot it high,” said Isles’ Kyle Okposo. “I wasn’t going to go over and say: ‘Hey, can you stop doing that?’ When guys get fired up, that happens.”
Both teams say they will be extra cautious about handling emotions Monday, but good intentions don’t always do it.
“It’s the kind of game we all wait for,” said Caps defenceman Karl Alzner. “You don’t want to have to be in any do-or-die games, but at the same time it’s super exciting just because there’s so much at stake. You see who can rise to that occasion, to that challenge.”
The Islanders haven’t scored a power-play goal yet in the series, but they’ve scored first in five of the six games.
“Right from the get go we’ve been chasing this series,” Trotz said.
“Barry’s done a good job of preparing us for it,” said winger Troy Brouwer, like Islanders’ Nick Leddy a former Blackhawk with plenty of big-game experience.
“I think my last six (actually five) playoff series have all gone to Game 7,” Brouwer said. “The fact that we’ve all played (some), won one or two, lost a bunch, it can help you.
“We’re looking at the experience we have and the mistakes we’ve made in previous Game 7s and trying not to replicate them.”
“Whoever is willing to put more on the line will come out with a victory. And that’s it in its simplest terms,” said Trotz. “It’s not X’s and O’s, it’s just whoever is willing to put more on the line. Don’t be scared of it. Don’t go around it. Just go through it.”