Stamkos faces rush recovery if he wants to make Olympics
TORONTO — There he was, Steven Stamkos, all dressed in blue. He skated. He shot. In a quiet moment he batted the puck into the air off his stick, kicked it with the side of his skate, and tapped it with his stick again while it was up in the air. He joined line rushes, up the ice and back. Up the ice and back.
Stamkos is doing a lot of rushing, these days. Canada’s first Olympic hockey game is Feb. 13; the Tampa Bay Lightning play their last game before the Olympic break on Feb. 8. He broke his right tibia on Nov. 11, and the next day Steve Yzerman, the general manager of the Lightning and of Canada’s Olympic team, said the absolute best-case was about a three-month recovery. Stamkos is back at practice, and running out of time.
“We’re standing here today because there’s a hard deadline,” Stamkos said Tuesday in Toronto, after spending maybe 15 or 20 minutes on the ice, in a blue full-participation jersey. “We’re not talking every day if this is a regular season, and we’re just going based on how I feel, and whenever I get back, I get back. We’re having this discussion because of the Olympics, and I’m trying my best to get back and play for the Tampa Bay Lightning, and hopefully get a chance to play in the Olympics.
“So when there’s a deadline, obviously, the little things matter. The little days off that you take that don’t necessarily mean anything, mean stuff. In that regard, it’s been a little challenging, but it’s been a long process, and the strides that we’ve made are probably quicker than I expected ... it’s getting there.”
Stamkos, 23, had pulled himself off the ice Monday due to soreness in his surgically repaired leg, hoping for caution. He says he felt much better Tuesday. Every day matters now. The idea was that Stamkos would have to play a game or two to prove to Hockey Canada he was healthy, but he opened a door to another path Tuesday. He is holding out as much hope as he can.
“At the end of the day it’s going to go on how my body feels, and if I feel like I can play to that level,” Stamkos said. “Whether it’s two games, one game. If I don’t play a game and feel great going into the tournament, that’s a discussion that we’re going to have with, first off, our medical staff here in Tampa, and then obviously with Steve Yzerman.”
Of course, he went on to say that even full-contact practice couldn’t simulate a game, and that “you have to play the game on instincts, and if (I’m) hesitant in any regard ... then I know I’m not ready to go.” In 2010, Ryan Getzlaf played one game in Edmonton after suffering a left ankle injury. He scored twice and recorded four points, and went to Vancouver. But he had only been out for six days.
Stamkos is one of this country’s truly great players, and maybe he doesn’t absolutely have to play in a game first. Maybe, with the five days in between, Hockey Canada will bring Stamkos and another player, and decide as late as they can.
But the speed of the Olympic tournament in Vancouver was blinding; Yzerman said “we expect the pace (in Sochi) to be incredible.” The big ice will force players to think the game differently, and adjust as fast as they can in what is a six- or seven-game tournament, at most. There will be no room for error. How can Stamkos be ready in time?
“If I say that I’m at the level that I need to be to compete at the Olympics, I think (Yzerman will) have the trust in me, and I can go over there and play at that level,” Stamkos said. “But ... I have to be honest with him. If I’m not ready, I’m not going to be going.”
On the ice, Stamkos was wearing the right jersey, but he lacked explosiveness; it was like he was walking through his skating, even when he tried to run. He looked like he would be fine, but he’s not fine now. He’s trying.
“Everyone wants him in,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “The country wants him in.” But the Lightning had another duty, he explained.
In the Lightning lockerroom, meanwhile, Marty St. Louis wasn’t too interested in discussing the Olympics. Yzerman left him off the roster, which must have hurt; there were whispers some decision-makers didn’t think he was fast enough, despite his churning legs. He tried.
So St. Louis entered Tuesday night’s games 12th in the league in scoring, tied for ninth in goals, and frowning, at the age of 38. He was asked about being underestimated for his whole career — undrafted, unknown, overlooked — and whether it could have been different.
“I don’t know what the other side of the coin would be,” he said, “because I’ve never seen the other side.” He talked about being motivated by his three sons, age 10, 8 and 6; he said, “Any dad wants their kids to be proud of them, you know. I’m just going out there and playing, and there’s definitely games that they think I’ve played better than others.”
And when he was asked what he would do during the Olympic break if he wasn’t named as an injury replacement, St. Louis said: “I don’t know yet. I don’t know.”
Someone asked if he hadn’t allowed himself to imagine it, and he said, “No, I have, but I don’t have to tell you guys what I’m gonna do, right?” He ended with a little wink, wrinkling his stern face just for a second, framed by dark hair going white at the edges.
This is Canada’s Olympic team at the margins, maybe the last of its kind: A young man doing anything to make it, and an old man trying to mask his disappointment. Two weeks to go, and the clock is ticking for everybody.