Playoff joy can be fleeting
Calgary’s veteran players know that lesson better than most
SAN JOSE, Calif. — This trail of advice can be traced to some of the Calgary Flames’ franchise greats, although Matt Stajan was in Toronto when it was passed along to him.
As a rookie centre with the 200304 Maple Leafs, Stajan was playoff bound. First of many, right?
“We had a very veteran team and I was a young guy and I remember Gary Roberts saying: ‘Guys, we have a chance to do something special here. Let’s really enjoy this and take advantage of it, because you don’t know when you’re going to be back in this position,’” Stajan recalled. “That’s what he said about his career, because he won in his (third) year in Calgary and he said the older guys said that to him and Joe Nieuwendyk. So they were kind of saying the same thing. Nieuwendyk was my roommate that year, so he reminded me.”
Indeed, Nieuwendyk and Roberts have often recounted stories of Flames icon Lanny McDonald — finally a Stanley Cup champion when they all celebrated together in 1989 — trying to relay the message that these opportunities don’t come as easy or as often as a young man might think.
Stajan, now 33 and preparing for just his third playoff run in 13 bigleague campaigns, won’t be the only guy preaching that same point over the next few days as the Flames ramp up for a first-round series.
Calgary captain Mark Giordano will tell you that after a four-game sniff of playoff action in 2007, he expected to make it an annual spring habit.
He hasn’t suited up for a post-season clash since.
Twice, he was injured. More often than not, the Flames missed out.
April 22 would have marked a full decade between playoff contests for Calgary’s heart and soul. Thankfully, it won’t come to that.
The 33-year-old Giordano was rewarded with a night off Saturday in San Jose, where the Flames completed their regular-season work against the Sharks.
“When I saw his face after we clinched (March 31) against San Jose, it’s pretty cool to see that,” said Flames alternate captain Sean Monahan. “He’s obviously a great captain and a hard worker and he’s a guy who will make a huge impact in the playoffs. To find out he hadn’t played in playoffs for that long, that’s pretty crazy.”
And probably pretty hard to imagine for a guy like Johnny Gaudreau, 23, who hadn’t missed the playoffs at any level until last season.
Or 20-year-old Sam Bennett, whose first official skate at the Saddledome was Game 3 of a firstround set against the Vancouver Canucks in 2015.
Or rookie Matthew Tkachuk, who won an Ontario Hockey League championship and a Memorial Cup last year with the London Knights and will be the youngest regular in the Stanley Cup tournament this spring.
“Being on this team this year and being fortunate enough to be in the playoffs, I don’t know anything other than what position I’m in right now,” admitted the 19-yearold Tkachuk after Saturday’s morning skate at SAP Center. “But I really like this feeling of having another little stretch ahead of us. That’s obviously fun and I’ve heard nothing but great things about playoff hockey in Calgary.”
With all the makings of a bloodand-guts leader, Tkachuk will one day be telling up-and-coming teammates not to take this opportunity for granted.