Pressure on the rise as Cup nears finish line

TAMPA— Tyler Johnson sat there, practice jersey still on, fresh-faced, and he lied in a very friendly manner, because that’s what you have to do at this stage.

Why aren’t you taking faceoffs in the Stanley Cup final?

“(Ondrej Palat) beat me in practice, and he’s just better than me, so . . . ”

But, uh, you took them all season. You took 1,068 more faceoffs than Palat this year.

“Yeah, but the percentages weren’t great.”

But Palat has never played centre in his life. Like, not once.

“I’ve never been that good at faceoffs, so it’s all right,” said Johnson, lying, very politely.

Everybody knows Johnson is hurt, but he can’t say it. Either way, he’s effectively the No. 1 centre for the Tampa Bay Lightning, has scored almost twice as many goals as Steven Stamkos in the playoffs, and he’s injured. And so the pressure on Stamkos, who hasn’t scored since Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final, is rising game by game.

“For me, I’ve been through situations like this,” said Stamkos, who didn’t score until his ninth game of this playoff run, then reeled off seven goals in 10 games. “You just continue to work hard, and play the game the right way, and eventually you’re going to get rewarded. So for me it’s just about not getting frustrated, not letting things get in your head, and I think having gone through some moments like this in my career, and even early in the playoffs, it helps you when you do go through it again.”

The pressure is rising on everybody, of course.

Someone’s going to win two games in the next five days, and they’re going to win the Stanley Cup, and it’s that close. The 25-year-old Markham native came as close as you can come to scoring in Game 4, of course, firing blindly at an open net, and the puck caught a stick and flew just sideways enough, and it stayed out.

Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane hasn’t scored either, and he hasn’t come as close as Stamkos has.

But Kane has been here before. Stamkos hasn’t, and he’s so close. He’s not cheating the game — he’s not blowing the zone or sneaking behind the play. He moved to the wing in the second round without real complaint, and he’s fifth among Tampa forwards in ice time in the playoffs, though still second at even strength. Tampa coach Jon Cooper loves the guys he coached in Norfolk, and Stamkos’s extension is still on the horizon, and this could all end soon.

And pressure he damned. Living this, he says, is the best.

“When we went to the conference finals in 2011, it was the most fun I’ve had playing hockey in my career, and obviously this tops it, getting this far,” says Stamkos. “Just in the hotel, having dinners with the guys and then going up to the room and guys are just joking around, watching movies, playing cards. You’re always around each other. I think that’s what makes it even more satisfying, that you could win with a group that’s as tight as we’ve been.

“You talk about guys’ past experience, you talk about what it would mean to win the Cup, and there are so many emotions, and all the guys wanting the same thing, it’s a pretty cool experience.”

Of course they talk about it. Stamkos has envisioned lifting the Cup over his head, because he’s been imagining it since he was five or six weeks old. He knows who he would hand the Cup to first — he won’t say who — and he knows where in Markham he would take it. Chicago Blackhawks like Jonathan Toews and Kimmo Timonen were cautioning against this exact thing the other day — Timonen said, “You can dream about it, but you can’t let your mind wander too far.” But it’s so close. “Well, I think you’ve got to believe it,” says Stamkos. “You’ve got to see it happening. I can’t speak for anyone else, but we’re right here. For me, you have the dream of winning it, and you have the reality that you may never get that chance again. You see yourself lifting that Cup over your head, and you see yourself with all the guys enjoying it, with friends and family. Obviously, it’s not a reality until you get it, but I think you have to have those positive thoughts.”

The pressure is on, sure. Players have to lie about how badly they’re hurt.

The pressure keeps cranking up, and the time between games yawns full of the anxiety of men between air raids. They all know someone’s going to have their heart broken, pretty soon.

But it’s the best thing, until one side wins.

“For me, you have the dream of winning it, and you have the reality that you may never get that chance again. You see yourself lifting that Cup over your head.” TAMPA’S STEVEN STAMKOS