This is the time of year when nothing is black and white, no matter how much the players want to keep it that way.
Following another epic Game 7 win on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, the Rangers were ecstatic about moving on to the Eastern Conference finals for the second time in three years, having taken their fifth consecutive Game 7 and second this postseason. They were saying all the right things about focus, about not getting caught up in the big picture, and all the rest of the expected sports-speak that comes at moments like these.
But running just below the surface was this strange undercurrent of acknowledgment, this recognition of the odd subtleties it takes to win hockey games, to win series, and eventually to win the Stanley Cup.
Because in the end, when the Rangers are headed to Montreal to start their next battle Saturday after the Canadiens ousted the Bruins Wendesday night in their own Game 7, they will be traveling not as athletic robots, but as human beings. Flawed, vulnerable human beings who, although they don’t like to admit it, are fully susceptible to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
“It’s tough,” said de facto captain Brad Richards after the final 2-1 win over the Penguins, his team given Wednesday off to regroup. “You go through a lot of ups and downs. The last six days, not the easiest time to sleep. The feeling you have in your stomach all the time — you’re constantly thinking. It’s hard to relax.”
The most human thing of all happened to the Rangers on May 8, when Richards’ best friend, Martin St. Louis, lost his mother to a heart attack at the age of 63. The entire team was on the bus, having just landed in Pittsburgh less than 24 hours before Game 5 and set to leave for the hotel, as St. Louis had the news delivered to him.
The veteran winger has only been with the Rangers since the March 5 trade deadline, but the deep sadness he was going through brought the team together, which eventually helped bring them out of a 3-1 hole in the best-of-seven series, getting them one step closer to playing for the ultimate goal.
“We’d all rather Marty have his mom back and not rally around that,” Richards said on the eve of Game 7, “but you have to find ways.”
Finding ways to win is something Richards has a knack for doing, now 7-0 in his career in Game 7s. As he began to discuss that perfect record Tuesday night, he stopped, turned around, and knocked twice on the wood locker, knowing that success is fleeting, and genuflecting to some unknown sporting deity can’t hurt.
“[Winning] breeds good feelings, good karma,” Richards said. “You think good things because you’ve already seen them.”
And even seeing the future, the psychological practice of visualization, can be beneficial.
“In the back of your head, absolutely, you have to see yourself doing it before you can do it,” said goalie Henrik Lundqvist, now 10-2 in elimination games over the past three seasons. “That’s what we’re doing right now.”
Lundqvist wasn’t even sure if he was going to watch the Canadiens-Bruins Game 7, thinking a break from hockey might do him good. When he shows up to the practice rink Thursday, it’s all business.
Because the Rangers already have been through some tests, and passed, earning them another chance to inch closer to the Stanley Cup. And they have not gotten here on autopilot, because at this stage of the game, what separates success and failure is hardly tangible at all.
So listen to their words, and know it goes so much deeper.
“It’s stressful,” Richards said, “but you wouldn’t change it for the world. This is what we love to do.”