twists, turns and tall tales on the path to the stanley cup

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Page 1: Twists, Turns and Tall Tales on the Path to the Stanley Cup

5/25/2014 Twists, Turns and Tall Tales on the Path to the Stanley Cup - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/26/sports/hockey/path-to-stanley-cup-is-more-like-a-gantlet.html?rref=sports&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header… 1/3

http://nyti.ms/1moGTKP

HOCKEY

Twists, Turns and Tall Tales on the Path to theStanley Cup

MAY 25, 2014

Sports of The Times

By GEORGE VECSEY

War of attrition, war of wills. That’s what the Stanley Cup playoffs are —

more intense, more physical and more prolonged than the playoffs of any

other sport.

The players keep crashing into each other, often legally, probing for

injured parts, until somebody wins. Then they form a handshake line.

There must be a moral in there somewhere.

But up close and dirty, there are a million nasty tricks, like a sweaty

glove with a residue of ice, mashed into the puss of an opponent during a

clinch in the corner. Just because.

The series between the Rangers and the Montreal Canadiens is vastly

different from what preceded it from autumn to spring.

The importance of willpower was evident in the third game, with

Montreal down by two games and on the road. The Canadiens roused

themselves in the third period, a collective act. The television broadcasters

commented on the rise in intensity, the shift in the wind, and then the

Canadiens won in overtime. The admirable ratcheting up of desperation

could have been detected on a seismograph.

The two squads were prepared to thud into each other again Sunday

Page 2: Twists, Turns and Tall Tales on the Path to the Stanley Cup

5/25/2014 Twists, Turns and Tall Tales on the Path to the Stanley Cup - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/26/sports/hockey/path-to-stanley-cup-is-more-like-a-gantlet.html?rref=sports&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header… 2/3

night at Madison Square Garden amid charges of foul play, espionage and

the exaggeration of injuries.

The Canadiens are mad because their goalie Carey Price has been out

since he was run over in the series opener by the Rangers’ Chris Kreider —

a total accident, the Rangers insist.

On Sunday, the Canadiens’ Brandon Prust was starting a two-game

suspension for creaming the Rangers’ Derek Stepan in the third game, an

action ruled legal but late by the N.H.L. Excuse me? Which was it?

Stepan was said to have sustained a broken jaw. The Canadiens,

however, noted that he played 17 more minutes Thursday after the

grievous injury.

This gallantry sounds like the old hockey cliché about the player who

lost six teeth (or had his appendix removed) between periods but was

stitched back up and skated in the third period.

The Canadiens fully expected to see, and feel, Stepan again Sunday.

Not only that, but Prust and Stepan claim each other as a friend. This is

part of the charm of playoff hockey, which has not changed in this era of

large players and large salaries and extra referees and electronic

surveillance. Induced pain and hard feelings still persist from game to

game.

Teams list injuries as vaguely as possible — “upper body” or “lower

body,” meaning the aggressor has to be a generalist rather than a

specialist. Otherwise, the boys would zero in on a wobbly elbow or aching

calf.

This sustained hostility makes hockey different from any other sport.

Baseball’s postseason (please, Bud Selig insists, not playoffs) shifts from

game to game because of starting pitchers and the geography of the

ballparks. The football playoffs feature one-off affairs, without bad

feelings building from weekend to weekend. In addition, football uses

platoons for offense and defense and kicking, so only the interior linemen

have a chance to really get up close and personal with one another. The

long dunkathon of basketball can be nasty as well as spectacular, but

Page 3: Twists, Turns and Tall Tales on the Path to the Stanley Cup

5/25/2014 Twists, Turns and Tall Tales on the Path to the Stanley Cup - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/26/sports/hockey/path-to-stanley-cup-is-more-like-a-gantlet.html?rref=sports&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header… 3/3

technical fouls and personal fouls and the three-dimensional aspect of the

game (some players levitate above trouble) tend to cut down on repeated

aggression.

Then there is soccer, perhaps the closest to hockey in the building of

momentum. During the recent Champions League semifinals, Atlético

Madrid came out with a grim attitude, matching its hard-shell coach,

Diego Simeone.

The outsiders muscled aside smooth Barcelona in the two-match

semifinal. Then Atlético came out tough in the final on Saturday against

Real Madrid, but injuries and weariness started to cut into its intensity.

Real’s desperation — and talent — ultimately prevailed, with the team

tying the score late and adding three extra-time goals. After that, Simeone

lost his mind, racing around the field, looking for trouble.

I was about to say that Simeone’s cloddish rampage was un-hockey-

like, but one hockey coach did stage a charge on the opponent’s locker

room this season. That was John Tortorella, the former coach of the

Rangers, who had moved on to coach Vancouver.

Tortorella was about the nastiest coach I’ve seen in hockey. When he

was with the Rangers, I figured his snide comments and sour face were

part of the job description for working in the House of Dolan, but the

Rangers ultimately fired him (Vancouver subsequently dismissed him, too)

and brought in Alain Vigneault, born in Quebec City, now coaching

against his old team.

Vigneault appears to be a gentilhomme, but his team hits hard,

certainly to the edge. Particularly during the Stanley Cup playoffs, a whole

different season, a whole different sport.

Email: [email protected]

© 2014 The New York Times Company