twists, turns and tall tales on the path to the stanley cup
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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®ion=Header… 1/3
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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
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®ion=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
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®ion=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.
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