Part Two of my Stanley Cup reflections:
Good Guys
There’s a good story or three every year, guys who deserve the Stanley Cup, guys who’ve toiled for years, often without reward on subpar teams, who finally taste glory. This year is no different.
The Bruins captain, Zdeno Chara, has been a superstar in the league for 14 seasons, but had never scaled heights as high as a Stanley Cup until now. Seeing him skate over with the Cup – how funny was it, seeing midget Commissioner Bettman handing the silverware over to the mountainous Big Z? – and hold it aloft was a great thing for hockey. And especially for Slovakian hockey.
Chara is one of the best ambassadors for the game with a heart as big as his slapper is fast, and his captaincy of the marquee franchise represents a continued shift in the thinking of the league and it’s teams. Remember, it was only 2008 where Nicklas Lidstrom became the first European captain to hoist the Stanley Cup, when the Swede-loaded Red Wings won.
Going out with a bang, winning his third Stanley Cup, is a sure-fire first year of eligibility Hall of Famer, Mark Recchi, who had said all along that he would retire if the Bruins won the championship this year. In some ways, the Recchin’ Ball is the Shaquille O’Neil of the NHL. He’s been on a half-dozen teams, but he’s never once burned his bridges, so much so that the former Penguin/Flyer/Thrasher/Hurricane is fondly and warmly welcomed back to arenas that he has once called home. What a fairytale, retiring after winning the Stanley Cup. See you in the Hall of Fame real soon, Mark!
For a guy who was supposedly as good as cooked in Boston after the Bruins lost the opening two games – on home ice, no less – of their quarter final series against the Montreal Canadiens, Claude Julien has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence. From being the target of frustrated Bruins fans who were staring down the barrel against their most hated rival, to leading that same team to the Stanley Cup, it’s been a great playoff ride. Julien, for the most part, is a level-headed, smart and calm coach, who rarely goes off his rocker about anything. He’s worked hard to get where he is, and it’s nice to see that, sometimes, hard work and dedication does pay off.
And so to the success story of the playoffs. Tim Thomas was drafted deep in latter rounds by the now-defunct Quebec Nordiques in the mid-90’s but didn't play an NHL game until midway through the 2002-03 season. He’d spent many years stopping pucks in Europe and in minor league hockey in North America, striving to become an NHL goalie.
Many would’ve shut up shop and abandoned their dream after years shuttling between ECHL and AHL cities, but not Thomas. The University of Vermont product kept trying, kept digging, and look where it’s gotten him now. As detailed in my earlier post, a nearly-flawless seven-game effort in the Cup final – after a nearly flawless effort through the first three rounds – earned Thomas the Conn Smythe Trophy and so much critical acclaim. Here, ladies and gentlemen, is your poster child for never giving up, for always working hard. Perseverance is a wonderful thing. Not all of us have it, but Tim Thomas did, does, and now he’s a Stanley Cup champion and the story of the playoffs. Well deserved!
No comments:
Post a Comment