COACHES have been saying it forever in hockey, how the name on the front of the jersey is more important than the one on the back. Even that noted hockey Ph.D. Jerry Seinfeld has observed that players may come and players may go, but the laundry remains the same.
It all comes out in the wash in the playoffs. And even if hockey is a game of the moment, history, tradition and reinforcement of both the positive and negative variety play as much a part of the outcome as does work on the specialty teams. Dynasties are not maintained by accident.
“Ultimately it’s how you play on the ice, but every person and every player is a product of their past,” Devils defenseman Scott Niedermayer said late yesterday afternoon. “Each player prepares differently, but I think you do rely on what you’ve done, certainly if it’s been positive.”
The defending champions have won three Cups in the last nine years, one best-of-seven by coming from 3-1 down, another after trailing 2-0, a Game 7 on the road after blowing a 3-1 series lead. They’ve won pretty much every way possible. Oh, and have we omitted the footnote that refers to the comeback from 3-1 down having come in 2000 against the Flyers; the same Flyers who enter tonight’s Game 4 with a 2-1 lead in their first-round series they had a chance to salt away on Monday when they twice led by a goal before allowing the Devils to get off the mat?
But wait. Are they the same Flyers with only four players – John LeClair, Mark Recchi, Keith Primeau and Simon Gagne – remaining from the squad that lost four years ago? Are they the same Flyers who haven’t won the Cup since 1975?
It’s the same laundry, isn’t it?
“I don’t know what it’s like on the other end, because we won the Cup in my rookie [2000] season, but having a background of success really helps,” said John Madden. “It can change your whole perspective and thought process.
“Having come from behind before, you know that there’s just so much hockey left and that so many things can happen even if you lose the first two games of a series. There’s so much going on in a game; little battles all over the ice.
“If you keep your composure, you can figure out in which of those battles you can gain an edge, even if you might not be able to take advantage of it for a game or two. But if you haven’t been through it, you might not recognize that.
“I’ve watched teams begin to figure that out when they’re down in a series 3-1, but by that time it’s a little too late. I don’t think there’s anything we’re ever going to face in a series we haven’t faced before and haven’t overcome before. And that helps.”
History is a guide until it isn’t. The Flyers – just asking, but is that really a Bobby Clarke team with six Europeans on defense? – still appear to have more weapons than do the Devils, but they have nothing but a litany of frustrating playoff failures with which to cope. Until they win, they will be expected to lose. Until the Devils lose, they will believe they will win.
Following Monday’s 4-2 victory, Pat Burns was asked how often he’d used defense of the Cup as a motivating tool after his club had lost the first two games of the series in Philly.
“Not at all,” the coach said. “I never mentioned it once.
“They know they’re defending champions without me telling them.”