Occasionally we're caught off-guard in a playoff series with a surprise hero — Max Talbot springs to mind, scoring two goals in Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final against the Detroit Red Wings, successfully redeeming the Pittsburgh Penguins for their loss to the Wings in the 2008 Final.
The thing is, that stuff sticks out in our minds because it's a rarity. At some point during your team's biggest moments, it's up to your stars to shine. You need to be able to look to them when things matter most.
On any given team there are always a few guys whose role, beyond getting a few hits and stirring the pot, is to simply not mess up. Maybe that's over-simplifying to some extent, but certain players are asked to just not get scored on, to play smart defensively, and to make the safe plays. Those guys are your Torrey Mitchell's and Tanner Glass's — fine players in and of themselves, but nobody's turning to them to put up a four point night and carry the team to victory.
That's where the all-important difference makers are needed to step in; and as the series between the San Jose Sharks and Vancouver Canucks heads towards a crucial turning point in Game 5, it's time to see which team's big guns are ready to add a new page to their legacy as playoff performers.
These guys earn the big bucks to shine on nights like tonight - when the puck drops on Tuesday night, I think it's safe to say the players will be in the middle of one their careers' biggest nights. You only get so many kicks at the late playoffs can.
A 3-1 series lead for the favorite can have the same effect on a team that a two-goal lead does in a game — as much as you're smart enough to say "we're still going to keep our foot on the gas," it's not easy to do when your level of desperation isn't anywhere near your opponent's, and that can't be faked. Worse, if you lose game five at home, suddenly it's a 3-2 series and the next game is in your opponent's barn.
Given that Game 7 might as well be a coin toss, both teams need their all-stars to play like all-stars sooner than later.
As Patrick Marleau has snuck out of the negative spotlight, Dany Heatley has been thrust into it, largely because he's played like a soup sandwich throughout the majority of playoffs thus far — sloppy and ineffective. After five games against Vancouver, he's accumulated an hour and a half of ice time (almost to the second), which has been just enough to pile up a whopping one assist.
At the other end of the rink, the Sedin brothers have been playing some real Sediny hockey (sorry for using such technical hockey terminology), which has to be scary as all hell for Sharks fans to watch.
Their effectiveness so far is no guarantee of continued success of course, but if they do manage to keep it up and carry the Canucks to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1994, it's likely that hockey fans will look at them a slightly different light. Save for some struggles against the league's best D-pairing and a Vezina nominee goaltender in Nashville, they've been worth every penny the Canucks have paid for their services.
For the guys whose role isn't to put the team on their backs and win, sometimes all they can do is look down the bench and wait. They can play responsibly, get pucks deep, finish checks and work hard, but when it comes down to it, putting tallies on the scoreboard isn't their job description.
In my own experience, when those role players are playing great and deserve to win, the longer it takes to put a puck in the net the more frustrating it is. You want to do your part just as they are — after all, that's how the formula is supposed to work. But those are the stresses of being a player who's suppose to produce. When big games roll around, there's no time for excuses and failures.
Well, that time is now.
As the seconds tick down on the score-clock tonight and the pressure rises up, somebody's going to have to grab this game by its collar and own it.
Both teams have the personnel to do it, it's just a matter of finding who's ready to take their game to the next level when it counts.
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