The questions had all been the same and were predictably pointed. Everyone watched and waited for the moment that Martin St. Louis would finally lose it, but it never came. Playing in what could conceivably be the final playoff series of his career, St. Louis lost his mother without warning. Taken out of his life at a time when the veteran winger was struggling to keep his own affairs in order with the New York Rangers.
St. Louis received the news before Game 5 in Pittsburgh with his team trailing 1-3 in their semifinal series. He had gotten the notification while he was with his teammates and the tragic news was shared with the locker room virtually by default due to the circumstances.
A trip home to Montreal to be with his family on Thursday left St. Louis’ participation for Friday’s elimination game in doubt. However, after a lengthy discussion with his father, the 38-year old knew he had to play.
"I'm glad we're able to get this win and stay alive," St. Louis said. "She was a great lady, the best human being I've ever known in my life. I owed it to her to do it. I know she would have wanted me to play. She was with me the whole way but this is probably the most comfortable place you can be as a hockey player," he said.
New York had been up against it in the series from the start. The Rangers had the misfortune of completing their series with the Philadelphia Flyers and rolled right into the second round against the favored Penguins with zero recovery time. Five games in seven days is hardly fair to ask of anyone, particularly in a meat grinder like the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Coach Alain Vigneault shared his displeasure with the media about the unfortunate schedule, but the only thing coming out of the locker room was about “regrouping” and “focusing”.
An emotional return to Madison Square Garden for Game 6 completed the virtual galvanization of the New York Rangers. It quite literally happened in front of our eyes and there was nothing that the best hockey player on the planet, Sidney Crosby could do about it. St. Louis scored the first goal in Game 6, a Mother’s Day tilt fit for a Hollywood script, and the Rangers demanded a Game 7 with a 3-1 win.
Game 7 back in Pittsburgh’s unfriendly confines came with nothing more than the gratitude of being able to stay alive to that point. After all, as good as the Rangers have looked this season, they have managed to look equally terrible at the worst possible time. They had expended an enormous amount of energy simply to reach this point, and there was no shame in a Game 7 loss to a worthy opponent.
But the Rangers weren’t done. A stunning fourth line goal from Brian Boyle put the Penguins on their heels for the third straight game. Though the Pens managed to equalize early in the second period, a power play goal facilitated by Martin St. Louis three minutes later restored the Rangers’ lead for good.
The Henrik Lundqvist goaltending clinic over the final 30 minutes of the series preserved the win and bought the blue shirts a date to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second time in three years. Over the final and decisive three games, Lundqvist stopped 102 of 105 shots. In some circles that is referred to as clutch, or really, really good at just the right time.
For all the inconsistency that New York had shown in the first round and through the first four games of the Pittsburgh series, Lundqvist took control of the Ranger’s fate in the end. The whispers about whether the “King” had playoff fortitude subsided while we marveled at his 5-1 record in Game 7’s or his 10-2 overall record in the last 12 elimination games.
Martin St. Louis’ family tragedy is a not-so-subtle reminder that life is not selective. In professional sports we often lose sight that these players are human beings. The games mean so much to us as fans that we just assume that the players want to win as much as we do. We afford them very little margin for error and forget that they are husbands, fathers, partners, sons and people that have an infinite number of things happening between their ears.
We assume that they wake up to the low din of “We want Stanley” on repeat playing in their heads, forgetting that their day starts much the same way ours does. Getting kids off to school, acknowledging loved ones lamenting the Taco Bell from yesterday and searching for coffee before a thought is processed about their job for the day.
A trade deadline deal brought him to New York and cast St. Louis in a different light. As one of the most likeable players in the NHL, he found himself on the wrong side of words like “selfish” and “petulant”. Regardless of how the trade worked between Tampa Bay and New York, it seemed to take a while for the veteran winger to assimilate into the Rangers on the ice.
Off the ice, St. Louis blended well with the mixture of veterans and youngsters and immediately became a guiding and calming influence. While there is never a good time to lose a loved one, the Rangers collectively pulled St. Louis in closer and seemed to play with purpose for their grieving brother. It certainly isn’t realistic or fair to call one man’s tragedy a rallying point for a team, but in the pressure cooker of the NHL playoffs, the New York Rangers seem to have done exactly that.