EDMONTON — When the Edmonton Oilers tied the thing with the goalie pulled and a mere 18 seconds left on the clock, the Florida Panthers — in grave, sudden danger of blowing back-to-back leads and falling behind 0-2 in the series — walked back into the Rogers Place visitors’ room.
Funny thing, though: They began acting like the team with a jolt of life, even though they had just watched their second lead of the night and third of this young, long Stanley Cup Final vanish in a poof.
The room was loud and positive. Hooting and hollering. Cats began calling out names: Who was scoring the Game 2 OT winner? Who wanted it?
“We were upbeat, joking around, having some fun,” Matthew Tkachuk says. “Picking guys who we think was going to score. I’m sure a lot of guys probably had Marchy.”
But Brad Marchand wasn’t even in the changeroom to hear any of those crystal-ball proclamations.
So what if he was in the thick of nine gruelling periods in three nights? Marchand whipped off his gear and hopped on the exercise bike in the hallway during the third intermission to keep his legs humming.
Then the guy who had his seeming game-winning breakaway goal matched in the final minute of regulation went out in double-OT and made certain his second breakaway game-winner snuck five-hole and stuck for good.
Those old quads can still fire, boy.
“Pure excitement and adrenaline for the whole group,” says familiar hero Marchand, who caught the clip of his dad, Kevin, cursing in bewilderment, and his hockey mom, Lynn, losing her mind in a sea of blue and orange.
“She is one that you need to put a muzzle on,” Marchand smirks. “She gets pretty amped up at the games.
“They’ve always been so supportive, like all our parents. I mean, I don’t think any player in this league could say that their parents are not the main reason why we’re here, with the sacrifices they all make.
“And when you go on a journey as a team and you get to the finals and go out on a run, it’s not just for you; it’s for everybody that helped you get here and all your loved ones that are enjoying the moments, whether they’re here or not.”
Tkachuk shakes his head and marvels at the 37-year-old’s energy, how he won’t sit still between periods, whether it’s the bike or gearing all the way down for a cold plunge. Coaches have jokingly asked if they’re not playing the winger enough. Maybe he sprinted mid-game to the brasserie and made that Dairy Queen run after all.
“He could play till he’s 47, the way he’s going,” Tkachuk says.
The way Marchand is going these days is clutch and, with all his gratitude speeches and lovable teammate tales, dare we say… likeable.
“An incredibly positive human being. He’s up and down the bench all the time, just pumping tires: Stay in the fight. He is going to be the same way at breakfast tomorrow morning, right? He’s just going to be jacked, high-fiving everybody at the table,” coach Paul Maurice says.
“Truly, he is a unique human. In northern parlance, he’s a beauty.”
When it comes to playoff OT magic, Marchand ranks among the most beautiful. Only Hall of Famers Joe Sakic (eight) and Maurice Richard (six) have more playoff overtime goals than Marchand’s five.
Heck, his boundless on-ice persistence — the guy hit a post in overtime before finding the net — and boundless off-ice personality are even winning over old enemies:
Marchand is up to seven goals, 17 points, a plus-14 rating, and two game-winners in these playoffs.
Not bad for the oldest guy on the squad.
“Saying he’s old or what? I’m gonna tell him you said that,” smiles fellow trade deadline steal Seth Jones. “I mean, he’s a dawg. He’s a gamer. He’s a competitor.
“Never a dull moment. He gives so much energy to our team. Super vocal in the room, always having fun, always staying in the moment. And on the ice, obviously, he’s a helluva player. You know, big-time player. Shows up in big moments, and you saw that again tonight.”
Maurice believes there is some logic behind the magic of a guy of Marchand’s vintage scoring two breakaway goals in one night against one of the fastest teams in the league.
Rule changes erased the hooking and holding, and sports science has advanced where finely tuned athletes can prolong their careers with diet and conditioning.
Still, it takes dedication on the player’s part. And a desire not to let an opportunity this sweet go to waste.
“We’re kids. We’re old kids,” Marchand says. “That’s the biggest thing. We’re living our lifelong dream. We all have such a short window to enjoy it, and you want to hold on to it for as long as you possibly can.
“But we all have a shelf life, and when you see it start coming to an end, you appreciate the days even more.”
Fox’s Fast Five
• $am Bennett set two records with his opening strike Friday: most playoff goals by a Panther in a single season (13) and most road goals by any NHLer in a single post-season (12).
Bennett has three more goals than anyone else in these playoffs; Leon Draisaitl is up to 10. The Panther’s Conn Smythe stock is rising fast.
“Playing hard, playing in-your-face hockey, and just playing confident,” Evan Rodrigues says. “He’s doing a great job of sticking to his game, staying physical, getting to the net. I think that’s a big thing for him.”
• Selke champ Aleksander Barkov’s last four games…
Game 4 vs. Carolina: 0 goals, 1 shot, minus-3
Game 5 vs. Carolina: 0 goals, 2 shots, minus-2
Game 1 vs. Edmonton: 0 goals, 2 shots, minus-1
Game 2 vs. Edmonton: 0 goals, 3 shots, minus-3
The captain is still searching for his first point in this series.
• Marchand’s ninth and 10th career goals in the Stanley Cup Final give him more than any other active player.
Marchand and Corey Perry (nine) both broke away from their four-way tie with Evgeni Malkin and Ondrej Palat (eight apiece) on a wild Friday.
• Oilers game operations runs a delicious second-period promotion where a young woman brings out a donair gun (think: T-shirt gun with 100 per cent less T-shirts). She then loads it up with season-meat wraps and fires these tasty, hot cylinders into the crowd’s hungry outstretched arms.
Legend has it, the sandwich shell once burst midair, spraying donair ingredients all over the lower bowl. But they keep stuffing sammies in the chamber.
• When he’s not cheering for the Panthers, Maurice had been rooting for the Dallas Stars because of his good friend Peter DeBoer.
Fired by the Stars Friday morning, DeBoer — who has reached a conference championship or Stanley Cup Final with each of his past four teams and is 9-0 in Game 7s — instantly becomes the most intriguing UFA head coach.
“He’ll be all right. With elite teams, you have to push them real hard to where they get to,” Maurice said of his pal. “At some point, you get a summer off. New spot. He’s going to be OK.”
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