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SAN JOSE — This may be Eric Nystrom's first visit to the NHL playoff party, but he spent his whole life hearing stories from and about his famous father, Bob Nystrom, a member of the New York Islanders' four Stanley Cup championship teams.
Nystrom, the Calgary Flames' rookie left winger, doesn't remember a whole lot of talk about famous seventh games; mostly because his dad's most famous playoff heroics came in overtime of a sixth game to give the Islanders the 1980 Stanley Cup.
"But he's talked to me about the time they were down 3-0 and they came back and won it in seven," said the younger Nystrom.
That came in 1975, when the Islanders, just an up-and-coming team three years removed from their expansion birth — they came into the league with the Atlanta Flames — rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven series against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Then they almost did it again next round, overcoming a 3-0 deficit to get it to 3-3 against a Philadelphia Flyers' team that would eventually win the series and go on to win the Stanley Cup that season.
Craig Conroy of the Calgary Flames is run over by Douglas Murray #3 of the San Jose Sharks during Game 6 of the 2008 NHL Western Conference Quarterfinals at Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary on Sunday. (Mike Ridewood/Getty Images)
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- New Jersey Devils
- Mike Grier
- Jarome Iginla
- Joe Sakic
- Alex Tanguay
- Jim Vandermeer
- Stephane Yelle
Only the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs earned a similar distinction.
"He just said, they focused on one game at a time and slowly climbed back," said Nystrom. "That's what you need to do in the playoffs. You can't let one game upset you or rattle you. You've just got to keep focused and push the envelope next game."
The Flames will be pushing the envelope to the max in tonight's seventh-and-deciding game of their Western Conference quarter-final series against the San Jose Sharks. The winner moves on; the losing team goes home.
The Sharks, as the No. 2 seed, enjoy the home-ice advantage, but the Flames hold the edge in experience. Left winger Stephane Yelle will play in his 11th-ever Game 7, most among active NHL players. Mike Keenan will be coaching in his 10th career Game 7, passing his mentor Scotty Bowman to move into first-place on the all-time list.
Yelle scored two goals for Calgary in the series opener and he remains the NHL's most accurate shooter of the post-season, at 40 per cent.
The Flames believe that to succeed against the Sharks tonight, they need to duplicate the complete team game they produced in Sunday's 2-0 shutout victory over San Jose, which set the stage for tonight's one-game, winner-take-all showdown.
Keenan spread his ice time out more evenly among all his players, except for team captain Jarome Iginla, and it paid off with a more consistent level of execution. The sort of glaring errors that cost them the fifth game in the series here last week were absent in that victory.
According to Iginla, the Flames play their best when they don't "over think the game, but just go.
"Right now, we're coming off a game where it was a total team effort and everybody did whatever they could to help the team win. Going into this game, our focus is to keep it rolling, keep going, keep pushing."
Iginla, who is 1-2 in previous seventh games, said he was "extremely excited" about tonight's prospects.
"The nerves get going; the adrenaline gets going. During the regular season, you don't get as nervous for games. They're always fun and enjoyable to play, but this is a whole other level. As an athlete, you want to be in situations, where it's tough and where it's hard. It feels better when you win those games; when you have success.
"To win a Game 7 would be a huge feeling (of accomplishment), not only to win it, but to come back from being down and finding a way against the No. 2 seed and the hottest team in the league."
The Flames dressed seven defencemen for their last game, using Jim Vandermeer both as a left winger and on the blue line. They were not expected to make any line-up changes.
The Sharks plan put Jeremy Roenick back in the line-up, after he was a healthy scratch in the sixth game. Roenick, who has played more Game 7s than any other player on their roster (five, and scored four goals in those games) had been playing only about 11 minutes per game in this series and has yet to score a point, but coach Ron Wilson thought he needed a rest.
Of more pressing concern to the Sharks was the fact that Milan Michalek, usually Joe Thornton's left winger, has been held without a point in the series. Michalek was second on the Sharks in goals (24) and third in points (55) during the regular season. His frustrations around the net came to a head in Sunday's game, when he led his team on a three-on-one break, only to come to a dead stop to the side of Flames' goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff and fail to get even a shot off on the advantage. The Sharks have four players with six or more points in the series (Ryan Clowe, Patrick Marleau, Joe Pavelski and Thornton). The feeling is they need Michalek to find his range again in order to balance the attack more.
So far, each team has 14 goals in the series, although San Jose holds a significant edge in shots (188-140).
The team that scored the first goal won three of six games in the series, although the thinking is that the opening goal tonight could be pivotal.
"Obviously, that's our goal, to try and get on the board first," said Flames' centre Daymond Langkow. "If we don't, we'll just stick to the game plan and be patient and play consistently for 60 minutes."
Wilson told the San Jose Mercury News Monday that motivation shouldn't be an issue for his team.
"It's a seventh game. If you don't win, you're out. If I have to manufacture desperation, we're in dire straits."
As for Nystrom, well, he wouldn't mind adding to the family's playoff resume, with an important goal tonight.
"Yeah, it's awesome," he said, of his first NHL playoff experience. "That's what you play hockey for. I grew up, my whole life, dreaming of getting a chance to play a Game 7 in the NHL playoffs. It's happened my first year and that's great. It's really exciting and obviously, you can't let emotions get the best of you. You've just got to prepare and play your best game and a simple game and that's what I've been doing."
Nor is he intimidated by the prospect.
"I've played in big games before — at world juniors and in college. It's the same mindset. You have to play your game and play as hard as you can. If you're going out and playing as hard as you can every single shift, good things will happen."
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