Funny moment at the day-of-game skate – funny if you're a print reporter, less so if you're a broadcaster:
A handful of TV crews had staked out Tomas Holmstrom's locker, by the entrance to the Detroit Red Wings' dressing room in the hopes he would definitively declare his status for tonight's fifth game of the Stanley Cup final. I was standing in the corner, near to the training room, in the vague hopes of getting one question asked to Nicklas Lidstrom before the pack descended. Holmstrom came by, surveyed the crowd, decided he didn't want to chance it and said, at the top of his voice: “I'M PLAYING TONIGHT. SEE YOU TONIGHT.” Then, he turned and made his way out the back exit. I felt especially badly for Ryan Rishaug of TSN, because he too was hovering nearby, but Holmstrom came and went so quickly, they didn't get any tape of him making his announcement.
It was a zoo, even by Stanley Cup final standards this morning – everybody anticipating a Detroit win, so that they could a jump on their post-game stories, which are next-to-impossible on a tight deadline on a championship night. It usually takes forever for the players to filter to the locker room – and the difference-makers usually go from there to the podium. Lidstrom did stop to answer – again – the question about what it would mean to become the first European-born, European-trained captain to win a Stanley Cup. The reason everybody phrases it that way is because the captain of the 1937-38 Cup-winning Chicago Blackhawks was Russian-born, but Canada-trained (Johnny Gottselig). Somebody's going to drop that in as a trivia answer, if the wording around the story isn't exactly correct.
When I asked Dan Cleary about Alex Faulkner, the first Newfoundlander ever to play in a Stanley Cup final, I was pleased that he could give me a long thoughtful answer. Cleary is a player who knows his hockey history; don't know why I admire that, I just do. Cleary's grown up a lot since he first arrived in the NHL as a teenager with the Blackhawks; you can tell how much the opportunity to win tonight means to him.
It's a busy day in the hockey-writing dodge because NHL GMs are in for their quarterly meeting. They started at 11 a.m. and according to a source in the room, it didn't take long for them to get bogged down, so they'll be in there for awhile yet. They don't expect to accomplish a lot today, but with all the job openings in the league now – and the speculation about who might go where – it's the perfect opportunity to gather the latest gossip.
Generally, everybody's making contingency getaway plans, which can only mean one thing. Against all odds, Pittsburgh wins tonight … and forces a sixth game Wednesday.
