There was something almost Dr. Seussian about it.
Steven Stamkos, bearded and buff, looking little like the 18-year-old kid who was flung into the mess that was the Tampa Bay Lightning franchise seven years ago, was answering questions on media day at the Stanley Cup final, the series he had always pined to play in. Again and again, for nearly half an hour on Tuesday, the only answer the young captain could give when asked what this meant to him was that he wanted to win.
"I'm definitely ready to do whatever it takes to win."
"Obviously you want to win. If you ask any player in the league, they'd say that too."
"You dream of this moment. About getting a chance to hoist the Stanley Cup over your head."
In a house. With a mouse. On a boat or with a goat.
To call Stamkos's career path to date "tortured" would be hyperbole, but he has certainly had plenty of adversity leading into this final against the Chicago Blackhawks. The most tortuous part about it is that he's watched many of the other Great Young Canadian Players of his generation win Stanley Cups and gold medals while he hasn't really had a sniff.
Eric Staal did it. Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry did it. So did Sidney Crosby and Jonathan Toews and Mike Richards and Jeff Carter and Drew Doughty. If you pick through the rosters of the past two Canadian Winter Olympic teams, they're packed with young "winners" who took home gold from Vancouver and Sochi in 2010 and 2014.
Stamkos missed both, the first due to age – "I was just so happy to be in the mix" – and the second due to a devastating injury – "it sucked."
He has been cheering on friends and foes he knew he could keep up with on far too many occasions.
It's been bad luck. In the regular season, even with injuries, Stamkos has outscored all of his Canadian peers by 25, racking up an incredible 276 goals in 492 games – a 46-goal pace in a time when 50-goal seasons have almost gone extinct. Only Crosby has more points in those prime years between 18 and 25 – and he had the benefit of a couple of high-scoring, power-play-filled campaigns early on, when the NHL cracked down on obstruction.
It's taken the Lightning longer to find their way than Anaheim, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Los Angeles. When general manager Steve Yzerman took over five years ago, they were still a disaster, with the high draft picks (Stamkos at No. 1 in 2008 and Victor Hedman at No. 2 in 2009) to prove it.
For a while, that was all they had. Five years later, it's all they have left from those awful teams.
"Other people had to go through the pain of getting that first- and second-overall pick," Yzerman said of Tampa's slow build.
Stamkos was one of them.
Out of that pain, more than anything, what he gained was perspective. He has listened intently to stories from teammates and coaches who went a lifetime in the game without a Cup and has stored them away for a time like this.
The one he now recalls most vividly is the tale of current associate coach Rick Bowness, who has been in the NHL since 1975 as a player (starting in Atlanta) and since 1984 as a coach (starting in Winnipeg). Forty years later, he is still looking for that first championship, after close calls such as 2011, when the Vancouver Canucks lost in heartbreaking fashion in Game 7 of the final.
"This is only his third time in the finals," Stamkos said solemnly. "He's never had a chance to win. That puts a lot of things in perspective."
That is real pain, and Stamkos has taken it to heart. He realizes it took seven years to get to this moment – and that it may take seven, 17 or 27 more till the next time, especially in a 30-team league where the kind of repeat success the Blackhawks have enjoyed is basically unheard of.
There have been 13 different Cup winners in the past 23 seasons, and there could be 13 different ones in the 23 seasons to come, with the Lightning never again getting a chance. Tampa may have a team filled with under-25s in their first giddy trip to the dance, but there's little guarantee they'll become Chicago, not in a system that tears good teams down.
Stamkos has had enough time to ruminate on that – to calculate the odds and battle to overcome them. He may be only 25, but he's already well aware that he doesn't want to become an Alex Ovechkin or a Henrik Lundqvist, superstars who will enter next season at 30 and 33 years of age and vying for the title of "best never to win a Cup" in the cap era.
Stamkos wants to win – so badly that he hasn't been able to nap on some playoff game days this spring, what with the unfamiliar butterflies.
"I read a quote of his the other day," said Yzerman, who knows more than most about that process of waiting to win, with the first of his three Cups as a player coming at 32. "He's having the time of his life. It's all about winning. … Our captain, our best player, this is what we're about. Everybody falls into line with that."
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Stamkos said. "You just never know when you're going to get this chance again."
Heartbreak or history: Here it comes. He's ready.