The professional hockey world has its famous “code” of behavior, especially in the Stanley Cup playoffs. And in this in-depth feature story from longtime THN senior writer Ken Campbell, the playoff “code” was made clear.
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Campbell’s story – published in THN’s April. 27, 2009 edition (Vol. 62, Issue 23) – delved into all aspects of “the code”, including playing while you’re not 100 percent healthy.
“It’s pretty much understood that you have to be on your deathbed not to play in the playoffs,” said then-Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Mike Commodore. “When I was in Carolina, Doug Weight wanted to play in Games 6 and 7 and he couldn’t even lift up his arm. He’s taking the warmups and I’m thinking, ‘Is this guy serious?’ That year I had a bad shoulder, too, and I got it shot-up before a game and we lost, so I never got it shot-up again.”
A lighter side of the playoff code concerns facial hair growth. As most hockey fans are aware, once the post-season begins, razors are stashed away and players get, well, more natural.
“It’s just another little something to bring the team together,” Commodore said. “You laugh at the guys who look terrible. I don’t think any other sport really does anything like that.”
THE CODE
By Ken Campbell
“ALL RIGHT EVERYBODY, LISTEN UP HERE!
“For the next two months you’re going to have to work late pretty much every other night. Lots of overtime. You’ll be asked to sacrifice your bodies and do things that are way out of your comfort zones. You’ll be bruised and battered and weak by the end of all of this and you can pretty much say goodbye to your families for the next little while. How you perform over the next couple of months will have a long-term impact on this organization and will probably determine how many of you are still here a year from now. Oh yeah, and you won’t be paid for it.”
Sounds a lot like the kind of happy talk most of us are hearing in corporate Canada and America these days, doesn’t it? But it also applies to the NHL playoffs, which are a little like the 1992 classic movie Glengarry Glen Ross. In the film, first prize in a sales contest is a Cadillac Eldorado, second prize is a set of steak knives – and third prize is you’re fired.
Well, maybe it’s not quite that harsh, but when you see teams accept the trophies for winning the Eastern and Western Conferences, they might as well be accepting a set of steak knives. And really, who remembers or cares which team was third-best in the NHL last season?
The playoffs are the most intense, frustrating, exhilarating and special time of the year for everyone involved in the game. It is a brief period of time in which legends are made, heroes and goats are born and the extraordinary often happens. It requires a special group of athletes to be left standing after it is all over and it requires them to adhere to The Playoff Code.
“Code is a good word, but it’s more that you want to be part of what has always been done,” said Toronto Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson, who coached the Washington Capitals to the Stanley Cup final in 1998. “More than anything, you want to do it for the guy sitting next to you.”
Here it is:
*YOU SHALL PLAY HURT.
Ever since 1964, when Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Bob Baun limped off the ice after taking a slapshot in the foot, only to come back out in overtime and score the winner and then play Game 7 on a fractured ankle, the playoffs have been rife with players who have played through intolerable pain.
“It’s pretty much understood that you have to be on your deathbed not to play in the playoffs,” said Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Mike Commodore, who won the Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006 and went to the final with the Calgary Flames in 2004. “When I was in Carolina, Doug Weight wanted to play in Games 6 and 7 and he couldn’t even lift up his arm. He’s taking the warmups and I’m thinking, ‘Is this guy serious?’ That year I had a bad shoulder, too, and I got it shot-up before a game and we lost, so I never got it shot-up again.”
“SOME OF THE BUILDINGS ARE ALWAYS ON (IN BOTH THE PLAYOFFS AND REGULAR SEASON). WHETHER YOU GO TO MONTREAL OR OTTAWA OR VANCOUVER OR NEW YORK OR DETROIT, THOSE BUILDINGS ARE ALWAYS ELECTRIC. BUT IN THE PLAYOFFS, THEY GET AMPED EVEN MORE. WHERE I REALLY NOTICE IT IS IN THE PREGAME SKATE. DURING THE REGULAR SEASON, WHEN I’M DOWN BETWEEN THE PLAYERS’ BENCHES, GUYS WILL SKATE BY, THEY’LL JOKE AROUND, THEY’LL BLOW SNOW, THEY’LL ASK ‘HOW’S YOUR FAMILY?’ AND JUST SOME SMALL TALK. YOU DON’T HAVE ANY OF THAT DURING THE PLAYOFFS. AND AS A BROADCASTER YOU DON’T EVEN GO THERE, FOR ME TO HAVE THE PRIVILEGE OF CALLING THE GAMES BETWEEN THE BENCHES, YOU DON’T EVEN GO THERE. HAVING BEEN THROUGH THE NHL PLAYOFFS BEFORE (AS A COACH) AND HAVING BEEN FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO HAVE WON STANLEY CUPS (WITH PITTSBURGH IN THE EARLY ’90S), YOU DON’T EVEN TREAD IN THAT FIELD, YOU JUST LET THEM GO. IF THEY WANT TO TALK TO YOU, THAT’S FINE, BUT YOU NEVER ADDRESS THEM.” – TV ANALYST AND FORMER NHL COACH PIERRE MCGUIRE
Steve Yzerman played the playoffs on one leg. Joe Thornton played an entire series with broken ribs. The stories are endless. It’s often a wonder how some players have the strength to lift the Stanley Cup by the time the playoffs are over.
Brad May of the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Cup with the Anaheim Ducks in 2007 and he played much of the playoffs with a broken hand. He needed shoulder surgery the day after the playoffs one year in Buffalo, but he marveled at the resilience of Ducks defenseman Francois Beachemin, who suffered a broken jaw in Round 1 of the ’07 post-season.
“He got hit with the puck and had surgery in Minnesota the day before Game 4 and actually wanted to play,” May said. “They literally put a plate in his face and he wanted to play the next day. He didn’t, but we won Game 5 and he played. It was unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
*YOU SHALL PLAY HURT & KEEP YOUR CAKEHOLE SHUT.
Coaches and players are hyper-sensitive about injuries during the dog days of the season, but their need to be secret goes into absolute overdrive during the playoffs. And it’s usually not until the conclusion of the playoffs that we hear about how half the roster was playing with the hockey equivalent of the bubonic plague.
“The code is you never tell,” May said.
And with good reason, if you really think about it. The National Football League only discloses its injuries because of gambling, but since people aren’t rushing to their sports books to lay serious money on NHL hockey, there’s absolutely no upside and all downside to being honest and forthright about injuries.
“There’s so much going on behind the play that you can really put people in danger if you discuss the true nature of their injuries,” Wilson said. “And really, who cares? Everybody laughs and I do, too, at ‘upper body’ and ‘lower body’ and you get ridiculed for it, but people have no idea what some players would do if they actually know exactly what’s wrong. If you know somebody has a bad hand, all it takes is an extra slash. If a guy has a bad shoulder, it’s your obligation to play that guy harder because he’s going to protect himself and it’s going to hurt. So you’re going to dump it into his corner more often.”
*YOU SHALL SPROUT SOME OF THE MOST UNGODLY FACIAL HAIR EVER KNOWN TO MANKIND.
Since the New York Islanders began growing beards in the early ’80s and the Montreal Canadiens revived the tradition in 1993, players have sported the grizzled look during the post-season. In fact, playoff beards have become so well documented that a website, playoffbeard.com, is devoted exclusively to them. According to the site, there are five stages of the playoff beard from The Kristofferson to The Chewbacca, while The Friesen is to be avoided at all costs.
(Just so you know, Kris Draper of the Detroit Red Wings was the Chuck Norris winner for 2008, while Scott Niedermayer picked up the award in 2007 and Carolina’s Bret Hedican in 2006.)
Does growing beards actually make a difference? Probably not, but as the playoffs go on, they become a tangible reminder of how far a team has progressed through the post-season.
“It’s just another little something to bring the team together,” said Commodore, who looked more like a mountain man than a hockey player by the end of the playoffs in 2004 and ’06. “You laugh at the guys who look terrible. I don’t think any other sport really does anything like that.”
*YOU SHALL BLOCK SHOTS.
During the Ottawa Senators’ run to the Stanley Cup final in 2007, Jason Spezza’s teammates got to calling him ‘Nessy,’ an obscure reference to the Loch Ness Monster, who is seen more often than Spezza is seen blocking shots. But, there was Spezza in the playoffs, standing in front of some of the hardest shooters in the league.
“I think guys that don’t block shots throughout the season are your skill players and they don’t want to break an ankle or break a foot,” said Buffalo Sabres captain Craig Rivet. “But in the playoffs the biggest difference is it’s ‘now’ hockey. It’s not thinking about a couple of weeks down the line, it’s about winning that game and guys are prepared to do whatever it takes, even if it’s out of their element. If you get hurt, you freeze it up for a couple of hours and forget about it…and then pay for it the next day.”
*YOU SHALL NEVER, EVER TOUCH THE PRINCE OF WALES TROPHY OR CLARENCE CAMPBELL BOWL.
This one is a little difficult to figure out because no matter what happens, one team that wins a conference final is going to win the Cup and the other is going to lose, which makes this strategy a 50-50 proposition at best.
But don’t tell that to the players, who consistently want to distance themselves from those trophies as quickly as possible. Unless, of course, you’re Scott Stevens, who won four Prince of Wales Trophies with the New Jersey Devils, and three times went on to win the Stanley Cup.
Each time the Devils won the Prince of Wales Trophy, Stevens proudly held it high for all to see.
“Why wouldn’t I?” he said when asked why he broke with convention. “It’s a really nice trophy.”
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