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The Captain does what
many hockey players
do this time of the year.
He sits at home and relaxes.
He enjoys being with family
after months of living out of a
suitcase.
He exercises in the morning.
He occasionally plays a
game of squash with a group
of good buddies.
Meanwhile, about 1,700
miles southwest of the Captain’s home in St. John’s, Newfoundland, the Wilkes-Barre/
Scranton Penguins do what
only the luckiest of hockey
players do this time of year.
They crawl out of bed early
for morning practice. They
lace their skates
tight and throw
on sweaters
over bulky pads
in search of an
American
Hockey League
championship.
They try
mightily not to
think about what things would
be like if the Captain was with
them and not on the squash
court.
John Slaney — the Captain
turned playoff rival — tries to
do the same.
“I do miss it, because I
would like to be there,” Slaney
said. “It’s every kid’s dream to
win the cup, whether it’s the
Stanley Cup or the Calder Cup.
“I try to keep an eye on
what the guys are doing. I
mean, they are my old team.”
With respect to the Penguins’ Calder Cup finals opponents, the real Saint John
is in
Newfoundland.
And he is the one missing
piece, the one ever so slight
cause for emptiness, in what
has been an unbelievable
change of course for a team
that went from darn-near
worst in their first season to
darn-near first in their second.
In a world with an ounce of
justice, Slaney would have
been part of it — all the way
through.
Just remember Jan. 14 — a
day when, for as long as it took
to sign some papers and en
gage in a hearty handshake, a
seemingly perfect game became a cold, fickle business.
The Captain, the Penguins’
heart and soul, gets traded
that Sunday to the Philadel
phia Flyers for an aging left
winger named Kevin Stevens.
Slaney reports to the Flyers’ AHL affiliate — the hated
Philadelphia Phantoms.
In an instant, the Wilkes-
Barre/Scranton Penguins’
heartbeat lost its rhythm, and
its soul was sold to the devil.
“I was shocked, more than
anything else,” Slaney said
from St. John’s before his for
mer team battled the Saint
John Flames in Game 4. “Just
going through what I went
through in the first half and
last season, it was definitely a
surprise move. But I had a job
to do.
“I had to live with it.”
So did the Penguins.
How important was the
Captain to them? With him
this season, the Penguins went
22-13-5-0 and jumped into first
place in the AHL Mid-Atlantic
Division. Without him, they
skidded to a 14-20-4-2 second
half and fell to second place.
The Captain played just
half a season — 40 games — in
a Penguins uniform. Still, only
four Pens scored more points
than his 50.
Much like last year — the
Pens’ horrific freshman campaign — when Slaney led the
team with 60 points. Amazingly, the Captain played 27
less games than his nearest
challenger to the points
crown.
That’s 110 points in 89
games, for those of you counting.
In all, he finished this sea
son just six points, 73 to 67, behind Kentucky’s Steve Bancroft in the race to be the
AHL’s top-scoring defense
man.
The Captain played in 15
less games.
The Pens didn’t just lose the
winner of the Eddie Shore
Award, given annually to the
AHL’s most outstanding defenseman. They lost a leader
who valued the adoration and
respect of the fans as much as
he did the captain’s “C” on his
old No. 26 jersey.
The Pens also lost the
player who instilled in them a
sense that sometime, someday,
everything would be all right
— even during the first season
that saw just 23 wins in 80
games.
For those fans, Slaney’s
trade was like a magic show
ending in the middle of a trick.
The rabbit had not yet been
pulled out of the hat.
It turns out the Captain’s
former mates still had some
cards up their sleeves. Losing
quite possibly the best player
in the franchise’s brief history
became just one more obstacle
for the determined Penguins
to overcome while making one
of the most remarkable one-season turnarounds in league
history.
As has become their trademark, the Penguins found a
way to win a close game, to
make the playoffs.
To come to grips with the
fact the Captain was the enemy.
Still, the mere notion they
could be playing hockey in
late May while the Captain
played squash once was as ridiculous as a goon wearing
pink skates.
Funny how things work
themselves out. The man
whose goal was to help his
team make the playoffs this
season ends up getting sent
back to Newfoundland with a
duffel bag full of cross-checked
dreams, courtesy of his former
team.
How cruel too it would be to
leave someone who gracefully
persevered through the bad
times to fend for himself during the bountiful ones.
So it is for the Captain, the
Phantom.
“It was hard for me to play
against those guys,” Slaney
said. “And I have a lot of respect for those fans. That’s a
great thing they have going
there. To hear them
cheer...you should get goose
bumps.
“I hope they win it for
them. They deserve it.”
And so did the Captain. DONNIE COLLINS is a staff
writer for the Scranton Times-Tribune. He can be reached at dcollins@timesshamrock.com. |
