TAMPA, Fla. – Brad Richards forgot what it tasted like.
To be here, playing smart hockey on a talent-loaded club four games from glory. To be here in Tampa Bay where, if cab drivers and cars flags are any indication, hockey is closing the gap on hotbed status.
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Perhaps the flavour was smacked out of the veteran’s mouth two springs ago when he was with the New York Rangers, by the same coach with whom he shared champagne sips in 2004, way back when both were members of the Lightning.
The 2013 Eastern Conference playoffs.
John Tortorella was coaching Richards again, nine years after they brought this Florida city its first and only Stanley Cup championship, but this time he decided not to lean on the play-making centre as he had in 2004, when Richards pinballed 26 points in 23 games and was named the playoffs’ most valuable player.
“This is a Conn Smythe winner, a guy I’ve grown up with, a guy that I love as a person and as a player, but I have to make that decision,” Tortorella said upon scratching a healthy $60-million man from an elimination game against Boston.
The Rangers would lose out early, fire Tortorella that summer, and hang on to Richards for one more season—he played second-line minutes in the Blueshirts run to the Cup Final last June, before they bought out the final six years of a mammoth contract he failed to live up to.
The self-doubt had creeped in. How could it not?
“That kinda humbled me,” Richards told reporters Tuesday in Tampa on the eve of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. “The scratch and all that.”
At a $6.6-million cap hit in a budget sport, an offence-generating player in his mid-30s, with declining offence generation is expendable.
But as a free agent? Enter Stan Bowman.
On July 1 last summer, the Chicago Blackhawks GM essentially rented a full season of Richards, at a reasonable $2-million price tag, to use him these past two months.
Bowman’s club had not only lost the 2014 Western Conference Final to the eventual champion L.A. Kings, but they also lost reliable centre Michal Handzus to age.
Richards was the ideal replacement: experienced, professional, and hungry again.
“His desire was to play on a strong team, have a chance to get back to the Final. He ended the year in a tough way. Losing in the Final is difficult,” Bowman told reporters Tuesday.
“The discussions really were centered around what we were looking for and how that role was going to fit with him…. I think it didn’t take too long to convince him that this is an appealing option.”
After the scratch, Richards says he rededicated himself to nutrition and proper preparation. He began training in New York alongside his old Lightning Cup ring buddy Martin St. Louis under strength and conditioning wizard Ben Prentiss. He knew the game’s speed could zip by him unchecked. The near-miss with the ’14 Rangers reminded him of 2004.
“I gotta get back there,” he says he thought after the Kings hoisted the Cup. “I forgot how special it was.”
Accepting Bowman’s deal instead of trying to stir up a bidding war was a no-brainer; the contract came together quickly, both sides attest.
“When the Blackhawks are calling, you pick up pretty quick,” Richards says. “I’ve never played on a team with so much individual awards, whether it’s gold medals or Stanley Cups. There’s a lot of hardware in there.
“It’s a tough locker room to go into because they’ve done so much winning. You try to find your role. They have so many offensive guys, it’s not like the other teams I’ve played on where you get a lot of minutes on the power-play. It’s more spread out here.”
Richards’ 2004 hardware came not with a powerhouse entering its third Final in six seasons, but via an unproven yet talented bunch wowing a nontraditional hockey market.
The ’04 Bolts, Dave Andreychuk remembers, wore T-shirts with the phrase “Why Not Us? Why Not Now?”
They had to slogan themselves into believing.
This week Andreychuk is trying to get the old band back together, scrounging up tickets to give to he and Richards’ old teammates—most of them now retired—for Game 1 at Amalie Arena Wednesday.
“[Richards] is excited to be here, knowing his last Cup was in this building,” said Andreychuk. “He’s a guy who’s living proof that it’s hard to get back to this point again. He’s going to have to seize that opportunity.”
Richards has no use for one of his former captain’s freebie tickets, though he fondly recalls watching the team’s 10-year reunion last season in a hotel room with St. Louis.
“I grew up here from pretty much 20 to 30-years-old. It’s great to see the Lightning where we had it in ’04,” said Richards, now 35. “No matter what happens this week, you can never take anything away from my 2004 team. I’ll never try to compare runs.
“It really made hockey something in this city.”
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When not paired with Jonathan Toews, Chicago sniper Patrick Kane has dazzled on Richards’ right flank. In fact, not until Richards was paired with Kane in November did the veteran find his groove in Chicago.
“He wants to do well. I don’t think it’s ever easy coming into a new situation, trying to get comfortable, get used to the teammates and the coaches, figuring out how you’re going to be part of the team,” said Kane. “But I think he’s been a big part of our team, especially here in the playoffs. He feels as fresh as ever.”
Richards now plays six fewer minutes per game than he did in his Conn Smythe year. The once star is now a key support player. The role has changed; the taste is familiar.
“I knew I wasn’t signing for October or February. I knew this team had a chance, and I was just trying to build my game to gain trust of Coach Q,” said Richards, flashing a rare smile.
“It’s the best time of year. Here we go again.”