“I want to cry right now,” 40-year-old Jaromir Jagr told Philadelphia beat reporter Frank Seravalli after his Flyers were eliminated in the second round by the New Jersey Devils. “This was the most enjoyable year I’ve ever had. It’s a sad day for me.”
The emotions of Jagr, who turned 40 in February and is expected to return to the NHL for a 19th season come fall, can only be understood by an elite few — those players skilled enough that the game still wants them in their athletic dotage, and those devoted enough that they still need the game, despite their families and accolades and financial security.
The refusal to quit and release the game over completely to the next ones, the love-of-the-moment perspective that is virtually impossible for a twentysomething Cup winner to possess, the acceptance of a modified role, or the bitter fight against a body that won’t do what it used to. The groin pulls, the growing number names ahead of you on the statistical leader board, the frequent reminders that your days in the NHL are just as numbered as jerseys: anything higher than double digits starts to look ridiculous.
It’s what makes Daniel Alfredsson (age 39) stomp a water bottle in frustration as the Ottawa Senators let what could well be their captain’s last shot at a Cup slip away. Or Ray Whitney (40) score a dramatic overtime winner against a Vezina candidate 11 years his junior. Or three-ringed highlight circus Martin Brodeur (40) make a diving Replay of the Day save in mid-May when he could be relaxing at home with his feet up, waiting for the Hockey Hall of Fame to call.
Last June the Boston Bruins’ Mark Recchi, then 43, became the oldest player ever to score in the Stanley Cup final. Credit stretching, diet, stubbornness or expansion, but seven of the 10 oldest players to score in the NHL playoffs have done so within the last decade. (The other three occurrences? Gordie Howe, twice, at ages 51 and 41, and Tim Horton at 41.)
When it comes to playoff performers in recent postseasons, the oldies are goodies.
As the work and heart of Jagr — along with a couple of playoff performers simultaneously enjoying 2012’s third playoff round and their fifth decade — might attest, 40 is the new 30.
Ray Whitney is 40 years young.
Though much is made of captain Shane Doan’s 16-year tenure with the franchise and his about-due status for a Stanley Cup final, Whitney is easily the most senior player pulling on a Phoenix Coyotes sweater in these playoffs.
Asked at a Western final press conference to comment on the value of sharing a locker room with another guy who’s been around the NHL for a long time, Doan didn’t miss a chance to remind everyone of the five years Whitney has on him.
“He’s a lot older,” Doan, 35, said. The room laughed. “Ray offensively has been our best player probably throughout the whole year. He’s been unbelievable in the playoffs, getting huge goals, just keeping it kind of like a businesslike approach. We all make sure we follow along.”
Whitney, who first stepped on the NHL ice as a San Jose Shark in 1991-92*, is one of less than a handful of Coyotes to see action past the second round of the playoffs prior to this May’s showdown versus the Los Angeles Kings. He has a ring from 2006, when he helped the Carolina Hurricanes hoist the Stanley Cup during his first year with the club.
If it’s possible for a multimillionaire all-star to play 17 years in the NHL, win a Cup and help Canada capture a world championship all under the radar, Whitney has done just that. Besides one season in Detroit (2003-04) and nine games for Edmonton in 1997, Whitney’s pro career can be traced from non-traditional hockey market to non-traditional hockey market, putting up consistently solid numbers for San Jose, Florida, Columbus, Carolina, and now Phoenix.
Until this season, the Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, winger’s numbers were on a four-year slide. Age, the easy theory stated, was slowly catching up to a guy who served as a stick boy for the Wayne Gretzky-era Edmonton Oilers** in another lifetime. No wonder he remained undrafted in many 2011-12 fantasy pools.
Call it anomaly, a renaissance, or a last gasp. Whitney stopped acting his age. His Coyotes-leading 77 points this season were 15 more than runner-up Radim Vrbata posted and 27 more than Doan’s 50. In addition to becoming the NHL’s 12th-highest scorer and reaching the juicy 1,000-career-points milestone, Whitney was the complete package. He played a healthy 82 games, finished in the top 10 in plus/minus (+26), and only spent 28 minutes in the penalty box.
Now racing towards twin finishing lines — the end of his two-year, $6 million deal; and a shot at a second ring — Whitney, a father of two girls and a boy, is celebrating his best individual performance and longest Cup run since he worked in Carolina.
He has six points for the Coyotes in these playoffs, his biggest one being the overtime winner in Game 1 of the team’s series versus Nashville on April 27, 11 days before he turned the big four-oh.
“I never put much thought into turning 40, but now that it’s here . . . I wonder 10 years ago if I’d have thought I’d still be playing today. I’d probably say, ‘no,’ ” Whitney, told the National Post. “I wasn’t supposed to be playing in the league this long. For me to be in the top 80 in the history of the game (NHL career points), I’m very proud of it.”
Martin Brodeur is 40 years young.
The goaltender’s 40th birthday was spent much like 761 of his other days: winning an NHL game for the New Jersey Devils. This one was a biggie, though.
Brodeur’s Game 4 victory against the Flyers on May 6 gave New Jersey a stranglehold on their conference semifinal series; Brodeur, of course, would help finish off the Flyers in Game 5 and set the stage for a Hudson River conference final.
The Rangers-Devils series is a rematch that harkens back to 1994, but only Brodeur is old enough to have been involved in that one, to remember losing to the eventual champion Rangers as a rookie.
“It hurt, no doubt about that. I never hide it that it didn’t affect me. I think I was the first one to say that was probably one of the toughest losses I ever had. But if I didn’t have that loss, maybe I wouldn’t have become who I became or even our organization. It’s not just myself. And I think sometimes you need to hit the hurdles before you’re able to go over them pretty easily. And I think that was one of them in ’94,” Brodeur told the hockey press this week. “I guess it’s kind of amazing when you look at the amount of years in between the two series.”
Amazing is looking at Brodeur now — with his three Cup rings, two Olympic gold medals, and 20-some-odd NHL records — still playing at an elite level. But the greatness of Brodeur, who still comes up with rewind-worthy saves and whose confident puck-handling is second to none, has been so constant that it’s almost taken for granted. Especially when he’s playing opposite Hart Trophy candidate and virtual Vezina lock Henrik Lundqvist of the Rangers.
On Tuesday, a TV graphic showcased the accomplishments of the great goaltenders who reached the NHL’s final four. There was Lundqvist, 30, with his .940 save percentage; the Kings’ Jonathan Quick with his 9-1 record; and the Coyotes’ Mike Smith with his 1.87 goal-against average; and… that was it. No mention of the fourth surviving starting goaltender still kicking around.
Statistically, the man with the longest CV trails the other three in virtually every goaltending category (although the pass-happy Brodeur’s three playoff assists have him working on yet another record), but his clutch stops, steadfast leadership and squashing of the opposition’s forecheck are tricky to quantify.
“Marty has been great for us. Especially at crucial moments, in the first round and the whole series against Flyers, the chances they got, had to make some big saves, and he did. And I think he’s excited to be in this position,” Devils veteran Patrik Elias said.
“I don’t think you can have enough of the people that have been through it before, and been there, seen that. It’s a great resource that we have as an organization here,” Devils head coach Peter DeBoer said before the Rangers series began. “It’s just the composure, the words of wisdom, staying positive at key times, the between-period conversations that go on in our dressing room. Both after good stretches to make sure we’re grounded and also after poor stretches to make sure that we get our game back on track.
“It’s not necessarily a board and a marker and you should go here, should go there; it’s much more the mental state of our team and managing that, and they do a great job of that.”
The other thing 40-year-olds do a great job of? Seeing the whole ice.
“I think they have to just enjoy the moment. This is a great time in everybody’s lives. And we need to really take it all in. You never know when you’re going to get back in the situation that you’re going to play for a chance to go to the Stanley Cup finals,” Brodeur said of his younger teammates, which is all of them. “I mean, does it matter what I did in the past? Whatever I’m going to do in the next two weeks is what people will talk about. So that’s just the nature of being still active in the NHL.
“And if I wasn’t ready for it, I wouldn’t be here. So I’m happy to be here. I’m happy to have the opportunity to try to move on to the Stanley Cup final.”
*Fun fact No. 1: Ray Whitney, the second player ever drafted by the San Jose Sharks, is the only player still active from the inaugural Sharks team.
**Fun fact No. 2: Ryan Smyth, a puppy at 36, served as an Oilers stick boy alongside Whitney.