By Mary Walsh
The Sharks go in to the Olympic break in a good position. They are among only five teams with 80 or more points. They are just seven points behind the Division, Conference and League leaders, the Anaheim Ducks. They expect Logan Couture and Raffi Torres back after the break. They got bonus performances from their backup goaltender, Alex Stalock, and John McCarthy finally scored a goal in Friday’s game against Columbus. What more could you ask of the team?
More. The team will have to find more when the season resumes. Being in a good position is not all it is cracked up to be. The Sharks faced three very hungry teams last week. The Flyers, the Stars and the Blue Jackets all went into the break scrapping for playoff spots, and they were all close enough to smell the cookies. They all played better than their records would have you expect. The Sharks still beat two of them, one almost resoundingly. Before the Dallas game, Sharks head coach Todd McLellan explained that the Sharks needed to motivate themselves:
Well the first decision we have to make is whether or not we want to work, because we didn’t make that decision against Philly. And I know it’s a different day and a new opponent. But until that decision is made and we decide we all want to compete together for a full 60, it really doesn’t matter what else we have as far as game plan goes.
It is very easy to decide to work if you are hungry. There is no way to synthesize hunger, yet a team that is in a good position needs to find a substitute motivator. Is there such a thing?
That’s a loaded question because every team is hungry. You start the year at the starting gate, all thirty teams are there. Even the teams that fall to the bottom, they’re hungry teams. They want to win, they have a lot of pride. So hunger is one thing. Skill, talent, the ability to play together as a team, those all come into play as well. If it was just about hungry, we’d all be tied for first.
So the big dog stays fat while the little dog stays skinny, not because the big dog is hungry all the time but because he’s the big dog and he gets what he wants. Maybe he is meaner or stronger or smarter or maybe the little dog only has three legs. The end result is the same: the big dog stays big.
In the case of hockey teams, you don’t have that sort of disparity. They are all big, they all want to win, they all have skill. It will be those hungry teams that steal the Sharks’ meals now and then, which will impact the larger battle for Conference dominance. They will probably sneak in when the Sharks aren’t feeling especially grumpy or greedy and snatch away the points.
That is the way it usually goes, the way it went for many teams leading up to the break. It does not have to be so. Occasionally, a team will take off for no obvious reason and go on a massive winning streak, like last season’s Blackhawks. What kept them going? What possible motivator was there that kept them going full steam so early in the race? Was the will to win enough to trump hunger? Was pride enough? Were they even facing very hungry teams so early in the season? Which teams had played enough games to even know they were starving for points?
No one can know what the other team is going to do. Every player and coach says they can only control their own game. So it does come down to that: deciding. Deciding to work, deciding to be prepared and deciding you want to win, not because you are hungry or desperate but because you want to.
It sounds so easy. Easy as pie for someone on a diet.
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