One of the fixtures of the 2015 Stanley Cup Final has been that fan dressed as an astronaut at Tampa Bay’s home games.
That man with the space suit is an advertising mascot for Malektronic Electrical, a team sponsor. He’s known as the Malektronic Rocket Man, he’s a bit of a social media star and he’s now receiving requests to attend other major events in the Bay area.
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Anyhow, he got me thinking about the critical phase of this Cup Final, and of lessons learned reading Chris Hadfield’s “An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth.” When the Tampa Bay Lightning won in 2004, we still had hockey players on our $5 bill. In fact, when the Hawks won in 2010 and 2013 the hockey figures still graced our fin.
But in the fall of 2013, the Royal Canadian Mint issued a new $5 with the image of an Astronaut working the Canadarm in outer space. Is this a lucky sign for Tampa? Well, let’s offset that with the fact that Abraham Lincoln is on the United States $5 bill and he worked his way up the political ladder in Illinois.
The only difference between Tampa’s win in 2004 and the Hawks recent wins is that with the salary cap teams must now make their dollars go further in order to field a roster deep enough to withstand injuries. It has not suddenly created a more level playing field. The 2004 final was Tampa/Calgary. In 2003 it was Anaheim/New Jersey. Other small markets made finals in 2002 (Carolina) and 1999 (Buffalo). It’s simply made it difficult to build the perfect machine.
When the first American in Space, Alan Shepard, was asked, “What were you thinking just prior to launch?”
He replied: “I was thinking that every part of this ship was built by the lowest bidder.”
I must admit… it makes it exciting. Suddenly Tampa’s Ben Bishop goes down and the affordable alternative steps in. It worked for Shepard.
Now, Chris Hadfield and the connection to this series. Commander Hadfield’s first journey to space occurred in 1995. The trip took eight minutes and 42 seconds, give or take a few thousand days of training. By the time Chris commanded Expedition 35 in 2012, he had flown, in one form or another, 3.4 million miles. He was also asked about his thoughts and feelings in the moments just before Expedition 35 lifted off.
Chris played music, including Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind,”, the song that always set him straight. Chris said that in the days before launch there is a serenity owing to the fact nothing has been left to the last minute. In the hour prior to blast off, the mind is hyper-focused and thoughts glide from portentous, the sense something bad is about to happen, toward the practical, and you go over details of your preparation.
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Chris prepares for everything in life. Once, when he found out he would get to meet Elton John before a concert at his air show in Windsor, Ontario, Hadfield learned how to perform Rocket Man, just in case Elton called him on stage later in the evening. It didn’t happen, but he was ready.
There’s been much talk about Chicago’s experience in this series. Hadfield believes that early success is a terrible teacher. You are in essence rewarded for a lack of preparation and then when you find yourself in a situation where you must prepare, you cannot. You don’t know how. Tampa is young, but they are not undertrained.
Jon Cooper has worked his way up, winning all the way, and that Calder Cup victory in Norfolk featured two-thirds of the triplets: Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat (Richard Panik was the third in Norfolk on a line dubbed The Top Guns). Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman went to the Final Four in 2011 and the ex-New York Rangers have all been to school. Both teams have the training to win. Both have intriguing reconnaissance. Scotty Bowman watches nearly every Tampa game. Steve Yzerman managed Team Canada at the Olympics with Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp and Duncan Keith. There’s not many secrets.
Two elements will decide the series:
1.) Discipline. Craig Simpson’s Edmonton Oilers got to Game 7 in Raleigh in 2006. Down 1-0, the Oilers began the second period short-handed. They killed the penalty, but then about a minute later Jaroslav Spacek took a penalty, the weary Oilers’ penalty-killing failed and Frantisek Kaberle fired the dagger.
The Hurricanes took over the game. The same thing got Chicago in Game 2. Back-to-back penalties in the third period were their undoing.
2.) Attitude. In Space the word refers to direction and orientation. In sports, as in space, you need the right attitude. As Chris says, “If you start thinking that only the biggest and shiniest moments count, you are setting yourself up to fail most of the time.”
Dec 29, 2012. Shortly after lift-off from Tranquility Base, Kazakhstan, Hadfield played another song for his crew. The lyrics go: “It’s been a long, cold, lonely winter, I feel the ice is slowly melting. It seems like years since it’s been here. Here comes the sun.”
Enjoy.
