When it comes to playoff time, one of the things you can bank on becoming a feature are scrums. Get too close to the goalie? You get a glove in the face and rude words yelled at you. Stand too close to a guy? A couple mitts in the chest. Dare to stop short of the crease? Well, you’ve got yourself a problem now, pal.
It’s a fact of life in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and it’s going to happen no matter what. Every game means something and finding a way to send a message or to carve out an edge is on the table, especially for the tougher guys out there. You can’t try to take liberties without having to answer to someone just as big and strong and intimidating as you might be.
Even though the rough stuff can seem misplaced at times, it’s all done with a purpose. Even though Game 1 between the Buffalo Sabres and Boston Bruins was peaceable on the shenanigans scale for the playoffs, Game 2 stepped things up in a big way. When you’ve got guys like Tanner Jeannot out there for Boston and Logan Stanley for Buffalo, it’s like having a nuclear deterrent on each side, but there’s even more to be done about not fighting as there is about dropping the gloves and duking it out.
“I’ve always been a guy that’s there to protect my teammates and help my teammates,” Stanley said. “They’ve got some big, heavy bodies over there. The thing in the playoffs is nobody wants to take a penalty, so there’s going to be scrums, there’s going to be stuff after the whistle, but everyone’s also a little bit careful because you don’t want to be the only guy pulled from a pile.”
It’s kind of like a staring contest except you’re not trying to make the other guy blink so much as you’re trying to not be the guy caught taking things far enough to be sent off. Most guys will respond if their opponent starts something, but there’s even the old adage of how it’s not the guy who throws the first shot who gets penalized, but the guy who retaliates instead. Finding the way to toe the line when you’re getting an earful of angry words and a face full of stank gloves or fists is a lot harder to do.
“Scrums usually happen from emotion in the game, and you just have to be smart not to do something to put your team at a disadvantage,” Jeannot said. “It comes from just the camaraderie in your team and you don’t want anyone being taken advantage of… You’ve just got to do it in a smart way.”
Finding the intelligent path to rabblerousing sounds counterintuitive, but there’s a way to make it happen even if it’s not an art, per se. Think of the best rats in the game and how they’re able to goad an opponent into losing their cool and walking away from it without getting penalized themselves. Brad Marchand is notorious for it and Rasmus Dahlin has his moments as well. When things get a bit more physical, however, that’s when the volatility takes off.
Looking at what went down in Game 2 when scrums erupted and then guys started pairing off away from it and officials did their damnedest to wrangle everyone and cool things down. It can get out of hand fast, particularly if one team is well down in the game. Those moments are a true test of will.
“I think a lot of it has to do with the momentum of the game and the things that are happening between the whistles, too,” Jeannot said. “You want to play in between the whistles as best you can and whatever happens after is a result of what goes on between them. Hopefully you’re swinging that in your favor between the whistles and just go with it and be smart after them.”
Where Game 2 was mostly in control by the Bruins, especially after they had a 4-0 lead, Game 1 provided the kind of situation where a scrum could flip the game around. After the Bruins’ 2-0 lead evaporated in minutes in the third period and changed to a Sabres lead, the Bruins stirring things up to get their own emotions recharged and back into the game made sense.
“I think everyone’s different, it depends on who’s in there,” Stanley said. “There’s different points in the game where you might want to get it going a little more. There was one in the third period (of Game 1) where we had the momentum and one started and maybe you want to cool that one off. Every scrum is different.“
Had the Sabres chosen to throw down and mix it up, letting the emotions get away from them could’ve ended disastrously given they had the Bruins reeling. If you have a team down, keep them down. Throwing them a rope by mixing it up too much could change the game.
As hot as the tempers can run in the playoffs, having the cooler heads can be the difference between winning and losing the game or a series. But when adrenaline is running wild, competitive juices are overflowing and a flashpoint is waiting to erupt… that’s when it’s time to put up or shut up. Sometimes, shutting up is the best way to earn victory.
“It’s just about who can manage their emotions the best,” Jeannot said. “Maybe if you notice certain things on the ice, like maybe if you pick on certain guys a bit more. I don’t know, that’s hockey. It happens all the time. Guys just have to keep emotions in check best you can and obviously they run high out there. I don’t know if there’s a right or wrong answer to it, you go based on feel.”