Bittersweet
Making it to finals not enough for Caps' Hunter
Posted: Tuesday June 16, 1998 06:51 PM
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Worth the wait? Hunter played in 1,508 NHL games before participating in the Stanley Cup finals for the first time (AP) |
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Dale Hunter waited
his entire life for this experience. Unfortunately, it hasn't been nearly
as gratifying as expected. Hunter, the 37-year-old captain of
the Washington
Capitals, played in 1,508 NHL games before participating in the Stanley
Cup finals for the first time. Long before he became a
professional, perhaps the very first day he laced up a pair of skates,
Hunter thought dreamily of holding aloft Lord Stanley's Cup.
"It's what I've been trying to do my whole life," he said. Hunter
and the Capitals moved within four victories of winning the coveted Cup
when they defeated the Buffalo Sabres on June 4 to
capture the Eastern Conference title. As they prepared for Game
4 of the best-of-seven finals Tuesday night against the Detroit Red Wings, the
Capitals still needed those four wins. After enduring three straight
one-goal loses, Hunter realized that vying for the Stanley Cup is not
nearly as sweet as winning the Stanley Cup. "Unless you win
the Stanley Cup, who remembers who goes to the finals?" he said. "The
bottom line is you win it or you don't. You need to win the Cup, not just
to make it." Hunter, now in his 18th season, epitomizes the
hockey term "grinder," although many opponents use a much harsher word when
describing the Capitals' feisty center. Virtually everyone who's taken an
elbow in the face from Hunter will say he deserved every one of the 3,446
penalty minutes he's amassed, the second-highest total in NHL history.
"It's been great having him on my side after playing against him
all those years. He's really an annoying guy when he's on the other team,"
Capitals center Adam
Oates said. "He's gotten a little older so he's not as bad as he used
to be, but he's a very smart hockey player. And off the ice, he's a
super-nice guy." No one considered Hunter a nice guy in any
sense of the word in 1993, when he punctuated the Capitals' exit from the
playoffs with a flagrant slash of Pierre Turgeon of
the New York
Islanders. The move got Hunter a 21-game suspension and cemented his
less-than-perfect reputation. Yet Hunter does so much more than
merely pester the opposition. He's a brilliant faceoff artist who has
scored 362 goals. He plays with one thought in mind -- doing whatever it
takes to win. "He's the perfect hockey player," Capitals
general manager George McPhee said. "He loves the game, respects the game,
and competes as hard as anyone I've ever seen." Hunter doesn't
know whether he will return for a 19th season. He can think about that when
he can free his mind of far more important things. "I'll sit
down with George after the season, but I don't want to worry about that
now," he said. "We're in the Stanley Cup finals, know what I mean?"
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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