January 16, 2009

Part of the beauty of this game deals with the greatness of the people in it. It's about team achievements, and about delivering 100 cents on the dollar whether your name is Alex Ovechkin or Jordin Tootoo. It's about individual accomplishments in the face of adversity.

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Nashville left-winger Steve Sullivan didn't score a goal last night in this 3-2 Canadiens squeaker over the Predators. He didn't earn an assist. He logged 18:19 minutes of ice time - behind only David Legwand's 20:43 and Martin Erat (18:27) among the forwards. He had three of his team's 25 shots. Only two other Nashville players had that many. He was also a minus-2.

However, what makes Sullivan worthy of our full admiration is that he played - and because he did, he represents everything that is good about hockey.

We're talking about someone who, on Feb. 22, 2007, late in a game against the Canadiens, had to be helped off the ice because of excrutiating pain in his back. His back spasms were to return again and again. Last night, after missing 142 regular-season games, Sullivan was playing in his third NHL game.

You couldn't miss his number and name in the statistics sheet distributed before the game: 26-L Steve Sullivan (A) 2 0-1-1. They jumped out at you.

The 26 was his number. The 'A' noted that he was one of the two assistant captains. The '2' represented the number of games he's played since that night almost two years ago, and the '0-1-1' told you that he came into this game with one assist. That's when he assisted Radek Bonk on a winning power-play goal in a 2-0 win in Toronto on Tuesday.

I can't crawl into his mind, so I have no way of knowing whether playing against the Canadiens last night brought back memories of the game almost two years ago, one in which he endured a world of pain and that kept him out of the game for 687 days.

So much pain. So many disappointments. So long a time for rehabilitation and exercise. So many setbacks.

"Did I hit rock bottom? I'm sure I did," Sullivan told the Globe & Mail several days ago, "but not to the point where I said I'll never play again," he said. "That never crossed my mind. I couldn't see myself doing anything else. I didn't want to do anything else."

Sullivan has told media people he doesn't know how many games he'll play.

Nobody does. Nobody expected him to miss 142 regular-season games when he was helped off the ice the last time he played against the Canadiens.

What all of us do know is that his return to the game is probably the best feel-good story of the season. It tells you what he's made of as a person and as a player. You watch a Steve Sullivan returning and playing hard after going through so much pain, and some of it has to rub off not only on his colleagues, but on hockey players everywhere. Players in any sport.

"He's just so smart," Nashville head coach Barry Trotz said. "Two years of watching, he's even gotten smarter, just seeing the game from up top. He's one of those remarkable ... remarkable players and as we go along here, he's getting better and better."

Last night, the Predators showed some of the stuff Sullivan is made of. There was no quit in them, despite falling behind 1-0 on Guillaume Latendresse's goal in the first period, trailing 2-1 after two and 3-1 early in the third. Grit. Lots of it.

They outshot the Canadiens 25-20, which is good if you happen to be a Predator. Trouble is, they went into this game without Jason Arnott, their leading goal-scorer and without defenceman Shea Weber, whose 13 goals and 18 assists place him among the NHL's elite. Lose both, and there are huge holes to fill.

What the Predators also showed was a willingness to mix it up, because roughly six minutes into this one, at a time when the Canadiens had outshot the Preds 5-1, Steve Bégin and Jordin Tootoo decided to dance. Don't ask me why, because this game produced a total of only seven penalties.

Tootoo, at 5-feet-9, never has been reluctant to challenge people three inches taller than he is. Anyway, after taking 15 seconds to adopt the position, this one was over after Bégin had been knocked down twice, mostly because Jordin was too, too quick with his fists. Win a few, lose a few, eh?

Go to the head of the class if you're among those who didn't feel the Canadiens brought their best game to the Bell.

Stuff happens.

Nobody's perfect.