Five years have passed since Matt Carle glided through the most disappointing handshake line of his hockey career, achingly close to the Stanley Cup, yet mindful that close does not rate. Only winners hoist hardware.
The Chicago Blackhawks celebrated that night after Patrick Kane's overtime strike in Game 6. Carle and his Philadelphia Flyers teammates were left to prop their chins on the butt-ends of their sticks, await the traditional exchange of handshakes and begin processing the disheartening thoughts of what might have been.
Since that somber ending for the home team in Philadelphia, Carle has been like every other guy who glimpsed the Cup within reach but could not quite get his hands around a chalice so coveted it reduces the hardest men to tears.
"You don't know if you're ever going to get there again,'' Carle said.
Now, though, he again stands on the brink of every hockey player's dream: Just four wins separate Carle and his Tampa Bay Lightning teammates from the Cup. So, things are pretty good these days for the veteran NHL defenseman from Anchorage.
"Can't complain,'' he said – typical Carle, he carries himself with an equanimity common among hockey players.
The only way things could have been better was if Nate Thompson, Carle's childhood friend and teammate, and not long ago his pro teammate in Tampa Bay, had been on the other side of the ice these next two weeks. But Thompson and the Anaheim Ducks fell in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals to the Blackhawks. That quashed the prospect of an Alaskan-versus-Alaskan subplot to the Stanley Cup Final and the prospect of the Cup definitely visiting Alaska over the summer – each winning player gets one day with the Cup.
"I played that out time after time in my head,'' Carle said. "The Cup would have been coming up there no matter what.''
Though Carle and his wife, Clancey, make their offseason home in Lake Minnetonka near Minnesota's Twin Cities, he still considers himself an Alaskan, even if his friends back home chirp him about being a summer visitor when he returns home to visit his family.
"I'm always bragging about where I'm from,'' Carle said.
At 30, Carle already has played nine full seasons in the world's best league. He has played 660 regular-season games and 107 playoff games, and among Alaskans his 767 total NHL games trail only the 1,194 combined games of two-time, Cup-winning center Scott Gomez of Anchorage. Carle is halfway through a six-year, $33 million contract.
He won two NCAA championships with the University of Denver, as a freshman and sophomore. He won the Hobey Baker Memorial Award as a junior, then turned pro at the end of that season and scored a goal in his NHL debut with the San Jose Sharks, the team that drafted him.
Carle has forged a strong NHL career with three teams – San Jose, Philadelphia and Tampa Bay -- and financial security. He laughingly wonders how in the world he woke up one day and found himself 30 years old and a veteran.
"It's been a whirlwind, and it's been fun,'' Carle said. "The tell-tale sign for me is I can count on one hand the number of (teammates) who are older than me.''
The only deeply meaningful omission on his rink resume is a Cup. He seeks to add his name to the short list of Alaskans – Gomez (2003 and 2000, New Jersey Devils) and winger Scott Parker of Eagle River (2001, Colorado Avalanche) -- whose names are engraved on it. Carle said Gomez sent him a congratulatory text after the Lightning beat the New York Rangers in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Getting to the Final again has been satisfying for Carle in a season that proved difficult. In January, he underwent surgery for a torn abductor muscle – that's lower abdomen – and missed 23 games. That snapped his streak of 347 consecutive regular-season games played.
"Coughing, sneezing, laughing – for a couple weeks, it's pretty painful,'' he said. "When I was first coming back and skating, I was thinking about it all the time – what I could do, what I maybe couldn't do.
"The first few games, it was a little hairy and nerve-wracking.''
The pain he played with early in his comeback has since subsided. Carle's performance in Tampa Bay's 2-0 win at New York in Game 7 was excellent. He assisted on Alex Killorn's game-winning goal in the third period, made crisp first passes to get the Lightning out of their zone, was stingy in the defensive zone and logged 20 minutes of ice time.
Really, it was the best, sharpest performance Carle has generated in a while. And it came when it mattered most. The game marked the second time Tampa Bay has gone the full seven games these playoffs -- the Lightning beat Detroit in Game 7 in the first round.
"After coming off surgery, it felt good to play a game like that,'' he said.
The Stanley Cup Final opens Wednesday night in Tampa Bay. Carle and company have a terrific test ahead in trying to hold down the potent Blackhawks, who won Cups in 2010 and 2013. Still, Tampa Bay has won tight games in these playoffs and it has won goal-fests.
Should fortune smile his way, Carle said, his day with the Cup would be spent in Alaska.
"Not even a question,'' he said.
For now, though, he's back to work, mindful there is no telling if this is his last shot at a Cup, and also that winners write history.
"Hopefully,'' he said, "we'll be talking again in a couple weeks.''
This column is the opinion of reporter Doyle Woody. Reach him at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com, check out his blog at adn.com/hockey-blog and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr