Hoping for Icebreaker

Tampa Bay Lightning center Dave Andreychuk is looking to make Dale Hunter the answer to a trivia question:

Who has played the most NHL games without winning a Stanley Cup?

Andreychuk holds that distinction at the moment, 1,752.

Sitting right below him, though, is Hunter, who played 1,593 games before calling it a career. Although it is the last thing Andreychuk wants to discuss, all he has to do to erase his name is help the Lightning past the Calgary Flames in the Cup finals, which begin tonight in Tampa, Fla.

“It’s not something we’ve talked about at all,” said Andreychuk, who has played for six teams during his 22-year career. “The only time I have mentioned it is to tell the guys to go out and have fun and realize this situation. This is a chance we have as a team.”

A last chance, possibly. This may well be Andreychuk’s last kick at the Cup but it could be everyone else’s as well, at least for a while.

The Cup finals feature two intriguing opponents, Calgary, carrying Canada’s hopes and national identity, and Tampa Bay, looking to earn more respect for Sunbelt hockey.

Yet, in the background loom the increasing possibility of a lockout and the question of whether small-market teams, such as Calgary and Tampa Bay, can survive. Calgary has the 19th-highest payroll and Tampa Bay the 21st.

“That’s not on the front of our minds right now,” Calgary defenseman Andrew Ference said of the collective bargaining negotiations impasse.

But the thought is lurking. Officials from the league and players’ association will meet again today to discuss the issues, which revolve around the league’s insistence of a salary cap and the union’s fervent opposition to it. No breakthrough is expected.

“Hockey has to have its best back up right now,” Ference said. “We have two teams that have been built by drafting well and making smart trades, not by going out and spending a lot of money on free agents. Whoever comes out of here with the Cup will well-deserve it.”

Andreychuk does in the eyes of many. At 40, this is his first appearance in the Cup finals, although he came close in 1993 with Toronto. The Maple Leafs lost Game 7 to the Kings in the Campbell Conference final.

“It helped that [Wayne] Gretzky said that was the best game he ever played and I was there to see it,” Andreychuk said. “I guess that’s a good thing.”

Andreychuk, as team captain, has played a significant role in pushing the surprising Lightning to the best record in the Eastern Conference.

Those skeptical of hockey in Florida were convinced when Tampa Bay breezed through the first two rounds, then out-gritted Philadelphia to become the third expansion team of the 1990s to reach the finals. The Lightning now tries to be the first of that generation to win the Cup.

Still, Andreychuk fends off questions about whether he needs a Cup to make his career complete.

“My whole career won’t go down the drain if I don’t win one,” Andreychuk said. “It’s obviously what I play for and what has kept me in the league, but it won’t be the end of the world.”

It might be in Canada, if the Flames don’t win the Cup. Calgary is the first Canadian team to reach the finals since Vancouver in 1994 and is trying to become the first one to win the Cup since Montreal in 1993.

“We don’t feel that as a burden,” Ference said. “We feel more that it’s Canada lifting us up.”

The Flames, the sixth-seeded team in the Western Conference, have been converting fans each round. Calgary defeated Vancouver, Detroit and San Jose -- all division champions -- and now gets a crack at the top team from the east.

Motivation will hardly be a problem.

“You dream about this your whole life and now there are 20 guys in your way wanting to take away your dream,” Ference said. “It’s pretty easy to get your hate on.”

It’s pretty easy on the other side as well, for a slightly different reason.

“We all realize what Dave has gone through in his career and he was close a few times,” Lightning forward Martin St. Louis said. “You can’t take it for granted when you get that chance.”

Especially with a dark labor cloud on the horizon.