Losing the Cup is a powerful motivator

Dan Bylsma and Mike Babcock were on the same side in the 2003 Stanley Cup finals, Bylsma a diligent penalty killer for the then Mighty Ducks and Babcock a rookie NHL coach who unexpectedly led a team that put defense first (and second and third) to a Game 7 against the New Jersey Devils.

Bylsma, now the Pittsburgh Penguins’ coach, has never forgotten being engulfed by the sickening sensation that his team was going to see the Devils hoist the Cup in sweaty glee.

“I can remember vividly. Too vividly,” Bylsma said of the anticipation among the Devils and their fans and his dawning disappointment as the clock ticked down on a 3-0 New Jersey victory. “And the pomp and circumstance afterwards.”

Babcock left the Ducks after the lockout and was hired by the Red Wings, whom he led to the Cup last spring. But he, too, will never forget his first finals and the hollow feeling of having a season slip through his fingers.

“Not winning is absolutely devastating. . . . You don’t know if you’re ever going to get a chance to be here, period,” he said Sunday.

“The opportunities, I think, are so few and far between that you’d like to make good on the ones you get.”

Every player and coach is driven to win. That’s why coaches draw up new power-play strategies or devise different forechecking schemes to shake things up. It’s why players throw themselves in front of shots or take painful hits to make plays in October or June.

Those who have come close to winning the Cup but fell agonizingly short are driven by another powerful force: to not feel that numbness in their guts and hearts again.

They don’t want to have to watch someone else claim the prize they’ve worked for since the first drill of training camp in September, and even if they’ve won the Cup since that first loss, the memory of that disappointment pushes them.

The determination to avoid emotional desolation is what continues to drive Babcock, whose Red Wings can clinch their second successive title with a win Tuesday at Pittsburgh’s Mellon Arena or, if necessary, a seventh game Friday in Detroit.

And it’s a strong motivational force for Detroit forward Kris Draper, too, even though his name has been etched on the Cup four times since his first finals, a loss to New Jersey in 1995.

Draper is one of five current Red Wings with four Cup titles: Kirk Maltby, Nicklas Lidstrom, Tomas Holmstrom and Darren McCarty also triumphed in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008. It’s a tribute to that group’s durability and to the long-term excellence of an organization that replenishes its talent by finding gems among players that other clubs mistake for lumps of coal.

It’s also a credit to that group’s ability to find the motivation to strive for the top again when lesser players might be content to sit home and count their Stanley Cup rings.

Like Babcock, Draper recalls the joy of winning, but also keenly remembers the sting of being swept out of the 1995 finals and losing the 2007 Western Conference finals to the Ducks.

Draper doesn’t want to experience that again. That meant he had to fight his way back into the lineup after an injury and make himself invaluable on faceoffs and the less glamorous facets of the game, and he did it without pause.

“Everything that we do as hockey players, all we want to do is get your name on that Stanley Cup. You know, you can never have it on enough,” Draper said Sunday at Joe Louis Arena after a handful of players reported to the rink on a team-wide day off.

“So when we lost in ’95 to the Devils we didn’t want to experience that kind of bitterness and that bad taste again.”

Draper insisted he’s not counting that fifth Cup yet because the Red Wings know they can lose their way if they allow their minds to wander. His approach is sensible and realistic: home teams have won each game of these Finals and the Penguins were sharp and energetic in winning Games 3 and 4.

Also the Penguins have avoided elimination this spring once before, losing the sixth game of their second-round series to Washington before winning Game 7 on the road. This time, though, they’ll have to reassemble their poise after a 5-0 shellacking on Saturday, and it won’t be easy.

The Red Wings were immensely boosted by the return of center Pavel Datsyuk, who set up two goals after missing seven games because of a foot injury. Datsyuk said Sunday he’s “feeling good and more confidence,” which can’t be good news for the Penguins.

Bylsma professed a strong belief in his players, as he had to and should. He gave them a day off Sunday and will ratchet the intensity back up today.

“There won’t be a big change,” he said. “I think change is a sign of an alarm bell, and you set up the way you do things so that in situations like this we can act like we normally act and we can do the things that we normally do.”

Hating to lose must become as much a part of their normal routine as wanting to win. It already is for the Red Wings.

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helene.elliott@latimes.com