DETROIT — On the day he turned 42, Gary Roberts was celebrating a not-so-happy birthday. If the battle between the Sunshine Boys - Roberts versus 46-year-old Chris Chelios — materializes as a storyline in the Stanley Cup finals, it'll have to happen later on in the series.
Neither is scheduled to play in Saturday's opener, between Roberts' Pittsburgh Penguins and Chelios's Detroit Red Wings. Both were absent for the deciding games of their respective conference championship games because of illness in Roberts' case (pneumonia) and injury in Chelios's (leg); neither coach sounded prepared to alter a winning lineup, at least not for the moment.
In a playoff series that features all those sparkling new, up-and-comers from Pittsburgh facing off against Detroit's older, more experienced guard, Roberts represents a bit of an anomaly on his own squad — a 42-year-old playing on a team with an average age of 27.9 (compared to Detroit at 32.3). The Penguins' 19-year-old Jordan Staal is the first teenager to play in the Stanley Cup final since the Philadelphia Flyers' Dainius Zubrus in 1997. Roberts has an 18-year-old daughter, also named Jordan, who is just a year younger than the team's second-year centre.
"My teammates remind me on a regular basis how old I am," said Roberts, with a laugh. "Today, when they asked, I said, '24.' I just reversed the numbers."
In Roberts' case, age is primarily a state of mind. He was 23, in his third full season, when the Calgary Flames won the 1989 Stanley Cup over the Montreal Canadiens who were led on defence by, among others, a 27-year-old Chelios. If the Penguins do eventually win the Stanley Cup, Roberts will set a record for most time passed between Cup wins — 19 years. Chelios holds the current record for waiting patiently between championships — 16 years between his '86 triumph with the Canadiens and his '02 win with the Detroit Red Wings.
In '89, as a member of the Flames, Roberts played mostly on a line with Joe Nieuwendyk and Hakan Loob and had a front-row seat for the turning point in that series — Game 6, in Montreal, when Lanny McDonald scored the go-ahead goal in the deciding match. That year, the Flames were trying to win it for McDonald, who retired soon after with the one-and-only Stanley Cup victory of his career. Little did Roberts realize that almost two decades would pass before he'd get his next chance to play in a final.
Roberts was supposed to be on the ice for that shift, but on Friday was remembering how coach Terry Crisp pulled him off after he'd taken a penalty against Shayne Corson.
"Obviously, I wasn't happy at the time, but then Lanny scored the biggest goal of his career, and it was a storybook ending for him, so I didn't mind taking a seat for that."
Now, here he is, essentially playing the part for his team that McDonald did all those years ago.
"The CBC just asked me upstairs, who my favorite player was, and I said, 'Lanny McDonald.' He was 36 and I remember how rough he looked. I'm 42. I don't think I look as rough as Lanny McDonald. He had that huge beard, all the way down his neck.
"It was funny back then because when you hit the 36 mark, they thought you were finished. Lanny could have maybe played a few more years. Loob retired early, Pepper (Jim Peplinski) retired early, a lot of guys who I thought had years left in them, but left the game.
"Nowadays, if you take care of yourself and enjoy the lifestyle, why wouldn't you keep playing?"
It is a question Chelios answers virtually every day. Even though both he and Roberts are epic competitors, Chelios suggested Friday: "It's actually nice to see him in the league — that there are still a couple of us old soldiers around."
It has been an uneven season for Roberts — he missed time early with a similar sort of viral infection; then he broke his fibula in a game just after Christmas against the Buffalo Sabres. A high ankle sprain in his left ankle kept him out until the final days of the regular season — and in the last round, he missed two games with pneumonia.
As happy as Roberts is to play the role of respected elder, he still thinks he has something to give on the ice as well.
"Of course, I'm not happy about not playing Game 1, but I understand, it's been a year of being in and out, with my health issues," said Roberts. "But I'm still not done. I still think I've got some game left in me. Hopefully, if I do get an opportunity in the playoffs, I'll do what Lanny did, and what Tim Hunter and Jim Peplinski did, and still try to be a contributor. I look at Peplinski and Hunter, they were out there in their track suits, accepting the Stanley Cup (in '89). They were still a part of the team and a big part of the leadership of the team. That's what I need to look back on and still enjoy the moment.
"I feel good now. The meds are all working. I'm as healthy as I've been all year. If I get my chance, I won't let my teammates down."
