Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper was asked recently about adversity as it related to Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman, prompting a mini dissertation on the notions of beating the odds, perseverance and hyperbole.
Cooper suggests that "adversity" and terms like it are bandied about too readily, and that perhaps they should be reserved for players who truly do face adversity and prevail. There's only one person who is the first to arrive at the rink and the last to leave, there's only so many people who are "unbelievable," Cooper said.
"We need to find new words," the coach said.
And -- here's the important part for this story -- we need to save such terms for players like Stralman.
"For Strals, he just kept plugging away," Cooper said. "And every time somebody shut a door on him and he thought this was the end, he just kept plugging away, and that's why you're really cheering for, guys like Strals, because he couldn't be a nicer guy."
Sitting in the lobby of a downtown Nashville hotel some hours earlier, Stralman talked enthusiastically about the success he and fellow countryman Victor Hedman have enjoyed since they were paired on the Tampa Bay blue line shortly after Stralman signed with the Bolts in the summer of 2014.
Stralman talked about the possibilities of playing with Hedman at next fall's World Cup of Hockey in Toronto for Sweden. He talked about the evolution of Hedman as a rare talent, and was humbled at the idea that he and Hedman might be one of the best, if not the very best, defense pairings in the league.
And Stralman talked candidly about the moments when it appeared none of this would happen.
He talked about the defining moment of his arrival in New York in the fall of 2011. He'd just signed a one-year deal with the Rangers, having been at New Jersey Devils training camp on a tryout but failing to crack the Devils' lineup.
On the cab ride into New York from the airport, Stralman felt ill and feverish, a sign that the bronchial issues that had plagued him for years were returning.
Stralman never travels without his thermometer, so he checked his temperature and saw he was running a fever of 103.5. He immediately called his wife back in Sweden and told her that he was turning around and coming right back to Sweden, that his career as an NHLer was over.
"I thought, 'This is it, I'm done,'" Stralman recalled. "I called my wife and I told her, 'I'm quitting right now.'"
The day Stralman -- a native of the furniture manufacturing center of Tibro, Sweden -- was drafted in June 2005, he was vaguely aware of what was transpiring back in North America. He didn't have internet at his summer home, so he drove to an internet café and watched the first round. He knew he was projected somewhere between the second and fourth rounds, but stopped paying attention before the second day began (this was back in the day when the draft was split equally between Saturday and Sunday of draft weekend).
Late the next day, he got a text from his brother offering congratulations.
"Congratulations? For what?" Stralman asked.
For being drafted.
Stralman guessed, correctly, that the Toronto Maple Leafs had selected him (216th overall). As it turned out, getting drafted wasn't the biggest hurdle Stralman would face. Not even close. As Stralman began his NHL journey, he was also in the midst of a personal and medical journey that would take him to the brink of giving up.
In 2007-08, having signed a three-year deal with the Leafs, Stralman split time between the NHL and Toronto's AHL affiliate, the Marlies. The same thing happened the following season, when his effectiveness was hampered by bronchial issues he could never seem to get clear of.
He'd suffered from asthma and found he was prone to illness and fever, which affected his consistency, stamina and level of play. "We weren't able to figure it out," he said.
His lungs would get congested, but he would not be able to clear the mucus from his system and that would often lead to infection. Doctors struggled to figure out the cause of the problem and the best manner in which to treat the condition. Antibiotics, Prednisone and other medications were prescribed. Some doctors thought it was a sinus-related issue.
"We were just throwing Band-Aids at it," Stralman said.
In the summer of 2009, Stralman was traded twice, once to the Calgary Flames and then later in the offseason to the Columbus Blue Jackets. For two seasons, it looked like he might find an NHL home with the Blue Jackets, but still the illnesses and infections and fevers dogged him. Stralman recalls a doctor in Columbus telling him to "imagine how good you'll be when you get this all straightened out."
It was of little comfort for Stralman and his growing family. A free agent in the summer of 2010, Stralman found no takers for his services and ended up in New Jersey on a tryout, but couldn't stick with the Devils.
"Nobody wanted me," Stralman recalled.
Discouraged, Stralman went home to Sweden to be with his wife and children (he is now the father of four, ranging in age from 3 to 8) and try and figure things out. Then about a month into the season, the New York Rangers called and offered Stralman a one-year deal. When the plane landed and he immediately fell ill, Stralman admits he was close to a mental breakdown, believing that he would never get better.
"My mindset was, 'What if this is my last chance to get into the league?'" he said. "At one point I'd given up hope."
But his wife, Johanna, his high school sweetheart -- "She is the one who is always holding me up," he says with a smile -- implored him to give it one more try, to attempt to get through the season with the Rangers and see what happened after that.
Doctors in New York initially thought Stralman had cystic fibrosis, but ultimately diagnosed him with a bronchial blockage that was the result of scar tissue in the lungs, which led to his ongoing battle with infection. In the end, they prescribed a treatment similar to that prescribed for patients with cystic fibrosis.
It worked. In the four years since, while employing a regular dosage of asthma medications and antibiotics, Stralman has been sick just once.
"It was by far the single most important day in my life so far," he said of the breakthrough.
Stralman played three seasons for the Rangers, establishing himself as a key member of a blue line corps that would help the team to the Eastern Conference finals in 2012 and the Stanley Cup finals in 2014. He played in 55 playoff games for the Blueshirts. It gave him a new lease on life not just as a player, but as a person.
"Just to feel comfortable in my own body," he said.
Free of his medical burdens and the uncertainty they'd brought to his everyday life, Stralman was able to become the kind of player that he'd always believed he was could be.
"I always believed in myself," he said. "Coming into this league, I thought I knew what I could do."
In New York, he had to reinvent himself. He focused on defense under head coach John Tortorella, and then began to assert himself offensively. Although he had hoped to stay on long-term in New York, the Rangers signed puck-moving defenseman Dan Boyle in the summer of 2014 and Stralman ended up in Tampa, where he signed a five-year contract worth $22.5 million on July 1, 2014.
It was a fortuitous move for Stralman, Hedman and the Lightning, who advanced to the Stanley Cup finals last spring for the first time since winning the Stanley Cup in 2004.
"I guess I appreciate it even more knowing where I was four years ago," Stralman said.
The Swedes are a tight-knit bunch, even more so for the defensive fraternity, so Stralman was hopeful when he signed with the Lightning that he'd get a chance to play with Hedman.
"I knew how good he was," Stralman said. "I saw the strides he's taken in the last few seasons."
Early into their first season together, Hedman broke his hand. When he came back and the two began clicking, the Lightning were the beneficiaries of powerful chemistry between the two. One scout with a long history of following Stralman said it has taken Stralman a long time to figure things out in the NHL, but "he has gained confidence over the years and he has figured out the game over here."
"The change in his game has benefited this player," the scout added. "He has upped his compete level over the years and bingo, a pretty good defenseman."
"There is a lot to be said about being comfortable in a situation," the scout noted.
And that comfort holds not just for Stralman, but for Hedman as well, with the pair regularly logging heavy minutes against opposing team's top offensive units. Cooper believes there is a symbiotic relationship between Stralman's evolution and the meteoric rise in Hedman's play the past couple of seasons.
"What I am so impressed [with] is when you think of players when they go into a corner and you see Stralman going into the corner, it doesn't matter who in the league he's going against, I always feel that he's going to come out with the puck," Cooper said.
"How good he is in all three zones," the coach added. "His awareness out there. He's one of those guys, I think, if you tracked him on the ice you would see there's limited [movement], he's not expending a bunch of energy to go all over the place. He just knows where to go, when to be there. Where to put his body. It's really impressive to watch because he's just a quiet defenseman."
"To be honest, I think he's been one of the guys that's helped Victor break out. When you've got a guy like Strals back there helping back you up, I think that's helped free up Victor a little bit," Cooper said.
Another scout believes Hedman's ascension puts him in rare company among NHL defenders, and that Stralman has been a catalyst in that process.
"I do think Stralman had a positive influence on Hedman, but it's Hedman that steers the back end," the scout said.
"Anton has matured within his own game to be more of the steady D allowing for the special abilities of Hedman to shine. I believe the Lightning becoming a contender (legitimate one) partnered with the maturation of Hedman's play," the scout noted.
"[Hedman's] in with that elite group of [Drew] Doughty, [Duncan] Keith and few others. He can positively influence a game in so many ways. Size, skill and hunger is rarely rivaled. Goes without saying, loved him as a player."
Hedman's brother actually played with Stralman back in Sweden on the country's World Junior Championship team, and Hedman was likewise looking forward to playing with Stralman.
"To find a guy that you have instant connection with I think helps both players," Hedman said.
"I don't know, it's tough to say if I would have played with someone else you never know what would have happened. But since we started playing together, I've been taking my game to another level and we feel like we can contribute at both ends of the ice. We put a lot of expectations and pressure on ourselves to be the guys that play a lot of minutes and play in every situation, so that's a good thing," Hedman, the No. 2 overall pick in 2009, said.
As for Stralman's journey, it adds a layer of respect, and perhaps perspective, to the relationship.
"Once you heard the whole story you kind of put everything in perspective," Hedman said. "It hasn't been a straightforward career for him so far, it's been up and down. But ever since he got to New York and got everything under control, he's been tremendous, so I feel like everything in life happens for a reason and there's been some ups and downs for him, but the way he played the last three or four years has been unbelievable," Hedman said.
"He's a great friend of mine and we have a lot of fun together. Just to see him play without any limitations or anything like that, it's a lot of fun."