CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. – Alex Lyon wants to be an even-keeled guy.
Like most goaltenders, he understands that getting too high or too low can be a bad thing.
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He tries to keep things on the surface and remain focused on his goals, both immediate and long term. You won’t find him scrolling social media, and he’s probably the last guy who’s going to Google himself.
“I’m not gonna read this article, for example,” he told me Thursday, before kindly adding, “No offense to you.”
The 30-year-old falls into a unique category of professional hockey players.
To the average NHL fan, his name probably sounds familiar, and you may even remember him playing a game against your favorite team one time or another.
Lyon has been patrolling goal creases in the NHL and, more often than not, the AHL, for the past seven seasons.
When he signed with Florida last July, Lyon had 24 games of National League experience under his belt.
If the situation called for it, he was someone Panthers management was comfortable with filling in at the highest level in the world.
A true, experienced pro, with a great head on his shoulders.
“I just try to think of it as, I’m just living my life, and I’m playing hockey as well, because it’s easy to get all consumed in it,” he said.
There are some phrases used to describe a hockey player’s abilities that can’t be measured in traditional ways.
You’ve undoubtedly heard the phrase ‘compete’ used when discussing the efforts of a player or team, or how someone can be measured in terms of how much ‘heart’ or ‘grit’ or ‘juice’ they have.
Sure, you can look at goals or points or penalty minutes or save percentage and judge players based strictly off that. Most people do. It’s why those statistics are so closely kept and made so readily available.
But perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, ‘The game within the game.’
The immeasurables. The intangibles. The eye test.
The kind of things usually brought up around the trade deadline and the postseason, when winning goes from the main thing that matters (because let’s be honest, not every team is competing at the same level all season long), to the end-all, be-all, one and only thing that matters.
So why am I bringing this up in late January?
Well, something happened a couple of nights ago that had me thinking about those unquantifiable qualities, those coveted characteristics.
It also showed that, no matter how much a guy like Lyon can try to mentally and physically prepare for any and all situations, life can and will always have its unpredictable moments.
Let’s go back to Tuesday in Pittsburgh.
Lyon and the Panthers arrived in the Steel City during the early morning hours after playing the night before in New York.
The plan had been for Spencer Knight to start in goal against the Penguins that night, with Lyon backing up, after Knight backed up Lyon at Madison Square Garden on Monday. But as a wise Ferris Bueller once said, “Life moves pretty fast.”
Knight had been working his way back from an undisclosed injury and had just returned from a conditioning stint after playing a pair of games for AHL Charlotte. He was fine to serve as backup goalie on Monday, but something changed between New York and Pittsburgh.
“We got to gametime and he didn’t feel like he could go,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said regarding Knight.
Just like that, the spotlight shifted back to Lyon.
It’s rare when a goaltender will start back-to-back games on consecutive nights, but to understand where Lyon was mentally and physically heading into the sudden challenge, it helps to turn back a few more pages.
Lyon played Monday in New York, a 6-2 loss that was a tight game for two-plus periods before the Rangers broke it open during the third.
He also played two nights prior, an invigorating 5-3 win over the Minnesota Wild on home ice, where Lyon made several outstanding saves and was voted the Second Star of the game, getting a loud ovation from the FLA Live Arena faithful.
And that came two nights after Lyon was called into action just 2:01 into a game in Montreal after starter Sergei Bobrovsky was injured. Lyon ended up with 23 saves and his first NHL win in over a year.
For those not keeping track, Lyon went from a routine midseason call-up to serve as backup goalie for a few games to suddenly being thrust into not one, not two, not three, but four straight NHL games, the final three of which happening in a four-day span.
And the four games were played in four different cities spanning two countries.
Okay, back to Pittsburgh, where the Panthers and Penguins played one of the most exciting, thrilling and frustratingly exhausting games of the season, a back-and-forth marathon that ended in overtime with Pittsburgh coming out on top 7-6.
If the past week had been a war of attrition, Lyon’s Monday and Tuesday night left the veteran netminder feeling like he had just fought alongside The Avengers in their galaxy-spanning Infinity War.
“I felt like that game lasted two weeks,” Lyon recalled.
Not long after it was over, Lyon did something else that was somewhat unconventional. I mean, why stop now, right?
Goalies generally will speak to the postgame media after a win, but not always. It’s rare when you speak to one after a loss.
Yet there was Lyon, standing in front of his stall inside an emptying visiting locker room of PPG Paints Arena, a sweaty red Panthers shirt sticking to his chest, hair still soaked after what felt like one of the longest games of his career.
He stood there and answered questions about the game, praising his teammates for their effort and showing a humble humility that professional athletes don’t often allow outsiders to see.
Yet it wasn’t so much what he was saying, but his demeanor while speaking to the press that caught your attention.
It looked, and sounded like, Lyon was fighting back tears. He was exhausted, physically and emotionally.
“In those situations, you just try to stay so even and try to keep it under wraps, but it’s such an emotional experience,” Lyon said Thursday.
He had just endured a stretch that would test any goaltender at any level, let alone the highest level anywhere on the planet.
The combination of feelings and sensations going through his body and mind in those moments were likely unparalleled, and he endured it with tv cameras and microphones a foot from his face.
“I can’t really explain it,” Lyon said. “Those types of games, it’s like an inner conflict, because you’re pushing so hard to bring the best out of yourself, while also at the same time trying to remain very even on your exterior.”
It may not have been his best effort in that regard, but there is nothing wrong with showing the kind of sentiment and passion he exhibited that night in Pittsburgh.
While discussing all this with me, Lyon paused to tell a quick story about a recent interview he’d seen featuring an NFL player.
“I think it was a Detroit Lions player,” he said. “He was just talking about how he lives his life, and he said, ‘I just want to play football, go home, and live my life.”
Lyon said the words resonated with him.
There was another professional athlete, on a big stage, with the world at his feet, but he just wanted to do his job and go home to his family.
Keep things on that even keel.
“For me, I care deeply, and I just want to be as successful with anything I do as possible,” Lyon said. “So just try to manage all of those things as best you can and just move forward. Simple.”