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Awkward reunion for former Rangers, Lightning teammates in Final

“Don’t give me this [crap] that you’re gonna trade Marty St. Louis, who has a no movement clause and doesn’t want to leave, for Callahan. I like the kid, but he couldn’t score more than 25-30 goals in his [flippin’] lifetime because he doesn’t play because he always gets hurt because he plays like he’s 6-foot-5.” – Phil Esposito, Next Sports Star, Feb. 26, 2014.

Less than a month later, Marty St. Louis was traded to the New York Rangers.

Then we learned that, much to the surprise of Mr. Esposito, St. Louis wanted out as far back as 2009, well before the infamous “Olympic snub” from Tampa Bay Lightning and Team Canada GM Steve Yzerman lit the fuse for his departure.

Of course, that’s not the way St. Louis sees it. He sees his 14 years with the Lightning having earned him the right to move on, after he stuck it out with hometown discounts and through terrible ownership and generally putting his safety on the line as a human pinball most nights.

"My time in Tampa, I gave everything I had," St. Louis told the Tampa Times in June 2014. "Everything! Who was more loyal? Look at my career there."

Many of the hearts that were ripped open when St. Louis pushed for a trade last year have been stitched up – to wit, he was given a standing ovation after some early boos upon his return to Tampa last November.

Now the stakes are raised, and it’s St. Louis and the New York Rangers standing between Yzerman’s Bolts and the Stanley Cup Final.

But he’s hardly the only connection between these teams as they prepare to meet in the Eastern Conference Final starting on Saturday.

There’s obviously also Ryan Callahan, on the mend from an emergency appendectomy. He outscored St. Louis in the regular season and is one assist behind him in the postseason.

Callahan’s a win-at-all-costs player. His domain is also Henrik Lundqvist’s fiefdom, and it’s going to be thrilling to watch the physical battles between the former Rangers captain and his teammates as Callahan tries to score every dirty goal possible against the King.

Two Bolts played for last year’s Eastern Conference champion Rangers before, er, bolting: Brian Boyle and Anton Stralman.

Both were part of the glue for that team. Stralman became a darling of the fancy stats community for his playoff possession numbers, playing a critical and critically underappreciated role in that run. He’s partnered with Victor Hedman and has five points in 22:22 TOI in 13 games. He signed a 5-year, $22.5-million deal with the Lightning after the Rangers wouldn’t meet his price.

Boyle has just a goal and an assist in 13 games, playing 15:36 TOI, but had 32 hits in that ice time, third on the team. He’s an agitator and a physical presence. Again, fascinating to watch how he brings it against some former and still-current friends.

He signed a 3-year, $6-million deal with the Lightning last summer. And he told the NY Times last year that he wasn’t all that happy with how the Rangers treated him after going UFA:

“I never really got an offer. If you’re not wanted, you’re not wanted.”

“I wasn’t getting a ton of feedback from New York,” said Boyle, who had spent five years with the Rangers. “I think they might have been interested in bringing me back, but whatever. We were waiting for New York since the end of the season. They didn’t give us anything. Tampa came up, and it was something we jumped on.”

For the Rangers, there’s defenseman Dan Boyle, who was rocked by a Brooks Orpik hit in Game 7 but hopefully will be able to go in Game 1 on Saturday. Boyle played 394 games with the Lightning and won a Cup with them in 2004 (as did St. Louis). Obviously, his connections with the franchise are superficial, as it’s a totally different team top to bottom. But the fans have long memories.

There's also Dominic Moore, the well-traveled vet, played 133 games with the Lightning from 2010-12, the second-most games with any NHL team outside of the Rangers.

And, of course, there's Phil Esposito - radio voice of the Lightning, legendary player for the Rangers.

In the end, it’s the St. Louis vs. Callahan trade at the heart of this series, a deal made between a team focused on the present and one that allegedly sacrificed success now for draft picks later. And yet, here they both are.

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