You speak because you cannot remain silent as an opportunity passes. You sit, the sweat and the stress of a defeat dripping off of you, and you talk about a game that was lost because your team did not fully realize its importance. You speak, or you forever hold your peace.
Then, you stand up.
You stand because you cannot sit for what is happening. You stand, and the eyes of your teammates wash over you and measure what you are saying. You stand because you are frustrated by what you have seen, and you want to make sure everyone in the room understands the stakes. You stand, and you tell your team you will not stand for a lesser effort.
Finally, you show up.
You show up, because who cares what you say if your game is silent? You show up, because when you are drawing a line in the sand for your teammates, protocol says you have to be the first one across it. You show up, and you demonstrate to everyone how much better it is than being shown up.
Such is the evolution of Martin St. Louis.
Such is the evolution of leadership on a hockey team that is growing up.
The sound of new voices has filled the locker room, speaking louder, firmer messages. There are different faces in front of the room, calling for directions, pleading for additional effort.
For the longest time, the leadership of the Lightning has been a one-man job. When the turbulence came, the eyes rolled toward Dave Andreychuk, the veteran, the captain. Oh, Tim Taylor chimed in every now and then, but for the most part, everyone else was singing backup.
It isn't that way anymore. The Lightning has more leaders now than ever, and it is better off because of it.
Consider, for instance, Sunday's team meeting. In years past, it would have been up to Andreychuk to stand and verbally shake his teammates' lapels. This time? It was St. Louis and defenseman Darryl Sydor.
"This hasn't just happened this series," Andreychuk said. "It's been going on for months. We've developed more and more leadership."
In case you're wondering, Andreychuk thinks it's a terrific development. Oh, there are locker rooms across the league where the captain might be threatened by someone else trying to take the wheel. Not Andreychuk, who has always maintained that a part of his job was to allow other leaders to develop.
Enter St. Louis, who suddenly seems to be riding point on this trial drive. After Game 2, St. Louis seemed to have his own problems. He had been handled well by the Islanders, pulled and jostled to the point you wondered if New York was playing Tigger on defense.
Yet, it was St. Louis who called out his team after the loss in Game 2, saying some of them weren't hungry enough. It was St. Louis in the meeting on Sunday. And, yes, it was St. Louis who scored two goals in Game 3 as the Lightning won again. Hey, just because you carry a big stick doesn't mean you have to speak softly.
"That's the way he is," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "He wants to do more. He wants to lead."
A year ago, perhaps St. Louis would have let Andreychuk do the talking. This year, there was a message that needed to be delivered, and he did. Simple as that.
"I'm at a point in my career where I feel comfortable saying something," St. Louis said Tuesday. "I've always been a talker. I've always tried to be a leader. This is a step I want to take. If I feel like I have something to say, I'm not holding back."
In the NHL, however, a player has to achieve something before he can talk to others about it. Otherwise, it's just noise. For St. Louis, the past three seasons have been about finding a role and establishing a career.
These days, however, St. Louis is the best player on his team, and he'll probably end up as the league MVP this season. Throw up numbers the way he has, establish a similar work ethic, and a man's voice picks up timbre. Speak, and the rest of the players in the locker room will stop what they are doing to listen.
"I wanted to remind players what was on the line," St. Louis said. "That's the biggest thing. You don't want to let it slip away. I wouldn't want to sit and wonder later if it would have helped if I had said anything. It's healthy to speak."
According to the code of the ice, it's also healthy if a player scores two goals immediately after challenging his teammates. That's the true nature of leadership. Anyone can point the directions home; not everyone can handle the traffic.
Oh, St. Louis isn't the only new leader. He'll go on and on about how few people realize Fredrik Modin's value as a leader. There is Sydor, the new addition, who has hoisted a Stanley Cup. There is Taylor. Of course, there is Andreychuk.
It is a team that is growing up. Because this team has achieved more than any other Lightning team over the past two seasons, it is easy to think of it as more playoff hardened than it is. Tortorella, however, points out that it has played only 14 playoff games. Some teams, he says, take years to grasp the urgency of playoff hockey.
There are those who will debate the importance of leadership in professional sports. If a player isn't going to be ready to play, they will ask, how can the sound of another man's voice awaken them? No one can bat for you, or tackle for you or, in this case, backcheck for you.
It matters, however. Particularly in hockey, that rare game where the sides do not regularly stop play to devise strategy. Hockey is an effort sport. Sometimes, it takes the sound of a trusted voice to push a player along.
In this sport, someone still has to lead the charge.
The good thing for the Lightning is that leadership finally has a chorus.
