Ovechkin, Nash, Marleau in exclusive club chasing Cup

The games pass, the years pass, and still they don't win. They play, they compete, and at the end of the season they are left wondering what happened, what didn't happen, if next year will be the one when they finally lift the Stanley Cup.

If they ever will.
This season's Stanley Cup Playoffs, which begin Wednesday, include seven players who have played at least 1,000 NHL regular-season games and have yet to win the ultimate prize.
The seven getting another chance are: Toronto Maple Leafs forward Patrick Marleau (1,575 games, age 38); San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton (1,493, 38); Nashville Predators forward Scott Hartnell (1,249, 35); Anaheim Ducks forward Jason Chimera (1,107, 38); Predators center Mike Fisher (1,104, 37); Boston Bruins forward Rick Nash (1,060, 33); and Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin (1,003, 32), the newest member of the club. (Thornton is recovering from surgery on his right knee and will not play at the Ducks in Game 1 of the Western Conference First Round on Thursday.)
One of them has retired and come back (Fisher). Some have come as close as Game 6 of the Final (Marleau and Thornton with the Sharks in 2016; Hartnell with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010; Fisher with the Predators in 2017). But none has won the Cup.
Perhaps, as they repeat to themselves in the dog days and while lifting weights every summer, this is the year.
"Every day I think about it," Hartnell said.
Marleau, who has played 177 playoff games, the most of any active player without having won the Cup (Thornton is second at 160), said, "You are never satisfied until you win it."

There are players they can look to for hope, Ray Bourque and Dave Andreychuk, players who made it even further into their careers before they won the Cup. For Bourque, it took until his 22nd and final season (2000-01), took a trade from the Bruins to the Colorado Avalanche, and happened in his final moment in the NHL. For Andreychuk, it took until his 23rd season, when he won in 2004 with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
"You always keep faith and that's the main reason we're doing this," said Anaheim Ducks forward Antoine Vermette, who won the Cup in his 11th season, with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015. "You want to chase that. You realize it's hard. It's not easy. But it makes it that much more valuable."
It makes it that much more precious.
"I was very fortunate throughout my career, especially early on," said Vermette, 35, who has another chance to win this season. "I was in Ottawa. We had great teams and we knew we would be in the playoffs and contending for the Cup. As you go, you realize that chance is not given to you every year. It's hard. It's a competitive league. You realize that it's really hard."
There's a yearning there that never really goes away. It was evident in the efforts of Jarome Iginla this season as he tried to make a comeback before the 2018 NHL Trade Deadline on Feb. 26. The 40-year-old forward, who had not played all season, was trying to find a competitive team that might be interested.

He wanted one more shot.
"I don't want to just play hockey," Iginla said then. "I want to try to be part of the playoffs, and [get] a chance to win, that is a goal."
Iginla had nearly gotten there in 2004, when his Calgary Flames lost in the Stanley Cup Final against Andreychuk and the Lightning in seven games. If this is indeed the end for the likely Hockey Hall of Famer, he will never have won the Cup.
Iginla wanted what Vermette got, what Bourque got, what Andreychuk got.
"It's tough to describe," Vermette said of being handed the Cup. "It's very intense, emotional. It's almost surreal. It's a dream come true, literally. When you're a kid, you picture yourself doing this back when you were playing street hockey or were in your basement. But this is happening for real."
So they wait and they hope. They embrace trades to teams that might have a chance, like Chimera in being sent from the New York Islanders to the Ducks on the day of the trade deadline. He said it helped his kids understand the trade when he told them, "Dad wants to win a Cup.

"If you look back at a lot of opportunities you lost and as you get older, you realize it doesn't come around very often and you have to take advantage of it," Chimera said. "It's going to be a fun ride."
The New York Rangers traded Nash to Boston on Feb. 25. He experienced his first Stanley Cup playoff win in his 10th season, having lost all four playoff games with the Blue Jackets before being traded to the Rangers in 2012, and said he believes winning the Cup would be the biggest moment of his life, besides the births of his children.
He got close in 2014 when the Rangers lost in five games to the Los Angeles Kings in the Final. The Rangers got to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final the next season, losing to the Lightning. But it wasn't the Cup. It wasn't enough.
"You always think about it, anytime you're going into that next season you envision it, you picture yourself raising that thing at center ice," Nash said. "It's a good opportunity [with the Bruins]. It's a good team. But so many things have to go right."
And if that doesn't happen for Nash and the Bruins, perhaps a long wait could end for someone else.
"I think Pittsburgh and Chicago and L.A. have had enough [championships]," Nash said. "It's time to share. It's time to spread the love a little and let some other guys hoist it."
Maybe even him.
NHL.com staff writers Lisa Dillman and Mike Zeisberger contributed to this report.