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A Salute to the Captain, who lived downstairs |
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During a random search earlier this week for who knows what in order to try and stoke the fires for another college hockey column for this site, I discovered that Mike Mottau decided to hang up his skates after 14 professional seasons, including parts of nine years kicking around various NHL organizations.
Mottau's stat lines for that much service are unspectacular: 321 games played, seven goals, 58 points and and 164 penalty minutes while spending time with the Rangers, Flames, Devils, Islanders, Bruins and Panthers through last season.
"It was time,” admitted Mottau to CSN New England's Joe Haggerty. "I'm happy with my decision, and it’s on to the next thing." The 36-year-old admitted he wanted to spend more time with his family, and that he was at peace with his decision once a spot with the Providence Bruins of the AHL as a veteran mentor failed to materialize.
What he had to endure just to get there, to stick around in the Show, and plow through various misfortunes given his impressive origins, makes the fact that he played nearly a decade at the highest level of the game in North America impressive and worthy of celebration.
After almost 15 years, my lingering impression of the native of Boston's South Shore is that of a leader slumped in defeat: his back to the cameras and to us in the stands broadcasting the contest, golden-helmeted head down, bent on one knee sliding slowly towards his net, vacant except for the puck -- shot by hulking winger Lee Goren -- which clinched the 2000 national championship for the Fighting Sioux of North Dakota.
Less than 24 hours earlier, Mottau had been voted the best player in all of college hockey, giving an emerging Boston College program under Jerry York its first-ever Hobey Baker winner. Less than 24 hours before that, Mottau had atoned for a horrible giveaway earlier in the contest which led to a goal by St. Lawrence's Charlie Daniels, by scoring a key marker in the third period that stoked the fires of an Eagles comeback from a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 victory which propelled them into the national championship for the first time since 1978.
Two weeks prior, Mottau led a club which finished third in its conference and lost a heartbreaker of a Hockey East championship to Maine, and guided it through two gut-wrenching West Regional victories in Minneapolis against Michigan State and then-No. 1 Wisconsin on back-to-back nights just to reach the Frozen Four.
None of that mattered in the moment. The senior captain, who finished fourth on the club in scoring and first in assists, who at times willed his teammates to push forth when the pressure was on and gained invaluable national exposure in the effort, ended up helpless when it counted.
Whatever sadness pervaded the hungry BC fan base dissipated, when we realized Mottau had the chance to crack an NHL lineup soon, with the possibility of skating alongside and being mentored by future Hall-of-Fame blueliner and Rangers captain, Brian Leetch -- also a BC alumnus.
Unfortunately, that's where fantasy ran headlong into reality. Mottau wasn't the first of the Class of 2000 to make an NHL appearance -- that was leading scorer Jeff Farkas, for Toronto, in a second-round playoff game against New Jersey about a month after losing to UND in Providence -- but Mottau appeared in 18 games for New York the next season. The future seemed bright, except for the following.
The Rangers were in the early stages of a downturn coinciding with Wayne Gretzky's retirement, Mark Messier's departure and return, and the vagaries of keeping up with big-market free-agent spending. Development was not in the cards, because signing the likes of Rich Pilon and Vladimir Malakhov were higher priority, and so Mottau, a seventh-round selection in 1998 whose college career proved he was far more worth what the Rangers thought of him, was stuck in development Hell with the Hartford Wolf Pack.
He was dealt to Calgary in January of 2003, played only four games for the Flames, then was shuttled to the Ducks organization where he didn't manage to escape their old farm club in Cincinnati. What followed were single seasons in the minors with Worcester, Peoria and Albany, in the Devils' organization, before the timing was finally right.
I've written in the past about Lou Lamoriello's deep and abiding connections with all things Hockey East, and it was Lou who finally gave Mottau, by this time 29 years old and a veteran of a paltry 23 NHL contests in 2007, a shot to make the big club. Mottau took it and ran, spending the apex of his career -- three seasons and 252 total games on defense with New Jersey.
As a professional, it was a solid signing since Mottau's days of anchoring a defense dried up long before although his physicality, stride, shot and hockey sense remained intact. As a former classmate and supporter, though the cheers were all on the inside, it was outwardly painful to watch Mottau and fellow former BC teammates Brian Gionta and Scott Clemmensen all suddenly operate as division rivals to the Flyers.
When he went to the Islanders in the 2010 off-season, then the Bruins (as is the birthright of all native New Englanders who played college hockey in the Hub), and then the Panthers, it was a relief on two fronts: that he'd proven himself worthy enough for teams to keep signing him, and that he wasn't going to contribute significantly to any future misery the Orange and Black might encounter.
However, that Schadenfreude was interrupted by reading about the misfortune Mottau encountered in his last seasons -- a potentially career-threatening eye injury suffered when a puck struck him in the face at Atlanta in November of 2010; a concussion from a hit early in the 2011-12 season which cost him 26 games, and spending the lockout-shortened 2013 campaign split between San Antonio and Toronto with his NHL future in doubt. It made a re-reunion with Clemmensen in Florida last year seem extra sweet.
Haggerty went on to say the following in Tuesday's piece: "Mottau hasn’t made any conclusive decisions about the next step, but said that coaching, scouting or perhaps dabbling in the hockey television media were all options that were of interest to him moving forward. With his easygoing demeanor and considerable hockey IQ, any of those professions would be lucky to have a quality person like Mottau joining their ranks."
Thinking back to the days on the Heights, Mottau wasn't the type to shake a hand and stare vapidly in conversation as if interaction was just a duty. I picture him as a normal human being, 2 1/2 months younger than me, a classmate rather than a budding hockey star.
A week after the crushing loss to North Dakota, I came up with the idea of getting a jersey I bought on my first visit to Chestnut Hill in 1994 signed by as many members of the 2000 squad as I could, then "retiring" it from use as soon as I graduated and moved onto the next step in life. Mottau lived on the floor below my suite in Rubenstein Hall, in what would have been the RA's room, so I guess it was D-56 by the numbering system. I went down and he wasn't there, but left a message with his roommates -- Farkas among them -- that I'd like him to come up to my room and sign it if he had time. It was a somewhat bold move, even for being in the same year as those guys, and frankly, didn't think it would come to fruition.
To my surprise, several hours later there's a knock on the door, and the captain appears with pen in hand. I remember one of my roommates, who was born in Philly but raised in Concord, MA rendered speechless and somewhat dazed by the site of BC's best player showing up in our humble abode on the sixth floor. Big deal? Nah. Mottau, Gionta and a half-dozen other hockey players were in two of my classes that final year, and in the final semester it was Broadcast Management & Sales taught by Larry Miller, a former San Francisco DJ and pioneer in the FM format.
I don't think he would have stayed as long to talk to us after signing the uniform -- and invite us to an end-of-year blowout bash -- if I hadn't been in that class with him for the previous 11 weeks. And since a degree in Communications from BC has gotten me this far without the benefits of playing under the NHL spotlight, Mottau should take full advantage and stay in the game in some capacity going forward.
I think he could give Andy Powers a run for his money as color commentator on Eagles radio broadcasts, and stands to be a valuable asset as an assistant back with York in the near future if coaching is in the cards.
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