If we’re lucky, social media is something other than a corrosive, divisive mine field. When cyber stars align, those smudged smart-phone screens offer something more than a waste of mental and emotional fuel.
At times, it’s actually a refreshing eye-opener.
Just ask Gulls coach Dallas Eakins, who peeked at the team’s Twitter Saturday after a Game 2 win in the AHL Western Conference finals at Chicago. Starting goalie Kevin Boyle quickly was being chased down by the guy he replaced.
“The game had just ended. Kevin had shut out the other team. The first guy to him with a massive, arms-out hug was Glasser,” Eakins said of his other net option, Jeff Glass. “When I saw it, I thought, ‘Man, that’s a great relationship right there.’ ”
That’s the unique, comforting, confidence-inducing situation Eakins and the Gulls find themselves in as they prepare for Game 3 on Wednesday at Pechanga Arena. Two talented guys competing for the same gig, ing each other like friends.
Because, well, they are.
“That’s genuinely me, how I felt,” said Glass, a 33-year-old veteran picked up in December as Boyle prepared to uncork a 10-game win streak. “I was thrilled for him. I knew that Game 2 was really important for this team. I wanted to help the team any way I could.
“That game meant being a cheerleader. I was going to do the best I could cheering Boyler on and he was outstanding.”
The reason for those arms flung so wide: Boyle notched just the second postseason shutout in Gulls history, a 3-0 road win to knot the series at a game apiece with the next three in San Diego.
Boyle swatted away 29 shots, stopping an incredible 48 of 49 in his last two games for a sparkling .980 save percentage. That, after piling up more than twice as many minutes and games this season as Glass.
Some would see that as a threat. Glass? Nah.
The man with six stops in seven years inside the chilled, overseas rinks of the Kontinental Hockey League — from Moscow to Minsk and beyond — cobbled together as much perspective as experience. He patiently worked and waited to play 15 games with the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks in 2017-18.
“That’s what I’ve learned in my career,” Glass said. “There’s lots of net to go around. It’s all about making the most of your opportunity. In the past, the younger Jeff Glass might have been disappointed if he wasn’t playing every night.
“Don’t spend time worrying about stuff you can’t control.”
Plus, the veteran’s moments have come.
On April 17, Glass skated on to relieve Boyle after San Jose roared to a 3-0 lead. The Gulls rallied for an improbable 6-5 overtime win. He later stopped a club record 51 (of 53) shots during the longest playoff game in Gulls history, a 3-2 victory May 3 at Bakersfield in a withering four overtimes.
The pair, labeled “a mini-partnership within the team” by Eakins, chose to build rather than bicker.
“Any friendly competition is good for the soul and the brain,” Boyle said. “If you’re not competing every day, you’re not getting any better. But no matter who’s in net, we each other no matter what.”
There’s little common ground among the two beyond the sport they love.
Boyle, 26, was an undrafted free agent who was cut from his college team at UMass — only to become a conference player of the year at rival UMass-Lowell. He was born in Manalapan, N.J., a township of about 40,000 whose most recent municipal web posting explained that “Monmouth County will be doing some spot repairs and resurfacing … on County Road 3.”
Yet he played five games with the Ducks this year, becoming just the second Anaheim goalie (ing John Gibson) to record a shutout in his first NHL start Feb. 13 against Vancouver.
Glass began to tackle life in Calgary, Alberta, a forest of skyscrapers with about 1.3 million residents and host of the 1988 Winter Olympics. His travel odyssey through Kazakhstan included covertly masking a knowing grin as his mother in law ordered fish at a restaurant, recoiling as it showed up head and all. After one practice during a Kazakh holiday, the national dish — horse and onions — was delivered to players at the rink.
“It was delicious,” he said. “I’m glad they didn’t tell me until I was done eating it, though. Over there, you had to roll with the punches.”
Dig deeper, though …
“Where they’re very similar, one guy’s undrafted, he’s had to scrape and claw. Glasser’s had to scrape and claw for years for everything he’s had,” Eakins said. “So both these guys, since they’ve been very young, they’ve had their head in the ring, they’ve had their head down, and they just keep swinging. Sometimes, they’ve been knocked to a knee but they’ve gotten up very quickly and they’re swinging again.
“The adversity they’ve gone through probably wasn’t fun in the moment, but what they’ve gotten through is paying off now.”
Eakins said he’s still sorting out who will man the net Wednesday. Boyle would seem most likely, but two attractive options remain.
That’s the particular beauty of these Calder Cup-chasing Gulls.
“It’s been really healthy,” Glass said.
Take that, Twitter.
