Their teammates call them Starsky and Hutch, a nod to the sarcastic humor and cohesion of the Colorado Mammoth duo. Dark-haired Gavin Prout is Starsky and blond Gee Nash is Hutch.
Nash may not be as eccentric as most goaltenders, but he does not wash his goalie equipment at any point during the season. And if he’s on a winning streak, he will sleep in the same bed, wear the same clothes and eat the same food at the same restaurant during weekends he plays.
And he needs Prout, the Mammoth’s captain and scoring leader, to shoot at him last during both pregame warm-ups.
“I just go along with it because I know it helps him,” Prout said. “And why not? If I wasn’t very tolerant, I would have thrown him out of the plane long ago.”
Prout and Nash travel together from their homes near Toronto and room together on the road and in Denver for home games.
Today, they will drive to Buffalo, meeting Mammoth teammates flying in from Denver, to begin preparation for Saturday’s National Lacrosse League title game, the Champion’s Cup, against the host Bandits.
This friendship that spans 20 years originated with a youth team in Ajax, Ontario, and has helped carry the pair to Canada’s junior national championship and to the NLL. The New York Saints missed several payrolls before folding, leaving Prout and Nash on the free-agent market, and Mammoth general manager Steve Govett snapped them up before the 2004 season.
The bond Nash and Prout share has played a vital role in Colorado getting to its first NLL final.
“The one thing we’ve always had in common is a passion for lacrosse,” said Prout, who will be a groomsman in Nash’s wedding next month.
When Nash suffered a concussion April 2, Prout consulted with team doctor Deb Jacobson and comforted Nash’s parents, who were in the Pepsi Center stands when their son absorbed a shot to the front of his helmet. While Nash suffered from headaches and blurred vision, Prout checked on him throughout the night and drove him to the airport the next day for their flight to the Toronto area, where both have weekday jobs.
Two weeks later, when Prout was suspended by the NLL for entering the floor during an altercation, Nash, the Professional Lacrosse Players Association treasurer, helped guide his buddy through a successful appeals process. Cleared to play against Calgary in the first round of the playoffs, Prout scored five goals and set up seven others, including the overtime clincher by Brian Langtry.
The following week, Nash stopped 48 Arizona shots, 19 in the fourth quarter of a 13-12 victory that gave Colorado a berth in the Champion’s Cup.
“It’s great to see young star players finally make it to the big game,” said veteran teammate Dave Stilley, who won NLL titles with Philadelphia in 1998 and 2001. “Gavin and Gee are two of the main reasons we have this opportunity.”
Although their only link on the floor comes from Nash’s superb outlet passes to Prout, each has an impact on the other’s performance.
“Gavin knows I get frustrated with myself sometimes,” Nash said. “If he sees it in me, I hear him telling me to relax and take the next shot, one at a time.”
Prout, selected to the all-pro first team this season, might be reminded to curb his retaliatory efforts after being hacked and shoved on his forays toward the net.
“Gavin might be jawing or pushing on the other team and I will say, ‘That might not be the best trade-off for our team if you end up in the penalty box,”‘ Nash said. “I might just quietly tell him to shut up.”
While Prout is able to let the personal stuff go, he has shouldered additional responsibility for the Mammoth this season.
When Gary Gait gave up his captain’s post to become the team’s coach, Prout filled the void.
“From Day One in training camp he was a totally different person,” Govett said of Prout. “He stepped in right away and guys respected him.”
Along with his assistant captains, Pat Coyle and Jamie Hanford, Prout bounces ideas off Nash.
“We’ll talk at the end of practice or at the hotel and we keep regular contact via e-mail a few times a day,” said Prout, who revamped the team’s pregame warm-ups to enhance Nash’s preparation.
Teammate Jay Jalbert marvels at the differences between the two. “If you met each of them separately, you would not imagine a best friendship in a million years,” he said.
Yet their connection is a constant, from their time as youths slashing lacrosse sticks to young men striving for a championship.
