Fringe Beneficiaries

AROUND THE turn of the 20th century the author William Sydney Porter—better known as O.

- Alex Prewitt

Henry, his pruned nom de plume—wrote “Jimmy Hayes and Muriel,” a short story that follows a battalion of rangers along the Rio Grande and contains one of American literature’s earliest references to the archetype of the sidekick. For soldiers facing bandits at the border, finding a trustworthy companion was a life-and death matter, “done with ten times the care and discretion with which a girl chooses a sweetheart,” O. Henry wrote. “On your ‘side-kicker’s’ nerve, loyalty, aim, and coolness your own life may depend many times.”

Accompanied by a pet horned frog named Muriel who lives inside a flannel shirt, Jimmy Hayes becomes the hero in the story’s end. (The same couldn’t be said of the real life, 27-year-old Jimmy Hayes, the Bruins winger who was scratched for all six games of a first-round loss to Ottawa.) But through two rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the NHL’s Muriels are getting their due. With the lone exception of the Rangers—a roster full of Tontos, you could say—every team still alive on Sunday boasts a superstar skater who commands the bulk of the opponents’ attention, in turn leaving the sidekicks free to step from their shadows and hop into the spotlight.