Tag Archives: Stanley Cup

Caps’ Smith-Pelly does the rounds with Stanley Cup at Toronto area pub, hospital

07 Tuesday Aug 2018

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Talk about Soul on Ice.

Washington Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly had a cool day with the Stanley Cup Monday complete with an ice sculpture likeness of him in at a Scarborough, Ontario, pub hoisting the treasured trophy.

Washington Capitals right wing Devante-Smith Pelly.

Hundreds of fans braved torrential rain in the Toronto area to venture to the Black Dog Pub to get a glimpse of the Cup and the man of the hour.

“When I saw it start to rain, I didn’t know what to expect,” Smith-Pelly told NHL.com. “To see the line of people snaked around and down the block, I’m so excited…I  mean, you want to bring the Stanley Cup where you grew up. I grew up right down the street from here and used to come here and hang out.”

Chris Stewart, a forward who skated for the Minnesota Wild and Calgary Flames last season, was among the water-logged faithful at the Black Dog.

“He’s come a long way. I’m proud of him,” said Stewart, who has 160 goals and 161 assists in 652 National Hockey League games. “He stuck it out and now he’s on top.”

How cool is this? Washington Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly and an ice sculpture likeness of him with Stanley Cup (Photo/Courtesy Phil Prtichard/HHOF).

The Black Dog Pub wasn’t Smith-Pelly’s only stop with Stanley on Monday. He took the Cup to downtown Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and showed off the trophy to family and close friends in private moments.

Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff’s most valuable player, but Smith-Pelly also had a heroic Stanley Cup run.

Devante Smith-Pelly with Toronto Mayor John Tory, left, and some young hockey fans (Photo/Courtesy Phil Pritchard/HHOF).

He tallied 7 goals and 1 assist in 24 playoff games; potted a goal in three consecutive Stanley Cup Final games against the Vegas Golden Knights; netted the game-winning goal in Game 4; scored the tying goal in Cup-clinching Game 5, a highlight reel kick-the-puck-onto-the-stick and fly-in-the-air snipe past goalie Marc-Andre Fleury; and the series-clinching goal in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Not bad for a guy who only scored 7 goals and 9 assists in 75 games and averaged 12:21 minutes of ice time per game during the regular season and 12:02 minutes per game in the playoffs.

Devante Smith-Pelly has a little quiet time with the Stanley Cup and his grandparents, who rocked the Washington Capitals red hockey jerseys (Photo/Courtesy Phil Pritchard/HHOF).

“There’s been some struggles,” Smith-Pelly told NHL.com. But at the same time, I’m not the first guy to go through it and I won’t be the mast. You can’t feel sorry for yourself. You’ve got to go out there and do what you have to do.”

Smith-Pelly’s playoff prowess made Capitals fans love him. And Smith-Pelly fell in love with Washington. So much so that he rejected contract offers from other teams with longer terms and more money to sign one-year, $1 million deal to return to the Capitals.

Ain’t no party like a Stanley Cup party. Washington Capitals’ Devante Smith-Pelly shares the Stanley Cup with some of his long-time buddies (Photo/Courtesy Phil Pritchard/HHOF).

“It wasn’t worth it to leave somewhere where I’m happy and somewhere where I really want to be,” Smith-Pelly told the Associated Press in June. “The money to me personally is not that important if I’m not going to be happy somewhere else.”

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Caps’ Madison Bowey shares Stanley Cup with Winnipeg rink, and grandma’s cooking

30 Monday Jul 2018

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What’s better than eating pierogies out of the Stanley Cup?

Washington Captials defenseman Madison Bowey.

Eating grandma’s pierogies out of the Cup, just like Washington Capitals defense Madison Bowey did during his designated day with the trophy in Winnipeg on Saturday.

Bowey shared the Cup with his family and Winnipeg’s Varsity View Community Club, which he credited with helping mold him into a National Hockey League player.

“My hockey career began here, at this great community club in this wonderful hockey city, and this is my chance to pay tribute to everyone who helped me get started, and encouraged me to keep going,” Bowey said, per Canada’s Global News.

Bowey didn’t play in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But the 23-year-old did appear in 51 regular season games as a rookie in the 2017-18 season. He didn’t score a goal, but he did register 12 assists.

Washington Capitals defenseman Madison Bowey samples some of grandma’s pierogies from the greatest serving bowl – the Stanley Cup (Photo/MParolin/HHOF).

The Capitals showed their faith in their 2013 second-round draft pick when they re-signed him to a two-year, $2 million deal earlier this month.

Bowey said he hopes bringing the Stanley Cup to his local rink will show younger hockey players that all things are possible.

Madison Bowey hoisted the Stanley Cup after the Capitals won it in Las Vegas against the Golden Knights. He lifted it again at his local rink in Winnipeg (Photo/MParolin/HHOF).

“Help the younger guys that are striving to be where I am right now, and I think if I can just come back and help out the community as much as I can, it goes a long way,” Bowey said, according to Global News.

Nothing says “Thank you” like bringing the Stanley Cup to where your hockey career began. Washington Capitals defenseman Madison Bowey did that on his Cup day Saturday (Pnoto/MParolin/HHOF)

Bowey and Caps forward Devante Smith-Pelly will become the eighth and ninth black players to have their names inscribed on the Stanley Cup.

Years before he won the Stanley Cup, Madison Bowey spent some quality time with it as a Hockey Hall of Fame visitor. And he has the picture to prove it (Photo/WNeubrand/HHOF).

Their names join those of goaltenders Grant Fuhr (Edmonton Oilers – 1984, 1985, 1987, 1998, 1990), Eldon “Pokey” Riddick (Oilers – 1990) and the late Ray Emery (Chicago Blackhawks – 2013), forwards Dustin Byfuglien(Blackhawks -2013) and  Jamal Mayers (Blackhawks-2013), and defensemen Johnny Oduya (Blackhawks-2013, 2015) and Trevor Daley (Pittsburgh Penguins – 2016, 2017).

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Ovechkin takes the Cup to North America’s oldest minority youth hockey program

16 Saturday Jun 2018

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They came to pay homage to the Stanley Cup Friday and the Cup came to pay homage to them.

Lord Stanley, Washington Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin, and team owner Ted Leonsis journeyed to D.C.’s Anacostia neighborhood to show off the National Hockey League championship trophy to players and supporters of the Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club – the oldest minority-oriented youth hockey program in North America.

Washington Capitals forward  Alex Ovechkin shared the Stanley Cup with members of the Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club (Photo/Kate Irby).

It was sweltering hot inside the Fort Dupont Ice Arena – the ice is off for summer maintenance – but no one cared as players and coaches from the team lined up for photos with Ovechkin and the Cup.

“It feels good and special,” Justus Tyree, a 10-year-old Fort Dupont forward, told me. “They (the Capitals) won and they get to bring the Cup for our organization and not the other organizations that practice here. It’s very cool.”

U.S. Marine Corps. Lt. Col. Ralph Featherstone, a Fort Dupont assistant coach, was all smiles after he posed for a photo with Ovechkin, Fort Dupont founder and Head Coach Neal Henderson and the Cup.

“It’s awesome, I thought I’d never be able to do that,” Featherstone said. “They (the Capitals) are at the top of the world right now and they took time to hang out with us for a few minutes. Ovi brought the Cup, Ted Leonsis is here. The owner of the team is in Southeast D.C., at Fort Dupont, hanging out.”

Leonsis said Fort Dupont was a must-do stop for the Cup.

“We love coming to Fort Dupont,” he said. “Neal has just been such a bedrock in the community and we love working with him, supporting the rink. And just to see all the young kids here in awe to meet Alex and the Cup.”

The Fort Dupont rink may look ordinary on the outside and a little dog-eared inside, but it’s a special place. For 43, years Henderson has taught life lessons to hundreds of African-American kids there through the prism of hockey.

It’s also one of the area rinks where 18-year-old Maame Biney, the first black female to make the U.S. Olympic short track speedskating team, got her start.

Several of Henderson’s pupils have gone on to achieve what they once thought was unachievable growing up in an area that had a reputation as one of the District of Columbia’s toughest neighborhoods.

Washington Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin shows off the Stanley Cup to players and supporters of the District’s Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club (Photo/Kate Irby).

Featherstone went on from the rink on Ely Place Southeast to the U.S. Naval Academy, where he became the first black captain of the Midshipmen’s club hockey team. He’s now a Marine aviator.

Duante Abercrombie, another Fort Dupont alum, is following in Henderson’s footsteps into head coaching. He recently was named bench boss for the Washington Little Capitals U16 National Team, a program that has a track record for developing players for college and major junior hockey.

Washington Capitals Owner Ted Leonsis and forward Alex Ovechkin put something other than champagne in the Stanley Cup at the Fort Dupont Ice Arena (Photo/Kate Irby).

Leonsis said he hopes to bring the Cup back to Fort Dupont for a celebration same time next year.

But folks at the rink are hoping that they’ll have an occasion to party sooner. Henderson is one of three finalists for the NHL’s Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award. The winner will be announced at the NHL Awards in Las Vegas Wednesday.

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Ex-Caps Mike Marson and Bill Riley bask in Devante Smith-Pelly’s Stanley Cup heroics

12 Tuesday Jun 2018

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Mike Marson wasn’t able to make it to D.C. Tuesday to witness the Washington Capitals’ Stanley Cup victory parade with other Caps alumni members –  he was grounded by the ravages of rheumatoid arthritis.

But Marson was hooting and rooting from afar, basking in the glow of a championship won by the team that made him the National Hockey League’s second black player when it drafted him in its inaugural season in 1974.

“They had some tremendous play from (Alex) Ovechkin, Mr. Devante Smith-Pelly, (Braden) Holtby,” Marson told me. “So many guys played well.”

Former Washington Capitals forward Mike Marson is thrilled that his team finally won the Stanley Cup.

He had special praise for Smith-Pelly, a fellow black player from Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, who came up big in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with 7 goals and 1 assist in 23 post-season games.

“He was heroic. He scored the most-important goals, I believe,” Marson said. “I take my hat off to Devo. A lot of hard work there, a little bit of rough water occasionally, I think, but good for him. He came out the superstar and was all that he could be.”

Smith-Pelly scored three goals in the final three goals in the final three games against the Vegas Golden Knights, none bigger than the smooth (real smooth, reeaall smooth) Game 5 third-period tally he slid past goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury that tied the game at 3.

Capitals center Lars Eller scored the game-winning goal that secured a 4-3 win and the Cup for the Capitals. But without Smith-Pelly’s acrobatic goal, there’s no go-ahead goal by Eller.

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Actor Denzel Washington may be The Equalizer in movie theaters this summer, but Smith-Pelly nailed the role on ice in Las Vegas last Thursday night, much to Marson’s delight.

Washington Capitals forward Mike Marson, circa 1974-75.

Marson was so thrilled by the right wing’s Game 5 goal that he threw a cushion at his television – an odd family tradition.

“When my dad, myself and my Uncle Romeo used to watch hockey, when something went one way or the other, we would throw out cushions at the TV and laugh, of course,” he said.

After the ceremonial cushion toss, Marson grabbed the phone and called Bill Riley, who became the NHL’s third black player when he joined Marson on the Capitals in 1974-75, to compare notes on what they just witnessed.

Mike Marson scored 16 goals in his rookie season with the Capitals in 1974-75. (Photo/Washington Capitals archives).

Riley, who played right wing, summed up Smith-Pelly’s Game equalizer to me in four emailed words: “Gives me goosebumps. Wicked.”

Marson and Riley take pride in Smith-Pelly’s Stanley Cup success because, like them, he has overcome.

Washington Capitals right wing Devante-Smith Pelly.

He’s overcome the racist ignorance of “fans” who taunted him with chants of “basketball” as he sat in the penalty box in Chicago in February during a game against the Blackhawks.

Marson endured racist taunts and death threats during his four seasons with the Capitals, a turbulent time chronicled in Canadian filmmaker Damon Kwame Mason’s seminal black hockey history documentary, “Soul on Ice: Past, Present and Future.”

Still, Marson managed to score 24 goals and 24 assists in 196 NHL regular season games from 1974-75 to his final three games with the Los Angeles Kings in 1979-80.

Riley still recalls when “fans” in Detroit dismissively referred to him and Marson as “round ball players.” The racist indignities on and off the ice didn’t deter Riley from scoring 31 goals and 30 assists in 139 games with Washington and the Winnipeg Jets from 1974-75 to 1979-80.

Bill Riley and Mike Marson were teammates on the Washington Capitals in the mid-1970s. Both are proud as parents about Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly’s Stanley Cup Final success (Photos/Washington Capitals archives).

Both retired Caps are overjoyed that Smith-Pelly kept on keeping on after being cast aside and doubted by the Anaheim Ducks, the team that drafted him in the second round of the 2010, the Montreal Canadiens, and New Jersey Devils.

A free agent, he signed with the Capitals before the start of the 2017-18 season for the league minimum $650,000. He dutifully played on the Capitals fourth line, a checking line that didn’t get big minutes during the regular season.

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“I was in touch with Devante,” Marson said. “Devo’s a Scarborough guy and this and that. He endured as a player, kept getting better every game, and was playing with confidence.”

Smith-Pelly made the most of his opportunities, notching 7 goals and 9 assists in 75 regular season games. Then came the Playoffs, The Goal, The Cup and The Parade.

“Devo was able to make it happen,” Marson said.

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey. And download the Color of Hockey podcast from iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud and Google Play.

 

 

Trevor Daley enjoys a low-key day with the Stanley Cup the second time around

19 Wednesday Jul 2017

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Trevor Daley didn’t want to go para-sailing, mountain-climbing or club hopping with the Stanley Cup.

Trevor Daley wanted low-key family time with the Stanley Cup the second time around.

Instead of going buck-wild with the Cup, as some players who win it do on their designated day with Lord Stanley, the former Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman arranged a decidedly buck-mild 24 hours with the championship trophy.

“Not too crazy this year with it, try to stay a little bit more low-key than last year,” said Daley, who dashed around to show the Cup off to as many friends, family and well-wishers as possible in his hometown Toronto area after the Penguins won it in the 2015-16 season. “I was, like, ‘Man, I shared it with everybody else, I never got a chance to sit down and just stare at it’ and be, like, wow this is what you accomplished.’ My family, my kids never got a chance to sit down and hang out with it.”

Back-to-back Stanley Cup victories allowed Daley the opportunity to rectify that situation.

“My son’s birthday party just passed, but we told him that part of his birthday party  would be hanging out with the Cup with a couple of his buddies in Toronto,” the veteran defenseman told me.

Trevor Daley and his family spend some quality time with the Stanley Cup (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).

Daley still managed to make time for a couple of  public stops with the Cup Wednesday to show appreciation to the local folks who appreciate him. The kids at Toronto Professional Hockey School, a camp Daley attended as a minor hockey player, got a glimpse of the trophy many of the camp’s current attendees hope to some day hoist.

The Whitchurch- Stouville Fire and Emergency Services also got a visit from Daley and the Cup.

Unlike other major league sports, each player on a Stanley Cup-winning team gets to have the trophy for a day to do whatever. Phil Pritchard, the Hockey Hall of Fame’s white-gloved Keeper of the Cup, accompanies it on a summer-long journey.

The well-polished silver Cup and the gloved-one will travel thousands of miles through seven countries – the United States, Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Germany, and Switzerland – in 100 days for players, coaches, and key staff from 2016-17 Penguins to savor for a day.

The team’s 2015-16 Cup win has a special place in Daley’s heart. He was the first player Penguins captain Sidney Crosby handed the Cup to after the team defeated the San Jose Sharks, even though Daley missed the Stanley Cup Final because of a broken ankle.

Crosby knew that it was a dream of Daley’s ailing mother, Trudy, to see her son hoist the Cup. Trudy Daley passed away a week later at age 51.

“Last year was obviously tough – the timing of the injury,” he told me. “But it did allow me to spend some more time with my mom. If I was playing, I wouldn’t been allowed to spend that much time with her. Looking back, having won the Cup, it was kind of a blessing that I got to spend some time with her last year.”

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Daley, 33, said this year’s Cup is a little more special because he was able to play in the Final.

“Having gone through it twice now, back-to-back, I definitely felt more a part of it this year,” he told me. “Last year was very unfortunate, getting hurt and missing it. I remember after last year,  I always thought about getting back to this point, and I was fortunate to get back to it so soon. I always thought about playing in the Final to see what it was like on that stage.”

Daley will perform on a different stage in the 2017-18 season. A free agent, he signed a three-year, $9.53 million contract with the Detroit Red Wings in early July. He moves to a new team, a new town and will play in a brand new arena.

“I’m excited for the new challenge and new opportunity,” he told me. “I had never been through the process of free agency before and didn’t know what to expect. When Detroit came calling, I was pretty excited about – just the history of the franchise. They were one of the first teams to come to me and show interest in me.”

Daley stressed that he’s joining a team that’s retooling, not rebuilding. The Red Wings finished the 2016-17 season with a 33-36-13 record and missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in 25 years.

Red Wings management and fans don’t expect that to happen again. Neither does Daley.  He believes the Wings are “a team that wants to win, has a little chip on its shoulder, and is ready to make some noise next year.”

“I want to come in and be a guy who makes an impact right away, helps out in multiple areas” he told me. “I’m a guy that can add a little bit of offense and help push the pace a little bit – that’s what the league is about. I want to be able to bring all the right things that takes to help the team win each night and do it consistently.”

The 5-foot-11, 195-pound defenseman tallied 5 goals and 14 assists in 56 regular season games last season.  He had a goal and 4 assists in 21 playoff games.

The 14-season vet has 78 goals and 200 assists in 894 career regular season games with the Penguins, Dallas Stars and Chicago Blackhawks and 6 goals and 12 assists in 71 career playoff contests.

Daley is one of only seven black players to have their names inscribed on the Stanley Cup. The others are goaltender Grant Fuhr, Edmonton Oilers, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990; goalie Eldon “Pokey” Reddick, Oilers, 1990; goalie Ray Emery, Blackhawks, 2013; defenseman Johnny Oduya, Blackhawks, 2013, 2015; right wing Jamal Mayers, Blackhawks, 2013; defenseman Dustin Byfuglien, Blackhawks, 2010.

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Trevor Daley hoists the Stanley Cup one more day – his day with the trophy

23 Saturday Jul 2016

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Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Trevor Daley devised the plan years ago. All he needed was the Stanley Cup to hatch it.

Daley accomplished that last month when the Penguins defeated the San Jose Sharks in the Stanley Cup Final, meaning that his plan for what he’d do on his day with the Cup would finally come to fruition.

Unlike other major league sports, each player on a Stanley Cup-winning team gets to have the championship trophy for a day to do whatever. Phil Pritchard, the Hockey Hall of Fame’s white-gloved Keeper of the Cup, accompanies the trophy on a summer-long journey through Canada, the United States, Russia, wherever a championship player resides.

“I’m going to bring the cup back home to where I grew up and around my neighborhoods that I grew up around playing hockey,” Toronto native Daley told Texas’ SportsDay earlier this month. “I can’t wait. Like I said, I’ve been thinking about that day for a really long time. Now that it’s come true it’s amazing.”

Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Trevor Daley, center, brought a friend with him to a local ice rink - the Stanley Cup (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).

Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Trevor Daley, center, brought a friend with him to a local ice rink – the Stanley Cup (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).

Daley took Stanley on a mini whistle-stop tour of sorts during his Cup time that stretched Friday into Saturday. First stop: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, where he played major junior hockey for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League before the Dallas Stars made him their second round pick in the 2002 NHL Draft.

Then it was on to home town Toronto for some public and private quality time with Lord Stanley’s trophy.

The Penguins’ Stanley Cup victory capped a bittersweet 2015-16 season for Daley. He was traded from the Stars to the Chicago Blackhawks before the season began, then dealt by the Hawks after 29 games to the Penguins.

Sitting on the dock of the bay, Trevor Daley and the Stanley Cup watch the tide roll away (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).

Sitting on the dock of the bay, Trevor Daley and the Stanley Cup watch the tide roll away (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).

He skated with a heavy heart as his mother, Trudy Daley, battled cancer. Her dying wish was to see her son hoist the Cup. Penguins team captain Sidney Crosby made sure that happened, handing Daley the Cup first even though Daley missed the San Jose series because of a broken ankle.

He was all smiles as he skated briefly and gingerly with the 123-year-old, 35-pound trophy that has the names of 2,000 Cup-winning players and coaches inscribed on it.

Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Trevor Daley and son with the Stanley Cup in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).

Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Trevor Daley and son with the Stanley Cup in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).

“She was pumped, she was excited,” Daley told SportsDay. “She got to see my son out there on the ice with me too so she was really excited about the whole situation. She said before the game …’It’d be nice if they win this for you tonight so you can come home and see me soon.'”

A week later, Trudy Daley passed away at age 51.

Trevor Daley and Lord Stanley hanging out at the firehouse on Daley's day with the Stanley Cup (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).

Trevor Daley and Lord Stanley hanging out at the firehouse on Daley’s day with the Stanley Cup (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).

She didn’t live to see her son’s day with the Stanley Cup. But, as part of a plan he devised so long ago, Trevor Daley’s family, friends, and others he encountered along his hockey journey had a chance to bask in Lord Stanley’s silvery glow.

“The day after he won the Stanley Cup, he called me and said ‘the Cup is coming home,’” Ryan Land, who organized a Cup-viewing for Daley at The Spice Route bar in Toronto, told The Toronto Sun. “Two weeks later, he called me with a date and said ‘plan me a Stanley Cup party and here’s what I want to do.”

Trevor Daley introduced the Stanley Cup to his old neighborhood playground (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).

Trevor Daley introduced the Stanley Cup to his old neighborhood playground (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).

When the names of the 2015-16 Penguins players are added to the Cup, Daley will join the small fraternity of black players with their names immortalized on the trophy:  goaltender Grant Fuhr (Edmonton Oilers –  1985, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990),  goalie Ray Emery (Chicago Blackhawks – 2013), defenseman Johnny Oduya (Blackhawks – 2013, 2015), wing Dustin Byfuglien (Blackhawks – 2010), and netminder Eldon “Pokey” Reddick(Oilers –  1990).

 

 

 

Trudy Daley, mom of Pens’ Trevor Daley, passes away after seeing son hoist Cup

28 Tuesday Jun 2016

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Trudy Daley got to experience every hockey mom’s dream.

She saw her son, Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Trevor Daley, hoist the Stanley Cup triumphantly over his head after the Penguins defeated the San Jose Sharks 3-1 and won the championship series in six games.

Trevor Daley’s team won the Cup earlier this month. Trudy Daley lost her life last Tuesday at the age of 51, succumbing to cancer.

“Everyone who knew Trudy, knew her big personality and great love for life. She had a sense of humor which was a little warped at times but kept people laughing,” read her obituary posted on Toronto’s McDougall & Brown Funeral Home website. “She was a fierce friend, that always had your back no matter what. She was there when you needed her.”

Trudy Daley (right) holds a photo of her son, defenseman Trevor Daley, from his playing days with the Dallas Stars (Photo/Damon Kwame Mason).

Trudy Daley (right) holds a photo of her son, defenseman Trevor Daley, from his playing days with the Dallas Stars (Photo/Damon Kwame Mason).

She passed with her dying wish fulfilled, seeing her son carrying the Cup. He didn’t play in the Stanley Cup Final because of an ankle injury.

But he was on the ice in full gear following the Pens’ Game 6 win and was the first player team captain Sidney Crosby handed the Cup to after he received it from National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman .

“He had told me that he went and seen his mom in between series and stuff, she wasn’t doing well, she wanted to see him with the Cup. That was important to her,” Crosby said. “I think that kind of stuck with me after he told me that.”

The Cup-hoisting moment was as much Trudy’s as it was Trevor’s.

There’s no mom like a hockey mom – a woman who helps tie a young pee wee player’s skates; freezes herself to the bone watching her bantam player practice at midnight; logs hundreds of thousands of miles in the beat-up family car transporting her travel team player;  and is a non-judgmental listening post and crying shoulder for the major junior player who aspires to play in the NHL.

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Trudy Daley did that and more. She and her son had to navigate issues of race in what’s still a predominantly white sport. She didn’t sugar-coat the evils of racism to her son nor would she allow bigotry to be used as a crutch or obstacle that could prevent him from achieving his career goals.

“What his father and I stressed to him was that we know who your are,” she told author Cecil Harris in his seminal book “Breaking The Ice: The Black Experience in Professional Hockey.” “But when you go out on that street you’re just another black kid. That’s how you’ll be treated. They’ll stereotype you. But think less about what certain people think about you and think more about who you really are.”

She is survived by her husband, Trevor Daley Sr., and their three children, Trevor, Tereen, Nicholas; six grand children, Deja, Trevor, Dekye, Malaya, Emery and Nicky along with her brother and sisters and countless friends.

Hockey has lost a great mom. Rest in peace, Trudy Daley.

Trevor Daley gets Stanley Cup first in tribute to the player and his ailing mom

14 Tuesday Jun 2016

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Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Trevor Daley didn’t play a minute in the Stanley Cup Final series against the San Jose Sharks.

Traded to Pittsburgh by Chicago, Trevor Daley wins the Stanley Cup.

Traded to Pittsburgh by Chicago, Trevor Daley wins the Stanley Cup.

But after National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman gave Penguins captain Sidney Crosby the Cup for vanquishing the Sharks Sunday, Crosby handed the oldest trophy competed for by professional athletes in North America to Daley  for a short skate.

Why? Because he earned it.

Crosby’s classy pass was a testament to Daley’s 2015-16 season and a career of perseverance and performance. He endured a season in which he was traded twice, skated with a heavy heart from his mother’s battle with cancer, and suffered a broken left ankle against the Tampa Bay Lightning that knocked him out of the playoffs.

But the moment that he hoisted that 34.5-pound Cup, all of Daley’s physical pain and personal heartache seemed to evaporate, knowing that his ailing mother, Trudy, would see him hold the trophy that they both desperately wanted to win.

“Daley has played such a long time. Hadn’t really even had a chance,” Crosby said following the Penguins’ 3-1 Cup-clinching victory over the Sharks. “He had been through some different playoffs, but getting hurt at the time he did, knowing how important it was, he had told me that he went and seen his mom in between series and stuff, she wasn’t doing well, she wanted to see him with the Cup. That was important to her.”

“I think that kind of stuck with me after he told me that,” Crosby added. “We were motivated to get it for him, even though he had to watch.”

Daley, 32, appreciated the gesture. He told Sportsnet that Crosby is “a great hockey player, but he’s an even better person.”

“What much more can you say about that guy? ” Daley told Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. “He’s just as good of a person as he is a hockey player, probably even better. He’s a special guy.”

There are currently 2,476 names inscribed on the Stanley Cup. Five of them belong to black players: goaltenders Grant Fuhr and Eldon “Pokey” Reddick from the Edmonton Oilers’  five championships in the 1980s and 90s; goalie Ray Emery and defensemen Johnny Oduya and Dustin Byfuglien from the Chicago Blackhawks‘ Cup-winning teams in 2013 and 2015.

Now comes Daley. He started the 2015-16 season with a Stanley Cup run in mind, though not with the Penguins. The Stars traded the veteran defenseman to the defending champion Blackhawks.

But Daley, for some inexplicable reason, wasn’t a good fit in Chicago and the Blackhawks shipped him to Pittsburgh after only 29 regular season games. He quickly meshed with a  Penguins offensively talented roster that features Crosby,  center Evgeni Malkin and right wing Phil Kessel.

Oh what a night. Trevor Daley (right) savors Stanley Cup victory with actor Cuba Gooding, Jr.(Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).

Oh what a night. Trevor Daley (right) savors Stanley Cup victory with actor Cuba Gooding, Jr.(Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).

Daley tallied 6 goals and 16 assists in 53 regular season games for Pittsburgh and 1 goal and 5 assists in 15 post-season contests before injuring his ankle. He was second among the team’s defensive corps in regular season scoring  with 22 points and second in time on ice, averaging 20:27 minutes per game.

Prior to 2015-16, Daley was a mainstay in Dallas, the team that chose him in the second round with  the 43rd overall pick of the 2002 NHL Draft. He appeared in 756 games from 2003-04 to 2014-15, ranking him eighth all-time in games played for the franchise.

He played major junior hockey for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League under head coach and general manager John Vanbiesbrouck, a former NHL All-Star goaltender.

Daley experienced hockey’s hurtful side when he learned that Vanbiesbrouck, a 2007 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, had called him the N-word. Daley temporarily left the Greyhounds on the advice of his agent, hockey legend Bobby Orr, and met with OHL Commissioner Dave Branch.

Vanbiesbrouck resigned from the Greyhounds after he admitted using the word, saying  “It’s a mistake and consequences have to be paid by me.”

“I told Trev this is an old wound with me,” Vanbiesbrouck told The Sault Star. “I grew up with it. I’m as sorry as anybody that it’s stuck with me.”

Trudy and Trevor Daley, Sr., had prepared their son for such unpleasantness.

“What his father and I stressed to him was that we know who your are,” Trudy told author Cecil Harris for his excellent book “Breaking The Ice: The Black Experience in Professional Hockey.” “But when you go out on that street you’re just another black kid. That’s how you’ll be treated. They’ll stereotype you. But think less about what certain people think about you and think more about who you really are.”

Words that Daley has apparently lived by throughout his professional career. He has a reputation as a class act; a first-on-the-ice, last-off-the-ice, locker room character guy – long-hand hockey lingo for a leader.

When the Stars traded Daley last July, Mike Heika of Texas’ SportsDay called him “one of the best guys in the room and he is a very underrated leader.”

The Penguins agreed. When Daley went down with the ankle injury, Penguins Head Coach Mike Sullivan called him “an important player on our team.”

“He’s a hard guy to replace,” the coach said. “He plays a lot of minutes. He plays in key situations…when you lose someone like Trevor that plays important minutes for us, it makes it that much tougher.”

But like Daley, the Penguins persevered and performed. And Daley got to hoist the Stanley Cup for mom.

 

 

 

 

Johnny Oduya and the Stanley Cup – together again in Stockholm

20 Thursday Aug 2015

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It was a relatively low-key affair in 2013 with then-Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Johnny Oduya and a handful of buddies dressed to the nines for a formal sit-down gathering with the Stanley Cup in an ornate wood-paneled room in Stockholm.

Oduya, now a member of the Dallas Stars, and Blackhawks center Marcus Kruger brought the Cup back to their native Sweden earlier this week, but this time Stanley was out and about for almost all to see.

Johnny Oduya, right, and former Chicago Blackhawks teammate Marcus Kruger with the Cup at Friends Arena (Photo/Phil Pritchard, Hockey Hall of Fame).

Johnny Oduya, right, and former Chicago Blackhawks teammate Marcus Kruger with the Cup at Friends Arena (Photo/Phil Pritchard, Hockey Hall of Fame).

“I felt last time the privacy was more important,” Oduya told ESPN.com’s Scott Powers in an excellent piece on the Cup’s day and night in Stockholm. “You want to do your things, kind of. Whereas this time, I think we both feel that we can combine some things and make it a bigger thing for friends and family.”

Phil Pritchard, the globe-trotting white-gloved keeper of the Stanley Cup, took some photos of the Stockholm visit. Oduya’s moments with the Cup close his Blackhawks career. In June, Oduya signed a two-year contract with the Stars that will reportedly pay him $3.75 million annually.

Oduya, left, and Marcus Kruger visit Stockholm's Children's Hospital with the Stanley Cup (Photo/Phil Pritchard, Hockey Hall of Fame).

Oduya, left, and Marcus Kruger visit Stockholm’s Children’s Hospital with the Stanley Cup (Photo/Phil Pritchard, Hockey Hall of Fame).

“I see this as kind of an ending to what’s before,” Oduya told Powers. “From this day, I can kind of move forward. Of course, you get mixed emotions at some point. I could have had this day in June and it wouldn’t have been a problem. I see it as the final or whatever you say of what was, and this day forward you can move on.”