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Thanks, Rangers.com
Losing a loved one is devastating. Losing your mother unexpectedly on Mother’s Day weekend can be debilitating.
Rangers winger is no stranger to playing inspired hockey under adverse circumstances. He and his former Tampa GM Steve Yzerman went their separate ways after Team Canada won its second straight Olympic gold medal in February. Marty was stiffed off the team in 2010 by Yzerman. He was left off the team again in 2014. St. Louis took the place of his injured for Bolts teammate Steven Stamkos. When the Sochi games ended, St. Louis took his gold medal and skated from Tampa to Manhattan, citing irreconcilable differences with Yzerman. St. Louis thought that that was adversity. Boy, was he wrong. His mother passed away of an unexpected heart attack on Thursday. It would have totally justified and understood if St. Louis opted to fly home to Montreal to grieve with his family. Instead, he played the game. His presence inspired his teammates to play their best game of the series against Pittsburgh. St. Louis was held off the score sheet, however, his teammates, to a man, played their asses off for him. He inspired each and every man to block out all in-game distractions and to play at his very best for 60 minutes.
"I know deep down my mother would have wanted me to play this game, she'd be proud of me coming here to help"-Martin St. Louis #NYRPlayoffs
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) May 10, 2014
Mission accomplished.
St. Louis decided to rejoin his teammates for Game Five against the Pittsburgh Penguins 24 hours after his mother had passed away and he had flown to Montreal to be with his father. His Rangers teammates welcomed him home with open arms and they rallied around their grey-haired leader to play an inspired brand of playoff hockey against Geno, Sid and the surging Penguins.
Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers supported St. Louis in his moment of need.
The Rangers would draw first blood on the power play, then scored the second goal of the game. Before you knew it, the score was 4-1 Rangers. They made Marc Andre Fleury look like a mere mortal after he has pitched 145 straight minutes of shutout hockey at the Rangers in Games 3 and 4.
The refuse to lose Rangers now trail this second-round series three games to two.
VIDEO: Martin St. Louis receives the #NYR Broadway Hat and adds to the #NYRPlayoffs puzzle. http://t.co/rFX5oEBtRb pic.twitter.com/YDOTrVXnNJ
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) May 10, 2014
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His name is Geno. He is a scoring machine.
He was born to do this. You were not.
Do not try this at home.
***
Team Canada should be disgusted and that it lost to the French in their preliminary round game at the 2014 Worlds in Minsk. The French scored a shocking 3-2 shootout win over Canada. One gets the sense that the Canadian players thought that they had this one in the bank before they played the game All due respect to France, but Canada should not be losing to them in anything competitive, let alone ice hockey. What a crock. I don’t care if it was a tune-up game. Canada should not be leaving money on the table to inferior competition. It sucks that their buddies are competing for the Stanley Cup in the NHL playoffs and they are stuck playing at The Worlds. Too bad. Suck it up, boys. You were invited to compete for your country. Put a little oomph into your effort.
The two-time defending Olympic gold medal champions entered the France game seeking its first IIHF World Championship gold medal since 2007. Canada has not earned a medal at the Worlds since 2009.
On Friday, France was the better team.
It was just the second French win ever over Canada at the World Championship, dating back to 1931.
Ottawa Senator Stephane Da Costa scored two power play goals for the winners. Brayden Schenn and Erik Gudbranson scored for Canada. Cody Hodgson added an assist for Canada. After the loss, the red-in-the-face Canadian players faced the music.
"We have a lot of hockey left to play in this tournament and we just have to get better," said Toronto Maple Leafs D Morgan Rielly. "We didn’t play our best."
Team Canada head coach Dave Tippett lamented hi steam’s lack of sustained pressure on French net minder and former Montreal tendy Cristobal Huet.
"France defended very well in front of their net," said Canadian coach Dave Tippett. "We didn't create enough opportunities, and [French goalie Cristobal] Huet made some big saves for them. It shows how hard this tournament is. It shows how hard teams are going to play against Canada. It's a good lesson for our young players."
Huet got the better of Canada’s Kyle Turris, Sean Monahan, and Matt Read in the shootout. Huet was the first Frenchman to win the Stanley Cup in 2010 as a Chicago Blackhawks backup. Canada outshot France 36-29.
Huet told the IIHF in his postgame presser that he’s proud of his French teammates.
"It’s huge for us," said Huet. "This doesn’t happen all the time, but it’s two tournaments in a row that we have beaten a big team and that gives us confidence that we can play anyone if we play structured and play with passion and good defense first. We don’t have the talent of Canada, Sweden, Russia, but we have to play as a team and frustrate our opponents."
Stephane da Costa's PPG got the scoring started in the first period frame.
Canada quickly equalized on the power play before the first buzzer. At 19:46, Cody Hodgson sent a nice pass from the left-side boards to Schenn, who blew a wicked wrister glove-high on Huet.
"I was beat, but you know, inspiration," said Huet.
Late in the second period, Canada ran into a stretch of penalty trouble, including a pair of slashing minors to Troy Brouwer. But France couldn’t capitalize even with two 5-on-3 advantages.
Florida Panthers D Erik Gudbranson gave Canada a 2-1 lead just past the halfway mark of the third period, a circus shot that kissed of the post and off off Huet’s skates as he was down in his butterfly.N athan MacKinnon drew the assist.
Da Costa tied it up with 7:25 remaining in the period.
"I thought we made some critical errors on the kills that came back to bite us," said Tippett.
The game was decided by the skills competition.
Canada won’t get fooled again. Or, will they?
Thanks, IIHF