Amidst the hoopla and congratulations going out to the Anaheim Ducks on winning the Stanley Cup, I thought I'd share a couple personal recollections about three members of the Ducks team: Teemu Selänne, Joe DiPenta and Samuel Påhlsson.
Every player on both the champion Ducks and runner-up Sens has stories to tell of the long, arduous road to playing for the Cup.
These are three I can share first-hand.
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While most fans recall Teemu Selänne's extraordinary 76-goal, 132-point rookie season as a member of the Winnipeg Jets, not as many remember that he suffered a serious knee injury his second season that limited his effectiveness and contributed to what has developed into varying degrees of chronic pain throughout his career.
When he was with Anaheim the first time around, he was the very first player I wrote a feature article on in 1999-2000 when I was getting my start with the long defunct Pro Hockey Euro Report.
Selänne, who had already been answering questions from others and to hurry to the team bus was extremely gracious with every remaining minute he had to talk to me. I've always appreciated that.
Selänne has played 80 or more games in five of his last six seasons. A friend of mine named Antti Niiranen who has written for a hockey magazine in Finland once asked Selänne how he was feeling as he stood there with an ice pack on his hand and another wrapped around his knee.
The reply: "I feel great... We won."
The same player whom one Canadian newspaper columnist dubbed the "Finnish Flash in the Pan" as he slumped in his injury-plagued second season and many years later was later written off again after struggling with Colorado has withstood the test of time.
A player who has sometimes been derided as "soft" is the same one spit out several teeth at the Olympics last year and kept on playing.
The same player who has sometimes been called one-dimensional was defended way back when by his former coach, John Paddock who said "In the last ten minutes of a one-goal game, he's as good defensively as anyone on our club." And that remains true to this day, no matter what anyone claims. Goal scoring is what he's always done best, but he can and will play two-way hockey when that's what's most needed of him. In these Cup Finals, he had several nice defensive plays that went largely unnoticed.
The same guy who has been criticized for folding up in the playoffs scored several crucial goals for the Ducks. And tonight, everyone got to see just what meaning the Cup means to him.
It means more than the 540 goals he's scored in his career -- combined.
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Watching Joe DiPenta hoist the Cup tonight made me recall him as a minor league defenseman with the Philadelphia Phantoms, waiting in vain for a call-up to the big club.
A reliable, but far from eye-catching AHL stay at home blueliner, DiPenta wanted to find some role, any role, for himself at the NHL level.
In order to improve his balance (and, wnen needed, fighting ability) he took up the Korean martial art of Tang Soo Do. He also worked on his skating, worked on his strength.... worked, worked, worked.
After five years as a pro, which is about the point a player gets labeled a career minor leaguer, DiPenta had only played three NHL games. But to his credit, he kept plugging away and finally got an NHL team, the Ducks, to give him a shot.
He may never be more than a sixth or seventh defenseman, but he's now one who will get his name on the Stanley Cup.
For a few days anyway, Joe DiPenta will be the toast of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, instead of Sidney Crosby. And he'll be the first one to bring the Cup there.
***
Back in October of 2000, Martin Sedin, my good friend from Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, and I worked together on a story about the Sedin twins (no relation to Marty) when they made their NHL debut in Philadelphia at the start of the season. A huge contigent of Swedish reporters were there to cover the game.
Two nights later, the Boston Bruins came to Philadelphia as another NHL rookie from Ö-vik, Samuel Påhlsson made his debut for the Bruins.
This time, the only Swedish journalists there were Marty and Pelle Hägglund, a writer for the Örnsköldsvik daily newspaper were there.
After the game, then-Bruins coach Pat Burns said, "He's going to be a really good two-way player for us. He's a really smart kid."
Påhlsson himself, though, wasn't so sure. Asked if he had found an apartment yet in Boston he said no-- he was still staying in a hotel, because he might get sent to the minors.
Påhlsson stood chatting with Pelle and Marty, mostly about the game but also about non-hockey stuff.
Finally, one of the Boston equipment guys motioned to Påhlsson that it was time to leave to board the bus and said "Eh, Sammy! Don't wanna leave yoooou behind!"
Sammy made it on the bus.
But Mike Keenan, who took over for Burns shortly thereafter, did leave him behind; having Mike O'Connell ditch him at the first opportunity in a deal with Anaheim. Keenan made no bones about the fact that he wasn't a big fan of what he'd seen from Påhlsson.
Tonight, Sammy has tied good ol' Iron Mike with one Cup ring apiece.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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