The Rangers did what they could to try to accommodate the grieving Martin St. Louis, and yet the NHL was in the unfortunate situation from which it could not budge.
According to coach Alain Vigneault, the Rangers asked the league to move the time of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals in Montreal back from it’s proposed 1 p.m. start so as to allow St. Louis to have the funeral for his mother in the afternoon. Even the attempted effort of the NHL could not override the logistics of the situation — including the locked-in time slot for NBC on Saturday afternoon, leading into coverage of The Preakness Stakes at 4:30 p.m.
So instead, St. Louis — whose mother, France, died of a heart attack at the age of 63 on May 8 — moved the funeral to Sunday, and the declared intention is for the whole team to attend. St. Louis’ hometown is Laval, Quebec, just outside Montreal.
“The funeral was to supposed to be Saturday,” Vigneault said after his team had an optional practice on Thursday at the training center in Westchester. “We couldn’t move the time of the game, so Marty, being who he is, was able to move the funeral to Sunday.
“So, Sunday, as a team, we’ll be able to attend his mother’s funeral and, hopefully, we’ll play a good game Saturday and get ready for the next one after.”
St. Louis came to the Rangers at the March 5 trade deadline, and yet despite his one goal in 19 regular-season games, ingratiated himself in the fabric of the team almost immediately. The day his mother died, the team landed in Pittsburgh preparing to play Game 5 of its second-round series against the Penguins, down in the best-of-seven contest, 3-1.
The 38-year-old winger flew back to Montreal, and returned in time for the following night’s game, galvanizing the Rangers group to begin a three-game win streak to blow by the Penguins and into the conference finals.
“Sometimes you need a reminder it’s about us in here and what we can do together,” goalie Henrik Lundqvist said. “When you look at our game, Games 3 and 4 and compare them to 5, 6, and 7, it looked like it went from wanting to do it all on our own to wanting to do it together and just being on the same page. It was great to see how we came together.”
Added Vigneault, “To battle back the way we did, and to go through [what we did] with Marty, a tough moment there — obviously I think it brought our team tighter and closer together.”