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Marleau, Thornton Enjoy Themselves on Media Day
- Updated: May 30, 2016
PITTSBURGH — San Jose Sharks forward Patrick Marleau has been close enough to the Stanley Cup to touch it. But his fingers have never even grazed the sterling bowl, nor the collar beneath it, nor the distinctive rings beneath that.
“The nicest thing about the Stanley Cup? That would be winning it, being able to touch it,” Marleau said with a soft laugh Sunday, daring for just a moment to entertain the thought.
“I’ve never touched it, no. I’ve had opportunities. I’ve been near it. But I think it’s something… a lot of people don’t touch it until they’ve actually earned it, or you’re close to somebody who’s earned it.”
Marleau might or might not have noticed that the Stanley Cup was bathed in lights just a few short steps from where he was speaking, displayed on the NHL Network set.
“Just the majesty of it,” he said, describing what he loves best about the trophy. “The design. The rings. Everything it takes to put the names on it. It’s something special, that’s for sure. Going through four rounds of best-of-7 grueling hockey, I’d put that up there, too.”
After 1,230 regular-season NHL games and 85 more in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, here we are at that fourth round: seven games or fewer between the Sharks and the Pittsburgh Penguins to decide the NHL’s 2015-16 champion. Game 1 of the Final is at Consol Energy Center on Monday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, TVA Sports).
But first came Sunday, with practices for the teams on what’s known as Media Day, a feeding frenzy for reporters who flocked to formal midday press conferences featuring management and coaches, and to eight “pods” on the arena’s Concourse Level for colossal scrums to interview players.
If the practices began on schedule, many of the interview opportunities were fashionably late; you’d expect that with the myriad demands on everyone on the eve of the most meaningful hockey of the season.
This is not the NHL of yesterday, when a handful of scribblers would wander casually from player to player in the dressing room, if they didn’t sit with them to shoot the breeze in hotel lobbies on …
continue reading in source sharks.nhl.com
