(Nashville) The Bill-Masterton trophy is not what players dream of winning. Those who receive it are certainly rewarded for their perseverance, their sportsmanship and their commitment to their sport, so many noble values. But it is often after a major event that it is awarded.
The nomination of Kristopher Letang for the Masterton Trophy follows this tradition. If he is one of the three finalists, and if he has such a good chance of winning, it is because he has kept his head above water during a trying season at the personal plan.
On November 28, the Quebecer suffered a stroke. A second already for this athlete in his mid-thirties.
Five games later, he spent more than 22 minutes on the ice in a Pittsburgh Penguins win over the Buffalo Sabres.
Just a few weeks later, he was mourning the passing of his father.
It is therefore easy to believe the 36-year-old defender when he says that over the past year, “it has always been a little difficult to focus 100% mentally on hockey”.
Crossed on the red carpet preceding the presentation of the NHL trophies, in Nashville, Letang quickly returned to these difficult months.
“Physically it was okay, but mentally it was hard,” he admitted. There were big troughs in the waves… Sometimes things were going well, hockey allowed me to think about something else. I’m glad we’re moving on. »
The fact of being a father – his wife and their two children accompany him elsewhere in the city of country – has also given him a new perspective on his misadventures. Despite himself, he had to face a number of injuries and hardships during his career, which began in 2006. However, “when you are with children, there is a lot more in the equation”, he said. -it finds. “It takes a lot of support. »
However, he believes that to be rewarded for his perseverance, to “maybe have a trophy in the house that [souligne], it can be a source of motivation for them. »
He also wanted to share this appointment “with [sa] family, with people who [l’ont] supported and helped to get through all these things”. His Penguins teammates, for example, had mobilized to attend his father’s funeral in Quebec, adding a serious detour to a trip that was to take them to the other side of the continent. But they wanted to be there for him. And he wants to thank them today.
Letang, moreover, wanted to pay tribute to Clayton Keller and Alex Stalock, named like him for the Bill-Masterton trophy. “They deserve it as much as I do,” he insisted.