Former Pittsburgh Penguins forward Pascal Dupuis was forced to retire in December due to a medical condition related to blood clots.
The 15-year veteran and member of the Penguins’ 2009 Stanley Cup championship squad remains with the club in a special assistant role.
Following Pittsburgh’s Game 7 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference final, Penguins captain Sidney Crosby delivered the Prince of Wales Trophy to Dupuis, who stood on the bench with the team’s scratches. It was a nice moment that showcased the bond between longtime teammates.
Dupuis opened up about the condition that led him to hang up his skates earlier this season, and the passion for the game that fuelled him to try to continue his career before arriving at his decision, for The Players’ Tribune in a piece titled “Why We Play the Game.”
Here are a few highlights from Dupuis’ emotional piece.
On calling his wife following a November medical scare in Edmonton:
I called my wife and said, “Hey, honey, I’m heading to the hospital now. I gotta get checked out. I felt something.”
That’s obviously not a fun call for her to get. I made another one from San Jose a few weeks later. It got to a point where she wasn’t watching my games anymore. She wouldn’t come to the rink. She was scared to lose me.
She deserves a lot of credit. She never said a word. She was hoping that I would stop, but she didn’t say anything because she knows what playing hockey means to me. I promised her that if I felt anything like I felt before, when I had the clot in my lung, I would go get checked, no questions asked.
Everybody around me was scared for me. But to be honest, I was almost oblivious. I had a one-track mind: keep playing hockey. But the calls to my wife became a little too routine.
On the difficulty of walking away from the game:
As a player, you get such a big high from the crowd. Nothing can replace it. Everybody feels down sometimes — I don’t care who you are. When you’re a hockey player, and you can go out and score a goal or just have a nice hit and hear 18,000 people cheer for you? That fixes any problem in the world.
When that’s gone, it can be very difficult.
On staying involved with the Penguins through the playoffs:
When I get to the rink, I can’t stay in my suit. I feel like a clown. So I throw on my hockey underwear and my tracksuit and work out with the guys before the game. I ride the stationary bike like a maniac — like it’s Game 7 of the Stanley Cup. I even shoot pucks behind the training room while the team is warming up. Then when it’s game time I put my suit back on and head up to the executive box. Whatever I see from up there that I think can help the team, I try to relay to them between periods.
Is it all sunshine and rainbows? No, it sucks. I want to play hockey. But as much as it kills me to not be out there, I care about these guys so much. I just want to help them win however I can.
Coach Sully’s line on me is: There’s a team picture. There’s a coaches picture. Duper’s got one foot in both pictures, sitting on the fence.
Some words of inspiration for his Penguins teammates:
Give them hell, boys. You never know how many more shifts you have left.
Read Pascal Dupuis’ “Why We Play the Game” in its entirety here.
