St. Louis Honors His Mother: May 11th, 2014
The best part of watching sports is when a significant event in an athlete’s life inspires greatness.
That is just what happened after Martin St. Louis received a devastating call that his mother passed away.
St. Louis received the call before game five of the 2014 Eastern Conference Semi Finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
He was very close with his mother and he describes his relationship in an article he wrote for The Players’ Tribune entitled “Show Them”.
“What my mom gave me was the mental toughness to not let anything stand in the way of my dream.
Every night when she put me to bed as a child, she’d stay in my room for a little while and say the same thing: “Show them! Don’t worry about what they say about your size. Go out there and show them how good you are!”
Here was the thing: I believed her.”
So here was St. Louis, who just lost his beloved mother in the middle of a second round playoff series in which his team was mounting a historic comeback.
Game six was played on Mother’s Day, and what better time for St. Louis to honor his mother.
Four minutes into the game Derek Stepan shot a quick backhand in the slot, which bounced off of Marc-André Fleury.
Still in the air, the puck then rebounded off of St. Louis’s shin pad and into the net. The following celebration was one of loudest that Madison Square Garden saw that spring.
St. Louis describes the moment after the goal:
“As soon as my teammates started skating back to the bench — and I have no idea how — the puck came to my skate and rested right there on the ice in front of me. In that moment, I knew my mom was there. She had helped me score that goal. I felt her with me, smiling down. I’ll never forget that.”
Martin St. Louis will never be remembered as one of the greatest Rangers of all time, but he sure did play with one of the biggest hearts.
