Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
No joy in hometown Cup win
Pittsburgh native Trocheck wants a title for Panthers
CORAL SPRINGS — Vincent Trocheck still considers it special any time he returns to play in his hometown of Pittsburgh before family and friends.
The feeling is very different than what the Panthers center felt when he went home following a hard-to-swallow loss in the playoffs and watched the Penguins, the team he once idolized, roll all the way to the Stanley Cup.
“I don’t think it was sweet at all. I play against them now, so they’re obviously rivals,” Trocheck said before the Panthers embarked on a four-city trip that begins Tuesday at Pittsburgh.
“Nobody wants another team to win. It wasn’t exactly fun to go home and watch them and have the parade in my backyard, basically. So it was all bitter, no sweet.”
At 23, all elements of the fan have been weaned out of the kid from Pittsburgh. There was no vic- arious joy when the Penguins hoisted the Cup.
“No, I was not rooting for them,”
Trocheck said, grimly.
If anything, the bitter pill of someone else’s celebration hardened his resolve in pursuit of the same objective. Along with several of his up-and-coming teammates, that was cemented in the offseason with a longterm contract — Trocheck’s is for six years and $28.5 million.
A rising offensive force, coming off a 25-goal season, he has already netted three goals in five games to help spearhead the Panthers’ 3-1-1 start.
While they have already tangled with quality opponents such as Washington and Tampa Bay, the first substantial trip of the season — with subsequent stops at Toronto, Buffalo and Detroit during the six-day tour — will provide the best early gauge of the team so far.
The Panthers have played the Penguins tough recently. Although Pittsburgh won two of the three meetings last season, both were decided by power-play goals in overtime.
“We’re a good match-up against them because we’ve got a good team,” Trocheck said. “Whenever good teams play each other, the competitiveness is risen and the adrenaline goes a little bit higher.”
The Penguins are off to a 3-2-1 start with Sidney Crosby sidelined by a concussion, but the superstar practiced Monday for the first time without restrictions. Although Crosby is listed day-to-day, Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan did not rule him out.
Whether or not the highscoring center plays, the challenge of the week for the Panthers is clear.
“You’ve got to be able to test yourself, especially early on … and figure out if you have that ‘it’ factor to go far into the playoffs,” Trocheck said. “I think so far we’re getting into the roll of things. Think we definitely match up well against most teams in the league.”
The Panthers are missing a key component on Trocheck’s line, with left wing Jussi Jokinen out with a lower-body injury for at least the first two games of the trip, coach Gerard Gallant said. Sami Hoffren, a hockey writer from Finland based in Toronto, tweeted that his countryman will be “out at least two weeks.”
Gallant had praise for Kyle Rau, who took Jokinen’s place during Saturday’s 5-2 win against Colorado and will continue in that role.
“I thought Kyle was great,” Gallant said. “He played really hard. It doesn’t surprise me what he does. He goes hard to the net for a small guy. He competes, he makes good plays. I really like him. He’s got a good hockey mind.”
Revisiting past
Reunions will be a theme at each stop on the trip, as former Maple Leafs goalie James Reimer makes his first return to Toronto and defenseman Mark Pysyk does the same at Buffalo, where he played for the Sabres. Visiting Detroit is always notable for Gallant, who played for the Red Wings, and defenseman Aaron Ekblad, who grew up across the river in Windsor, Ontario.
“It’s exciting. It was a special time in Toronto,” Reimer said. “I enjoyed myself there, the team I was drafted by. It will be fun to go back and have a good game against them.”
Curiously, Gallant said Reimer will be in goal at Pittsburgh, which would suggest Roberto Luongo will get the start Thursday in Toronto, with each likely getting a turn in the back-toback weekend games.
Meanwhile, Trocheck expects to have 50 family members in friends in the stands as usual when he plays in his hometown for the first time since last October, when he was just beginning his breakout NHL season.
Much has changed since, with the Penguins winning the title and even the venue undergoing a name change to the PPG Paints Arena. But Trocheck appreciates what remains the same.
“It’s always fun to be able to go home and play in front of family members coming out to watch,” he said.
Panthers at Penguins
When/where: 7 p.m., PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh TV: FSF; Radio: 560-AM, 640-AM. Scouting report: The 3-1-1 Panthers’ first lengthy trip (four games in six days) begins against the defending champions, who are 3-2-1. The Penguins were victimized by a flurry of odd-man rushes, and G Marc-Andre Fleury was pulled after giving up the five goals in two periods. The champs haven’t lost at home (3-0-1), and Fleury is 17-3-2 in his last 22 starts there. C Sidney Crosby (concussion) hasn’t played this season but returned to practice Monday and hasn’t been ruled out. … G James Reimer, getting his second start for the Panthers, allowed three goals in an OT loss to Tampa Bay. Former Lightning F Jonathan Marchessault leads Panthers with seven points (3-4). The Panthers have allowed only one power-play goal.