DWAYNE KETTNER AND JOHN SALTASUK
The ByWard Market, May 23, 2017. Game 6 of the NHL Eastern Conference finals.
John Saltasuk (in Sens sweater): “I live in Regina now, but I’m originally from small-town Saskatchewan. Born and raised in a place called Whitewood. About a thousand people. A three-elevator town on the Trans-Canada; you blink and you miss it. But in high school I liked politics for some strange reason, so I liked Ottawa and paid attention to Ottawa. And for some reason I gravitated to the Senators while my friends were Edmonton or Jets fans or what have you. The earliest thing I can remember is Radek Bonk’s mullet, so that’s what I always go back to. How long have I been a Sens fan? Since Radek Bonk had the hair. And out of almost 33 years of life in Saskatchewan, I know of three other Senators fans in the whole province — that I’ve run across, at least.
“So Dwayne and I have been best friends since we were, like, eight. He’s been a lifelong Pens fan. And we decided there’s not very many opportunities to see our teams play each other, so we flew in (Tuesday)
to see tonight’s game.” Dwayne Kettner (in Pens sweater): “I moved to Calgary a couple of years ago. I became a Pens fan in the early ’90s — back-to-back Stanley Cup champions when Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr were in their heyday. My older brother was a Penguins fan, so I had to do whatever he did. And I’ve been a Pens fan ever since. That’s a bit of a rarity in Saskatchewan; as John said, most people there are fans of either the Flames, the Jets or the Oilers. I’ve made a few trips to Pittsburgh to games, and people down there are amazed to know that I’m actually from Canada and I’m a Pittsburgh Penguins fan. Like I should be a Canadian team fan, but I’m not.” JS: “So we flew in (Tuesday) morning and are just trying to take in a bit of the Ottawa culture before game night. I’m thinking that whoever loses should buy the drinks for the rest of the night, just to rub salt in the wound.”
Q: Do you have a favourite hockey story?
JS: “Like any good Prairie kid, I grew up playing hockey. I played AA Midget, and one of the best experiences for me was winning the league championship in my last game of competitive minor-league hockey. It was the Pipestone Valley Jets, in Whitewood, and we played teams from communities of five, ten, fifteen thousand. That was during my last high-school year, so that was a nice sendoff from my childhood, I guess. It was awesome.” DK: “I was always a big Mario Lemieux fan, and he was out of the league for a number of years battling his Hodgkin’s disease and his back issues. And when he came back, in his first game back, against the Maple Leafs, he scored a goal. I remember his return quite vividly.”