CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Regrets? Kris Letang has had a few, but none that came when dashing up and down on a 200-by-85 foot sheet of ice.
If he had to, he says, you bet he’d gladly throw every check, absorb every hit to make a play all over again.
“I always think about it,” Letang said. “What if some nights I didn’t take those hits and I just tried to live for another day? You know, it was me. It was my personality.
“I’m a guy that’s trying on every little play. I won’t live with regrets. I’m part of a team that knows what kind of player I am and I’m ready to put everything on the line. I won’t have any regrets because of that.”
Letang has thrown his smallish-for-a-defenseman, 6-foot, 201-pound frame around with reckless abandon, and it has caught up to him at times in a most-remarkable 12-year career. If that has cost him a Norris Trophy, official recognition as one of the NHL’s premier defenseman, so be it.
He has earned plenty of team awards, most notably three Stanley Cup championships, but he is in the running again for one individual award. For the third time in his career, Letang is the Pittsburgh chapter of the Pro Hockey Writers Association’s nominee for the Masterton Trophy.
“It’s a great honor,” he says. “But at the same time it’s always because of an injury or something that happened. But it’s good to be back.”
The Masterton is awarded to the player who “best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.” Letang has certainly come to be defined by perseverance and dedication.
He was the Pittsburgh PHWA’s nominee in 2014 and ’15 after suffering multiple concussions and a stroke, a health scare from which he returned just 10 weeks later.
Last spring, a neck injury that required surgery cost him half a season and helping the Penguins’ run to a second straight Stanley Cup. After being off skates for eight months, Letang returned and has played in 73 of 76 games this season, while averaging a team-high 25:20 per game.
“He’s an elite player. He’s a real good two-way defensemen. He’s every bit as good a defender as he is on the offensive side,” Mike Sullivan said. “And when he’s playing at his best, he’s one of the top defensemen in the league. So nothing surprises me for what he’s capable of.”
But for all the injuries and episodes he’s endured, his latest absence has proved to be his most trying professionally. He has registered six goals and 39 assists for 45 points — OK, by his standards — but his decision making with and without the puck has been shaky. Last week, he was taken off the No. 1 power play unit and was separated from longtime defense partner Brian Dumoulin.
“I think it was an adjustment,” Letang said of his season. “I didn’t think it would be that much work, and through the first few months, I was a work in progress. It was hard. I was not expecting it. But I’m making strides, and I think as the games are going to get more important, my game is going to rise. I’m excited for that.”
The thing that keeps bringing him back, he says, is simple: Love of the game and competition.
“I love hockey, that’s the main thing. I just love to be out there,” Letang said. “I like to work on different things. I always try to improve. Even in the summer, even if I’m 30 years old now, I try and get stronger, and try to work on different things.”
Through all the trials and tribulations, the married father of one son — he and his wife, Catherine LaFlamme, are expecting a girl later this year — says the past year has changed his perspective on life and on hockey.
“When you go through so much adversity or go through those things, you learn about yourself, you learn through those situations and you get better and you get stronger,” he said. “I think it improved me as a person. Sometimes, you don’t realize how lucky you are to play, I had a chance to kind of live that last year when I watched the guys play (in the postseason). When I came back, you never know when it’s going to stop or when you’re going to be on the sidelines. I enjoy every moment right now.”
Only two Penguins, Lowell MacDonald (1973) and Mario Lemieux (1993) have gone on to win the Masterton.
