During his post-game presser on Saturday night Kings’ coach Darryl Sutter shared a few comments about former goaltender Kelly Hrudey…
“I coached him his last year (in San Jose),” he began. “And then Mike Vernon – we were lucky to have two guys, (we) hadn’t been a very good club. And coming into that, they had Irbe in goal before that. Then they brought Kelly in, and Verny in. They were both older guys. The best thing about Kelly, he was a strong guy in the locker room. He was at the end of his career, so obviously I never got to see him when he was at his best on the ice. He was an awesome guy in the room. He could’ve been captain of the team. You can’t say that about many goalies, right? And that was the strength. He was still a voice of reason, and he was still really good with young players. So that’s the number one thing. I always said that the reason we made the playoffs that first year in San Jose, when I went there my first year, was because of Mike Vernon and Kelly Hrudey…He’s an awesome guy. Good family.”
We have two huge interviews with Hrudey up on the site right now. Click here to read his perspective on being pulled in the early part of the Kings 1993 playoff run, and click here to listen to his visit to MayorsManor radio – where he talks about his tremendous respect for Dean Lombardi, the emotions of preparing for his speech before Saturday’s Appreciation Ceremony and memories of some of the Kings’ biggest rivals.
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