Former Kings captain Mattias Norstrom was in town late last week – and contrary to what you might be thinking, he wasn’t meeting with Dean Lombardi to come out of retirement.
Yes, with Matt Greene out of the line-up for at least another month, perhaps much longer, the Kings could use Norstrom’s warrior mentality and intimidating nature out on the ice. But, that’s not what brought him back to LA. He’s actually spending time in California working on a documentary about youth hockey.
We had an in-depth discussion with him about a variety of topics and we’ll be posting several articles throughout the week to pass along what he had to say, including about the movie project, the Blue Jackets hiring the NHL’s first European General Manager, Anze Kopitar playing in Sweden during the lockout, his coaching desires and much more.
First though, we’ll pass along comments about the Stanley Cup and one of his former teammates, Ian Laperriere.
Regarding the Kings’ Stanley Cup run last June, we shared with Norstrom the funny story Derek Armstrong had told MayorsManor late last summer – about how he watched the Kings’ playoff games while sitting in his basement wearing his old Kings jersey.
“I’m not surprised at all,” Norstrom said with a big laugh. “I get that mental picture in my head right away. I don’t have any stories that could even come close to that one. But, I did watch the games.”
With the time change over in Sweden, it was a bit of a challenge though.
“I was watching every single game,” he said. “Not the whole playoffs, but the Finals. I was getting up at 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning, but it was worth every minute of it.”
Which lead to the obvious question, as the former captain, what did it mean to see the Kings finally lift the Cup?
“It meant a lot for the people that I knew, guys I played with, and people I was in the organization with. I’m also a strong believer that the Cup belongs to the players at the time. It doesn’t belong to what I did before and the history. The Cup belongs to the players and the support people around that year’s team. I was envious. I wish I could be part of that team. After eleven years I daydreamed about being able to hoist that Cup up. I never got to do it, so I envied them. I would love to change places with them. But they deserved it. It was that team that did it.”
Norstrom was previously recognized by the organization with his own Appreciation Ceremony, something one of his former teammates will get this Saturday at Staples Center. So, he was quick to share some thoughts on Laperriere as well.
“For me, the greatest thing another player could say about me is, ‘I’ll take you on my team any day.’ And that’s how I feel about Lappy. The kind of player and person he was, still is, I’ll take that guy on my team any day. So, I think for me that says everything about Lappy because there’s so many people that feel just that way about Lappy. That’s how he was out there. He sacrificed his body and I think he’s still paying a price for it.”
In advance of his Appreciation Ceremony this weekend, Laperriere was on the MayorsManor show today and we passed along Norstrom’s comments regarding the Cup – then asked for his reaction to what had been said.
“I agree with Matty…Army’s got issues, but we don’t,” Laperriere said with one of his trademark laughs.
“You know what, I feel like Matty, it belongs to those guys,” he continued. “They put the sweat and effort in. I’m happy for guys I played with Brownie, Carter, Richards and Richardson – I played with him in Colorado too. Guys I played with, I’m happy for them individually. But, I don’t feel like I was part of any of that. It’s their time, they deserve it. And I think coach Sutter and Dean Lombardi – those two guys did an awesome job, an unbelievable job turning that team around. Because they were so close to not making the playoffs, and everybody knew they were a better team than where they were. But it’s one thing to sell who they are, but you really have to show up, and they did. They turned it around at the right time. But to go back to your question, I’m with Matty on that thing. I’m happy for them, but I didn’t feel a part of any of that for sure.”
As it always is with Laperriere, we had a great conversation about all sorts of topics. If you haven’t already listened to the interview, click here now to see what else he had to say.
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