Because of Martin St. Louis' diminutive size, succeeding in the NHL was a longshot. He not only made it, he's a star.
By JOANNE KORTH
Published May 25, 2004
[Times photo: Dirk Shadd]
Lightning's Martin St. Louis, at 5 feet 8, 181 pounds, started the All-Star game this season and is a finalist for the Hart Trophy.
It didn't take 10-year-old Martin St. Louis long to size up the new kid at hockey practice and classify him a threat to his position on the team, one St. Louis did not want to surrender.
He took immediate action.
St. Louis ran over to little Eric Perrin and told the boy to turn around, Perrin's father, Bob, recalled recently. The two stood back to back for a critical measurement.
"I'm shorter by a quarter of an inch - yeah!" St. Louis said.
Today, it's hard to find anyone bigger.
St. Louis - all 5 feet 8, 181 pounds of him - is all the rage in the NHL this season, scoring a league-high 94 points for the East champion Lightning. He started the NHL All-Star Game and is a finalist for the Hart Trophy, awarded to the league's MVP.
Tonight, St. Louis will lead Tampa Bay into Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final against Calgary, a team that four years ago didn't believe the diminutive player measured up to NHL greatness.
"This is not about me, the playoffs," St. Louis said. "It's about our team. A lot of individual stuff gets achieved during the regular season, but I think in the playoffs it's a team. I'm not going to sit here and say I want to win so I can show people I'm a good player. I think the true hockey people, they know what I can do and they have seen it."
They have now.
An underdog at every level of hockey because of his size, St. Louis was released after two seasons with the Flames, who used him primarly on a checking line. Signed as a longshot free agent by Tampa Bay in 2000, St. Louis has blossomed into one of the league's most explosive players, able to impact a game from anywhere on the ice.
A pesky forechecker.
A skillful passer.
A masterful scorer.
Using speed and quickness, St. Louis set franchise records this season with eight short-handed goals, most in the league, and seven winning goals. In the playoffs, his short-handed goal turned the quarterfinal series against the Islanders and his overtime goal clinched it.
A national audience took notice.
But that is not St. Louis' mission.
"Right now, it's to establish ourselves as a team, as guys who want to be winners," he said. "And that's the most important thing, not how good a player I'm going to be.
"It's a lot of fun. Sometimes you don't realize what you're actually going through until you take time for yourself and really think what is happening. This is a great situation right now."
St. Louis' dream season took on added meaning when he was joined on the Tampa Bay roster by his boyhood pal, Perrin. They played together from the age of 10 in their hometown of Laval, Quebec, and again at the University of Vermont.
Now, they are in the Stanley Cup final.
"These are the times you play for your whole career. You have to catch yourself sometimes, "This is really happening.' But you can't be thinking about that too long. You have to go out there and really elevate your game and make a difference."
- Times staff writer John Romano contributed to this report.
