On his run-and-gun date with the Stanley Cup, Steven Lorentz wanted to fashion it into a Bloody Caesar and drink deep. After all, the Caesar is a classic Canadian libation. (Just try ordering clamato juice mixer in America. They’ll think you mad.)
Except the trophy’s official chaperones wouldn’t let him rim the chalice with celery salt: “I guess there are rules against that.’’
An odd place to draw the line on the most iconic trophy in sports. Over its 130-year history, the tiered-cake Cup has been taken for a swim, plopped into a stripper’s lap, filled with oats for the Kentucky Derby winner, punted into the Rideau Canal, forgotten on the side of the road, served as a baptismal font for a baby, had another baby pee in it, was accidentally dropped into a bonfire and once functioned as a vessel in which the New York Rangers ritualistically burned off their mortgage on Madison Square Garden.
Lorentz contented himself heaping the Cup with bratwurst and sauerkraut, in homage to his German roots.
But he also reverently carried the trophy to a hospital in hometown Kitchener, to a local rink, to his gym and finally to a celebratory knees-up.
“It’s heavy. By the end of the night I had to use my knees to hoist it up.’’
The line at RIM Park in Waterloo is getting bigger as Waterloo’s Steven Lorentz of the Florida Panthers brings the Stanley Cup back to the region
— Joshua Goeree (@GoereeReport)
The 28-year-old (six-foot-four, 206 pounds) may be on a humble professional tryout contract with the Maple Leafs, but at least he can tell some Stanley Cup yarns — unlike Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, Morgan Rielly, William Nylander, John Tavares …
Chances are slim that Lorentz will emerge from training camp with a new contract under his arm. Max Pacioretty, with a much flashier resumé and seemingly restored to health following a double dose of Achilles tendon surgery, is likewise a PTO invitee looking to segue from camp into a stay-with-us deal.
PTOs are on the margins of NHL existence, but they can work out. Last autumn saw forward Noah Gregor parlay his chance into a one-year contract with ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½.
You have to feel for these guys, hoping to turn heads in a short-shot audition, scrabbling for financial scraps. Yet a mandated minimum salary of $750,000 (U.S.) might be attractive to general manager Brad Treliving, strapped by salary-cap space to fill out his roster. Many teams are eyeing cap-free PTOs as low-risk depth options.
Lorentz’s crack at impressing Treliving and coach Craig Berube hit a minor roadblock when he suffered an upper-body injury on the first day. But he was back on the ice Tuesday morning, pleasantly startled to find himself on a line with Matthews and Marner, though that was primarily a function of who was lineup slotted for the game hours later in Ottawa.
“After a couple of days off, thrown into the fire like that. I had a little chuckle with those guys before the skate, then I went out there and just tried to make the most of it.’’
By the end of another intense practice jam, Lorentz was deployed on a troika with David Kämpf and Ryan Reaves. “Big body,’’ observed Reaves. “He’s got a pretty good shot. Likes to get on the forecheck, grind, nothing too fancy in the D-zone and then he goes to work in the offensive zone, which is right up my alley. I like playing with guys like that. It’s harder for me to play with guys that are overly skilled because when they want to make a pretty play, I’m not really about that.’’
Rather an inverse testimonial for Lorentz.
The free agent was invited after the Panthers declined to sign him to a contract extension. This is his fourth different team training camp since 2020-21 (also Carolina and San Jose). He’s primarily a fourth-liner who can play centre and left wing, though oft-dispatched to the press box — dressed for only 38 games last year in Florida — but Panthers coach Paul Maurice spoke highly of him during the playoffs, where Lorentz registered a pair of goals in 16 post-season appearances.
Lorentz describes his game as “strong, physical and simple.’’
“It doesn’t get much more complicated than that. My style is just chip and chase, kind of skate through guys and use my size to my advantage. I think I’ve got a good stick and I can move well for a big guy. Once I get those pucks in the corners, then it’s just create energy and get to the front of that net. When I’m doing that, I’m successful.’’
Success was certainly sweet in 2023-24, with a ring to show for it. And he savoured every moment of that run to the Cup in the spring.
A couple of days later, Lorentz had the Cup tattooed on his upper right thigh, the painful fleshy part: “I thought I was tough, but there was a couple of times I winced.’’
Ample room on the left limb for a matching tat as a Leaf.
“I got two legs, right? Hopefully we can get one on the other side here, too.’’
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