Martin St. Louis Becomes First Lightning Player to Have Jersey # Retired

"There's one sound that gets me fired up. The voice of every person, who said I was too small to make it." - Martin St. Louis

Martin St. Louis. A fine player on the ice, an even finer person off. The story of a person who made it to the top league in hockey against all odds, playing in a league for big people when he was small, and excelling at a level that most players don't. 

He is the record holder on the Lightning with most assists- 588- and with most points- 953, and he scored the game-winning goal against the Calgary Flames in the 2004 Stanley Cup Final, allowing the Lightning to win the Cup in the next game. 

Not only that, but his passion for hockey exceeded everything else. In the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs, St. Louis got the news that his mother had died suddenly. She was his biggest fan, and his heart and soul. St. Louis, who had gotten traded to the New York Rangers by then, resolved to win the Stanley Cup for his mother, taking the Rangers to the Final that year.

A story such as St. Louis's shows that with enough passion and hard work, the impossible becomes possible. He is an inspiration to all, and a classy player on and off the ice. 

Capitals Fall to Rangers 4-2

Bam. Just like that, the Caps' 20-day point streak is over. They fell to division rivals New York Rangers 4-2 (even though they had unfair referees who didn't call the obvious offside in the third goal against the Rangers, and gave the Caps two horrible penalties), Rick Nash put the puck past Holtby in the first period, and in a second-period powerplay, Martin St. Louis made it 2-0 New York. Rick Nash scored again in the third period, but then Evgeny Kuznetsov made a 2-goal deficit become a 1-goal deficit with an amazing goal in the beginning of the third period that was so subtle almost nobody noticed it. Like, wow...

Obviously, Kuzya was in beast mode today (so was Eric Fehr), and they both had one of the best games of their careers. Then Rick Nash scored on an obvious offside, which the evil ref didn't count, and put the Rangers up 3-1. Ovechkin scored one of his Ovi goals right after that, and it seemed that the Capitals might be able to catch up and make it into overtime at least.

But, no, the ref chose today to be unfair, and gave Nicklas Backstrom a double minor penalty for high-sticking, and Jason Chimera a minor penalty for who-knows-what, making it 5-on-3 for the Rangers, who ended up scoring their fourth goal of the game. Ugh. The factors were obviously against the Caps, who decided to come back too late.

Next game is against the Penguins this Saturday.

Let's go, Caps!