Preds’ Rinne finally opens up about Stanley Cup loss

His article for The Players’ Tribune is a gut-wrenching account of what it really feels like to lose the big game

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 6 years ago
Preds’ Rinne finally opens up about Stanley Cup loss
Keystone Press

Pekka Rinne was the Nashville Predators only hope for Stanley Cup success agains the high-powered Pittsburgh Penguins. Heading into the penultimate season showdown, the 34 year-old Finnish goaltender was the team’s clear Conn Smythe favorite as playoff MVP and led the entire playoffs in almost every measurable goaltending statistic. The Preds seemed poised to hoist their first Stanley Cup in team history. But then, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and the Pittsburgh Penguins decided they’d rather take it for another spin.

For the first time since suffering a crushing Game 6 loss on home ice to the Penguins, Rinne is opening up and describing his thoughts and feelings on the events of this past Spring. In it, he makes some revealing statements like:

All of a sudden, they scored. And that was just … it. Suddenly, you moved around, and it felt super heavy. And your body felt heavy. And you felt so tired. You couldn’t cry, not even if you wanted to.

Ouch. Goaltenders are notoriously hard on themselves, but Rinne might take the cake for the toughest self critic in the NHL. He went on to describe the emotion he felt immediately following the loss:

Looking around at everyone — everyone who had fought with you all the way to a Cup final, to a Game 6, to a bounce away from a Game 7 — and it was hard to keep your emotions in check. They weren’t even all bad emotions. I was proud, for sure — both of this team and of myself. And I definitely wasn’t breaking sticks or anything. But I was still … I don’t know. It’s kind of hard to explain. There was nothing left to do, you know? So I just sat at my locker, and I looked at everyone, and I thought about everything, and I cried.

Rinne reflects on the positives from the run, as well and recalls his emotions when clinching a Stanley Cup Final berth with a Game 6 victory over the Anaheim Ducks:

The atmosphere in those last couple of minutes, when we were just skating out the clock … knowing, after all these years, that we were going to the Cup final … it was electric. My focus is usually pretty unshakeable when I’m on the ice — but those last couple of minutes, I have to say, they kind of caught me off guard. And then even I got emotional. It was just one of those truly special things. And I’m grateful that I got to be a part of it.

It’s rare to see a pro athlete open up and show such raw emotion these days. Do yourself a favor and read the full article from Rinne at The Players’ Tribune.