ST. PAUL, Minn. — Sure, Matt Cullen was excited to see his former teammates when the Penguins got into town Friday night.
But not nearly as excited as his three sons, who were mainstays in the Penguins’ locker room during Cullen’s two years with the team.
“I was happy, but those guys were over the moon,” Cullen said Saturday morning. “They were so excited.”
Cullen had Sidney Crosby, Ian Cole, Carl Hagelin and Patric Hornqvist over for dinner Friday night. They ate, shared some laughs and played some mini hockey in the basement.
“It was getting a little heated,” Cole said. “The ball was bouncing, guys were swinging at it. I’m like, ‘This is way too dangerous for me right now.’ It was fun, though. The kids are good. They’ve got good little hands. They’re good hockey players.”
This fun little reunion will turn a bit more serious Saturday night, though, as Cullen and his new Wild teammates take on the Penguins for the first time this season.
Facing an old team isn’t a novel experience for Cullen — that tends to happen when you’re in your 20th season in the league — but he admitted this one is a bit different.
“You really learn a lot about each other when you go through everything we went through,” Cullen said. “It’s different when you get together with a group like this. To be honest, you’re probably closer with this group than any other group just because of everything that’s happened the last couple of years. It’s definitely different.”
After the Wild’s morning skate Saturday, Cullen got one last reminder of his time in Pittsburgh, when general manager Jim Rutherford presented him with his Stanley Cup ring. It was Cullen’s third, joining the one he won in 2006 as a member of the Hurricanes as well as his 2016 ring.
“They’re special in their own way, but I think last year’s was especially unique just because of how challenging it was, going into the season as the defending champs,” Cullen said. “Obviously there’s a lot of challenges that come with that and you see how difficult it is for teams to do that. The fact that we were able to accomplish that is I’d probably say more rewarding than any.”
Cullen could have returned back for a third season with the Penguins — the team obviously would have welcomed him with open arms — but he opted to sign with the Wild instead. He grew up in Virginia, Minn., about three hours north of St. Paul.
“This is the right place for me at this point,” Cullen said. “It was a fun summer, but it was a difficult decision. I put a lot of time into it. There’s no rulebook to follow in a situation like that. There’s no experience to draw on when you’re trying to make that decision.”
Cullen said he and and his wife Bridget relied on their faith to help them make the call and, two months later, it feels like they made the right one.
The Wild off are to a bit of a sluggish start, 3-3-2 through eight games, and Cullen has just one assist on the season, but Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau praised his leadership and veteran influence in the locker room.
That is, of course, no surprise to the Penguins, who relied on that presence over the past two seasons. This is almost certainly Cullen’s last season in the league, but, well…
“He’s been saying he’s going to retire now for three years,” Cole said. “He keeps winning, keeps getting ready for the year and still has that energy. He’s certainly a guy that you look up to as a player, and try to emulate things that he does to get ready for the season and has been doing it for so long with so much success.”
Even though Cullen turns 41 on Thursday, Cole knows he’s still in great shape. Which means no going easy on him if they happen to meet in the corner Saturday night.
“I did text him after [dinner],” Cole said. “I said, ‘Cully, thanks for dinner, but there are no deals in the corners tomorrow night. I’m not going to lay off you.’ He’s aware. I told him, ‘Thank you, but it has to end at dinner.’”
Sam Werner: swerner@post-gazette.com and Twitter @SWernerPG.
First Published: October 28, 2017, 6:59 p.m.
