As the Manitoba Junior Hockey Leagues’ Dauphin Kings prepared to take on the Portage Terriers Saturday night, they couldn’t have predicted the surprise guest that would walk into their locker room: former Capitals and current New York Islanders head coach Barry Trotz.
Trotz entered the room to the delight of the Kings’ players and proceeded to give them a pep talk. As soon as that was done, he read the starting lineup, firing up the boys before they hit the ice.
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Our players did not know this was coming. It will be something they never forget. Thank you Barry.#MJHL #RiseAgain 👑🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/6m9mNhabVi
— Dauphin Kings (@dauphinkings) January 27, 2019
Giving a pep talk to the Kings wasn’t all that Trotz did while visiting his hometown and former team. As the Kings were celebrating Ukrainian heritage night, Trotz joined them for a ceremonial faceoff. Only, instead of a puck they used “kovbasa,” a word used to describe a variety of meat sausages.
During the introduction, the Kings announcer touched on Trotz’s last visit to Dauphin when he brought the Stanley Cup to celebrate with the town in August 2018. As part of the visit, Trotz raised over $150,000 for the Dauphin community, including $25,000 which went directly to the Dauphin Kings hockey team.
Trotz’s kovbasa drop was not the only time that the sausage made an appearance for the evening. As has become a tradition, the Kings also held a kubassa toss. It was their biggest one yet with over 1,000 sausages thrown onto the ice.
Just look at all of that sausage fly.
Though the Kings eventually dropped their game against the Terriers 4-1, Trotz made sure that their Ukrainian heritage night was a fun and memorable one.
Headline photo: @dauphinkings
