Ryan Malone made some media rounds ahead of his charity game this coming Thursday out at the RMU Island Sports Complex. Part of the stories included this tale with his old teammate Matt Murley.
Like every good legend, there are some embellishments. The Islanders only scored two goals and Malone had an even plus/minus, so the player he was supposed to mark couldn’t have scored three goals, but the point stands just the same about a hungover Malone scoring in OT to help the Penguins improve (ha) to a 13-43-5-4 record in a forgettable 2003-04 season.
Another hilarious aspect is that Marc Bergevin and Mario Lemieux, Malone’s alleged late night accomplices, weren’t even playing that game — which makes it funnier to have grizzled vets keeping a rookie out late with a game the next day.
And if it wasn’t the team owner being involved, this story might be a little late for 2004 and is completely unimaginable in 2024. In these days of nutrition, rest and sometimes even team-monitored fitness trackers, you sure wouldn’t see activity like this any more. The bigger problem is probably getting the players of today off their video games and tablets/phones and getting to bed, a far cry from the days of bars and late, late nightlife.
Any story of a feckless Ed Olcyzk is a good one too. Oh, sure Edzo, you’re going to demote the team’s leading goal scorer in Malone, who was one of only like four good players on the team? Probably would have better luck getting Mario’s group to do some extra skates at training camp.
