Recchi writes another chapter in Hall of Fame career

If, as has been suggested on occasion, kidney stones are the male version of childbirth, it is quite possible that Mark Recchi is feeling like OctoMom these days.
Recchi, 41, just happens to be Kamloops’ favourite sporting son, one who is headed for the Hockey Hall of Fame somewhere down the road.
He signed as a free agent with the Tampa Bay Lightning over the summer and was dealt to the Boston Bruins at the March 4 NHL trade deadline. The Bruins came out of the regular season as the Eastern Conference’s top seed and Recchi, with two Stanley Cup titles to his credit, was hoping to be part of a deep playoff run and that a third championship might be in the cards.
Unfortunately for him, that didn’t happen as the Bruins fell 3-2 in overtime to the visiting Carolina Hurricanes in Game 7 of a conference semifinal on Thursday night.
Even though Recchi was on the losing side, it is quite likely that the man who owns a piece of the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers penned his own chapter in Stanley Cup lore for what he endured last week.
Granted, it wasn’t Bobby Baun scoring the 1964 Stanley Cup-winning goal in overtime on a broken ankle, but it was close. It also was more painful.
Recchi felt fine until Saturday, May 9, the day after the Bruins were beaten 4-1 by the Hurricanes to fall behind 3-1 in the series. The next day, well, if you have had kidney stones, you know the pain. And Recchi first felt that telltale pain in his side on May 9. He didn’t skate the following day, but played in Games 5 and 6, scoring a goal in each game. In fact, in Games 3 through 6, he totaled three goals and two assists.
On Tuesday, with that kidney stone making his life pure hell, he scored one goal and set up another as the Bruins won Game 6, 4-2, in Raleigh to force Game 7.
The next morning, he was off to Massachusetts General Hospital in the hopes that he would pass the kidney stone.
No such luck.
At 5 p.m., he underwent a surgical procedure that included the implanting of a stent. He left the hospital about 8:30 p.m., and returned to the hotel room that had been his home since the Bruins had acquired him.
He returned to the hospital Thursday morning so that the procedure could be completed.
“They said if I got (the stone) out (I could play),” Recchi told reporters after Game 7. “I had to get a stent out (Thursday) morning. They didn’t know going in that they would have to put a stent in. They were hoping not to, but they had to. The stone wouldn’t pass . . . it wasn’t going to go into my bladder, so they had to have the surgery to get it.
“I don’t wish it on anybody.”
The pain, he said, was incredible.
“Sunday and (Tuesday), I never had pain like that,” he said, adding that in Game 7 “I was just trying to get the energy to play, but I felt pretty good.”
Looking back at his week from hell, Recchi said: “It was progressively getting worse and then it got stuck. That was probably the worst pain.”
Asked how it was that he had managed to play through the pain over the last three games, Recchi chuckled and answered: “Good medicine.”
Such is life in the hockey world during the playoffs. Whether it’s the NHL, any other pro league or the junior ranks . . . the desire to win a championship with your team — something that will allow that team to be together forever — is unbelievably strong.
Yes, Recchi admitted, he faced some adversity. But, as he was quick to point out, at this time of the season “there are plenty of guys who play through things.”
In the Bruins’ dressing room alone, he said, linemate Chuck Kobasew had two broken ribs, while Phil Kessel is in need of shoulder surgery and David Krejci will have hip surgery. Kessel and Krejci may even miss the start of next season.
“And the list goes on,” Recchi said.
(If you’re a Bruins’ fan, don’t blame the injuries for losing to Carolina. Rather, take a look at a power play that was 2-for-25 in the series, including 1-for-18 at home.)
In talking to reporters after Game 7, Recchi never once mentioned that he also was playing with a broken rib. It came, he told me, from a cross-check in the second period of Game 4.
It could be that in the moments after the disappointment of Game 7, he simply forgot to mention it. After all, the pain from a broken rib likely resembled that from a hangnail compared to what he had gone through with a kidney stone.
“It’s amazing what guys play through,” Recchi said. “I’m not sure if we are just stupid or if we want to win so badly. But every team has guys like that.
“Scary.”
Remember, too, that NHL players don’t get paid during the playoffs. Their contracts are structured to run from the first day of the regular season to the last.
These guys are playing for one thing — every single one of them wants his name on the Stanley Cup. That’s it. Period.
In Recchi’s case, his name already is on there twice. But the chance to get it on there one more time is enough to drive him to play — to not miss even one shift, never mind a game — with a broken rib and while fighting a battle with kidney stones.
Scary, indeed.

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca and gdrinnan.blogspot.com.