Although he wasn't on the ice when the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup, Marc Savard had his day with the Cup on Monday.
Savard spent the day at a golf course in Peterborough, sharing the Stanley Cup with fans.
"If you can do something nice for the community, you always want to do that stuff," Savard said. "Everybody here has been great to me."
The 34-year-old centre talked about how hard it was not being out there with his teammates during the Bruins' Cup run.
"Unfortunately I didn't get to play much, obviously, in the playoffs, but it's been a great ride. GM Peter Chiarelli has done a great job in bringing in a lot of great people and players and it's added up to [the Stanley Cup]. The boys battled hard, and it's tough to watch at times, that's for sure, but I'm excited and I'm glad because the guys still made me feel part of it."
Savard also opened up about his ongoing health issues as a result of his concussions suffered on the ice.
"It's obviously been a long road for me; I'm still suffering with a lot of daily issues, right now it's been a tough go. I'm just trying to get through and not worry about hockey right now, just worry about my health because I have three young kids and they're important to me."
"Mornings have been tough. When I get up in the morning I'm a little foggy sometimes," Savard continued. "But as the day wears on I'm pretty good. Hot sun is tough; I try to stay in the shade and stuff like that and pop the odd Advil and it seems to be okay."
While it was an easy decision for the Bruins to give Savard the Cup for a day, it will be tougher to convince the league to engrave his name on the Cup. Rules state a player needs to play in at least 41 regular season games or Stanley Cup Final game to be eligible to have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup. Savard missed all of the playoffs and played in only 25 games during the regular season.
"At the end of the year it was a pretty emotional time; Peter told me that they are doing a petition to put me on the Cup. That's special. That's how good of a man he's been and that's why he's gotten to where he is and deserves everything he's had. Hopefully I get on it."
