Posted by Scott Burnside
Let's just say these are bittersweet days for Rob Scuderi's mother, Leslie.
When the hard-as-nails but well-spoken Scuderi first left home to play hockey, it was at Boston College, just four hours away from the family home on Long Island.
Then when he was drafted by Pittsburgh 134th overall in 1998, he played for the Penguins' AHL team in Wilkes-Barre, which was just a 2½-hour drive away for the Scuderi clan.
When Scuderi joined the Penguins full-time after the lockout, it was six hours away. A hefty trip, but doable.
Now, though, Scuderi has left his only NHL home and is a West Coast guy after signing a four-year, $13.6 million deal with the Los Angeles Kings.
Radical, dude.
He will carry with him a brand-new Stanley Cup, the hopes that he might be part of another franchise renaissance with the promising young Kings and more than a few golden memories from his first NHL home.
See, this is the part of the free-agent business that sometimes doesn't get reported, the idea that players end up playing somewhere else out of necessity as opposed to dissatisfaction with their own surroundings.
"It feels very weird," Scuderi told ESPN.com after signing the deal. "It's a weird combination of odd and exciting."
While he had no desire to leave, and wouldn't have left had the economics of the game and the cap restraints of the Penguins specifically been different, he acknowledged, "It's kind of exciting to start a new challenge."
Funny the difference a year makes.
After the Penguins lost in the 2008 Stanley Cup finals, it was Scuderi who was watching and wondering what was going to happen to teammate and pal Brooks Orpik, who was then heading into unrestricted free agency. Orpik signed a long-term deal for less than market value and, along with Scuderi, was part of a Penguins team that pulled off a near-miraculous Stanley Cup victory against Detroit last month.
Scuderi, who played a crucial role in must-win games late in the seven-game Cup finals series, was in the same position these past few days as teammates texted and called wondering what was happening, which teams were interested and whether the Penguins were still in the mix.
Courted by a number of teams, the Kings' offer turned out to be something the Penguins couldn't match and Scuderi couldn't turn down.
"It's different. I've never been through this before," Scuderi said. "Quite honestly, I was a little nervous. In the end, I was hoping Pitt could maybe come around with something we could both be happy with."
But Pittsburgh couldn't, and it watched both Scuderi and defensive partner Hal Gill walk away, as Gill signed with the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday.
This isn't about feeling sorry for a 30-year-old who gets to live near the Pacific Ocean and play hockey for a living, but it reflects the unique relationships that are forged with successful franchises and the inevitability of change.
"It's a little strange. You start to grow some roots being in one place," Scuderi said. "I'm not complaining about life in the NHL, but it is tough to get used to."
Remember, Scuderi came to the Penguins when they were a team in flux. Saved from bankruptcy, they were nonetheless one of the worst teams in the NHL when Scuderi played his first big league games during the 2003-04 season. They weren't much better when he joined the team full-time in 2005-06. But with Scuderi, Orpik, Kris Letang, Marc-Andre Fleury and others who basically grew up with the team in the minors, along with superstars Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, the Penguins evolved quickly into champions.
Those memories will be fresh in Scuderi's mind when he skates onto the ice for the first time as a member of a different team.
"If you're going to leave a place, there's not much of a better way to leave it," Scuderi said.
Plus, as his father Bob, a retired police officer, pointed out, the flight to L.A. is just about the same as the drive to Pittsburgh.
Bring on that Kings jersey.
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