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PHILADELPHIA — Jordan Staal will play for the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night in their playoff game against the Philadelphia Flyers but he will leave the team on Wednesday to attend the funeral of his grandfather.
The Penguins centre will fly to his hometown of Thunder Bay, Ont., early Wednesday morning on a private jet and return to Philadelphia later in the evening. He then expects to play in the fourth game of the NHL Eastern Conference final on Thursday night.
Jordan Staal's older brother Eric left the Canadian team at the world hockey championships in order to attend the funeral. He will miss Canada's quarter-final game on Wednesday against Finland and then rejoin the team.
Staal's grandfather, John Staal, died on Sunday. He was in his early 80s and emigrated from Holland as a young man to Thunder Bay, where he established the family farm where the four Staal brothers grew up and learned to play hockey. Three of them — Eric, Marc and Jordan — play in the NHL while the youngest, Jared, plays major junior hockey.
Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jordan Staal, right, skates past Philadelphia Flyers forward Mike Richards (18) to score an empty-net goal during the third period in Game 2 of the NHL Eastern Conference hockey finals in Pittsburgh, Sunday. (Keith Srakocic/AP)
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"He watched every single game last year, I think, for all three of us [in the NHL]," Jordan Staal said of his grandfather. "He's always been a hockey fan. We were all close. It's a tough loss. He had a good run.
"I just talked to my parents and I want to be there. I think there's bigger things than hockey sometimes and I'm glad I can make it home."
