Penguins notebook: San Jose finally hosts Final

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Penguins rookies Bryan Rust and Conor Sheary played in hostile environments before reaching the NHL.

During his college days at Notre Dame, Rust remembered the rinks at Michigan and North Dakota as being loud and unwelcoming to visitors.

UMass grad Conor Sheary cited Hershey of the AHL as being a particularly unfriendly place to play, refusing to name any college buildings out of loyalty to his alma mater.

“I don't know if I want to give too much credit to any other college teams, so UMass was the loudest,” he said Saturday morning with a grin.

Suffice to say, though, that neither Sheary nor Rust experienced anything close to the environment they were walking into Saturday night, even when they played at Madison Square Garden and the Verizon Center in Washington in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

It was the first Stanley Cup Final game in the history of San Jose hockey, which began when the Sharks joined the NHL as an expansion team in 1991, and in the history of the SAP Center, which opened in 1993.

Penguins coach Mike Sullivan played 171 games for the Sharks from 1991-94.

“This building has always been an exciting place to play,” Sullivan said. “The acoustics in the building are terrific. There's a lot of excitement. It's a loud building.”

Google it

Granted a free evening Friday, several of the youngest Penguins took a field trip to Google's headquarters.

Defenseman Steve Oleksy connected with a friend from his youth and arranged a visit to the Googleplex in nearby Mountain View, Calif., for himself and teammates Rust, Sheary, Olli Maatta, Derrick Pouliot and Matt Murray.

“It was pretty cool,” Maatta said. “I had seen the movie, ‘The Internship,' so that was pretty much the only thing I knew about it. But it was awesome to see.

“You get your head off hockey for a bit, I think that's the main point.”

Sullivan wholly endorsed Maatta's sentiment about seizing the opportunity to enjoy diversions.

“I think it's important to get away from it,” Sullivan said. “It's an intense battle, so sometimes just to get away from it and take your mind off it and recharge your batteries, re-energize yourself, I think it's a good thing.

“When they do come back to the rink, I think they're that much more energized, and their mental focus is much better. So certainly we encourage our players all season long, because of the nature of our game and how difficult it is, to make sure that we maintain some sort of balance in our life.”

Quoting Ali

Count Sullivan among the many coaches who have used Muhammad Ali's words to deliver a message to athletes.

Asked for his thoughts on the importance of Ali, who died Friday, the Penguins coach shared his appreciation of the boxer's ability to transcend his role as a pugilist.

“I think he'll be known not just for how great of an athlete he was, but for the impact that he had in a social aspect as well,” Sullivan said. “He's always been known for his witty quotes. I've used some of them myself in coaching some of our teams. I think his personality in combination with how great of an athlete he was certainly allowed him to have the impact that he's had on sports, not just boxing.”

Meeting Ali

San Jose coach Peter DeBoer ended his morning media session Saturday with a remembrance of running into Ali at the height of his fame.

Thirty years ago, DeBoer was at his prom at the Royal Connaught Hotel in Hamilton, Ontario, when Ali and his entourage walked through the lobby. DeBoer asked one of the entourage for a meeting. Five minutes later, he and some buddies were in Ali's hotel room.

“He got out a Koran for each of us,” DeBoer said. “He wasn't preaching or trying to convert us. He just personalized each one to us. He asked us some questions about what we were doing. It was an unbelievable life experience for me.”

DeBoer said the signed Koran is one of the few pieces of memorabilia he keeps, along with a Wayne Gretzky stick and prints of Bobby Orr and golfer Mike Weir.

Staff writer Bill West and freelance writer John Ryan contributed. Jonathan Bombulie is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at jbombulie@tribweb.com or via Twitter at @BombulieTrib.