Afterward, grinning from ear to ear, there he was, a coveted Hockey Night in Canada towel draped around his neck, doing an interview that was seen nationwide.
Even at 40 years old, the man has a flair for the dramatic.
“Hockey’s fun,” the veteran forward said afterward, reflecting on his wild two-day journey. “There’s no bad nights in the NHL. I just love playing the game.
“I got some sleep on the plane, so it wasn’t so bad. But yeah, it was a late night.”
Asked to describe his crazy odyssey, he replied “Whirlwind.”
Was it ever, especially when you consider he woke up in Los Angeles on Friday as a member of the Kings.
By the time the NHL’s 3 p.m. ET trade deadline had arrived, he’d been traded to the Lightning after consulting with his family about the move. Travel arrangements were made to get him to Toronto as quickly as possible.
Things didn’t go as planned.
First, the flight was delayed four hours, meaning he did not arrive in Toronto until about 4 a.m. Saturday. Because customs agents here don’t start until 5 a.m., he didn’t get through until about 5:40.
Yet nothing was going to stop him from joining his teammates and playing in the game.
“I think he said he got his head down at about 6:45 (a.m.) and still was on the first bus (to the morning skate) at about 9:30,” Lightning forward Brandon Hagel said. “So maybe he should start only sleeping three hours a night, every night.
“I don’t know. That’s pretty impressive.”
Sleep? Who needs sleep?
“I mean, that’s a guy who you want on your team,” Hagel said. “That’s a guy who’s going to push everyone to that next level. And that’s a guy you want to win for.
“Really, really happy that’s the guy we went with.”
Hagel was referring to the fact that the Perry acquisition was the only move the Lightning made prior to the deadline.
For Tampa Bay management, it was a case of quality, not quantity. Keep in mind that Perry’s a familiar asset to general manager Julien BriseBois and coach Jon Cooper, having played for the Lightning from 2021-23 when he had 65 points (31 goals, 34 assists) in 163 regular-season games.
As such, Perry didn’t have to learn the Lightning’s system. He already knew it. And having grown up about 60 miles away from Toronto in Peterborough, a number of friends and family were able to attend the game. Add it all up, and there was no lack of incentive or adrenaline for him to want to play on this night in Toronto, a place he referred to as the "Mecca of Hockey.”
“It was exciting,” he said. “And you’ve just got to put everything aside. Once the puck drops, away you go. And you know, it’s second nature, but there are a lot of things going on in the back of your head.
“I think we came out and played the way this team can play. It’s fast. We were on top of them.”
