Sidney Crosby had been the one who first mentioned he'd like to find a way to get there, and talked to the rest of the Penguins leadership group before taking the idea to Mike Sullivan. The Penguins head coach approached general manager Ron Hextall, with Fenway Sports Group ultimately giving their full support.
So instead of flying home to Pittsburgh following their three-game, 10-day road trip that had continued on to Vegas and Arizona, the Penguins took a red-eye to Quebec. They arrived around 4 AM, attended the service a few hours later and then headed home before playing Vancouver the next day.
"He's such a big part of this team, big part of this organization. It shows that there's bigger things in hockey," Bryan Rust said. "Obviously family is No. 1, and we all consider him family. He's a guy who's been around here for a long time, there's been a lot of us who have been with him for a long time. So I think to show our support for him in a very difficult time was very important."
It meant so much to Letang, who sent a heartfelt message to everyone in the organization who had come to express their sympathies. He remained at home for a while longer before rejoining the team earlier this week, skating for the first time on Tuesday.
"Sometimes you're gonna go through times like this. You have to rely on your family and your close ones to be there for you and support you," Letang said. "So like I said, I'm grateful for everything my teammates did and the organization did for me."
Letang isn't quite ready to return to game action, as the blueliner is dealing with a lower-body injury sustained on Dec. 28 versus Detroit. He has yet to upgrade to full contact, but said he's been feeling better and better every day. And Sullivan said he's been looking better and better every day, as Letang starts to regain his conditioning and timing.
"We have him on a on a game plan here where we're hopeful we'll get him back in a timely fashion," Sullivan said. "We're trying to put him in a position to succeed. He obviously missed a few weeks and wasn't on the ice for a while. So we're trying to get him some repetitions and build his conditioning, things of that nature. He's in that process right now."
