Harness Racing's Tie To The 2012 Stanley Cup Champs
When the Stanley Cup comes to Amherstburg, Ont. this summer, the player deemed by his teammates most likely to damage hockey's richest prize has a solid tie to harness racing in Ontario.
Los Angeles Kings' enforcer Kevin Westgarth is the son of trainer and retired veterinarian Dr. Reg Westgarth, who told Trot Insider on Wednesday morning that Kevin's word to bring the Cup home was captured on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday night.
While Reg wasn't in Los Angeles for the Game 6 victory, Kevin's mom Gilda was there. The two parents took turns attending games.
"He said it was too bad I couldn't make it," Reg Westgarth told CBC. "But we'll get together with the cup when they come to Amherstburg. He always said that when he got the Stanley Cup, he wanted to come here and have a party on the deck, so it looks like it's going to happen."
The date of the win couldn't have been sweeter for Kevin, who was also celebrating his first wedding anniversary on June 11. Kevin met Meaghan Cowher - daughter of former NFL coach Bill Cowher - while the two attended Princeton University.
Dr. Westgarth mentioned that Kevin's summer will be busy not in Amherstburg or Los Angeles, but in New York. Kevin is one of the players that will help negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The current CBA is set to expire on September 15, 2012, making the 2011–12 NHL season the final year of the current collective bargaining agreement as the NHL Players' Association will no longer have the option to extend the current CBA. However, the players' association is trying to move the expiration date to June 30 in order to avoid a repeat of the lockout that canceled the 2004-05 season.