“I wasn’t really shocked, but it was more just stunned,” Tom Fitzgerald told The Buffalo News by phone this week while driving home to Boston for the holiday. “You’re thinking, ‘This is the day. Oh my God. That day, here it is.’ It’s what every player waits for. He was all excited because they had just played a game in Rochester and then the next day he told us they said he was playing in Pitt. My wife and I made arrangements to get there and we were so fortunate to watch him play. It was awesome.”
It was a busy debut for Casey Fitzgerald, who played 27 shifts totaling 16 minutes, 42 seconds. He got his first NHL point with an assist, had two shots on goal and even his first fight against Pittsburgh forward Sam Lafferty.
The night started, however, during the national anthem when Kerry Fitzgerald, Tom’s wife and Casey’s mother, noticed her son on the ice and not on the bench. Casey Fitzgerald was in the starting lineup – and Penguins legends Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang were starting against him.
“You have to understand, Casey was in Mario Lemieux’s swimming pool, swimming around with Sid after we won the ’09 Cup,” Tom Fitzgerald said. “Casey went to the (U.S. National Development Team) Program and picked No. 58 because of Kris his first year. Kris Letang always has his head down during the anthem, the long hair going covering his head. Well, I looked at the Buffalo blue line and Casey had his head down, too. But with short hair.”
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