His ultimate goal was the NHL. Due to COVID, he’ll get to make his debut as a Hurricane.
They’re ready at the Lorentz house on Pineland Court in Waterloo, Ontario.
They’ll all be gathered near the TV on Thursday night -- Mark and Karon Lorentz and their daughters Stephanie, Jennifer and Jamie. Their son, Steven, will be away, playing hockey.
Karon Lorentz remembers that when Steven was six years old, he sat down with one of his coaches and wrote out his goals. The piece of paper is still tacked on a bulletin board in his bedroom, Karon said. His hockey goal: the NHL.
“Oh, my gosh, it’s always been his goal,” Karon Lorentz said in an interview Wednesday with the News & Observer. “He started skating when he was 2, started playing organized hockey at 4. Then, one day at home, after a game ...”
He said it. Boldly.
“He said his goal was to play in the NHL,” Karon said, laughing. “No baby steps. The ultimate goal.”
Steven Lorentz, 24, will do that for the first time Thursday, for the Carolina Hurricanes. The winger, once a seventh-round draft pick, will make his NHL debut and be on a line centered by Jordan Staal. Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Wednesday the forward also could be used in penalty killing.
With the Canes missing five players because of NHL COVID-19 protocols, Lorentz is needed and will get his chance. The opponent: the Tampa Bay Lightning, the 2020 Stanley Cup champion. Some debut, eh?
“We’re so excited,” Karon Lorentz said. “He’s always had to come from behind, but he was always determined and he’s always worked hard and had a great work ethic.
“I think that’s what got him through. People doubted him but that just drove him that much harder, to prove some people wrong and show he can do this. He’s always believed in himself and so did we.”
Steven Lorentz and his NHL opportunity
Karon Lorentz didn’t try to hide the excitement in her voice, try to play it cool on the phone. It was a lot like the Zoom media interview Steven Lorentz had conducted an hour earlier, after the Canes’ practice at Wake Competition Center.
“You talk to the guy and you come away with a smile on your face,” Brind’Amour said on the media call. “He’s just happy to be alive, happy to have this opportunity to play in the NHL, whether there’s zero fans, whatever. It’s not the ideal debut but he’s just happy to be here and he wants to contribute.
“He doesn’t want to just check the list off that he played in the NHL. He wants to do something special. And you root for guys like that.”
Lorentz has reached this point the hardest of ways, been the long shot. He was once a 12th-round pick in the Ontario Hockey League draft, then the 186th player taken in the 2015 NHL Draft. He played in the ECHL, then the American Hockey League for the Charlotte Checkers, winning a Calder Cup.
“I never thought there was a rush to get to the next level,” Lorentz said. “I just wanted to enjoy every step. I took time to get some confidence in the pro game, playing with bigger players.”
Lorentz kept getting better, bigger. He matured physically and is now 6-4 and 206 pounds. Last season, he had 23 goals in 61 games for the Checkers and was one of the team’s best players at even strength. He went with the Canes to the Toronto bubble for the 2020 playoff games in August, although he did not play.
Lorentz scored a goal against Tampa Bay in one of the Canes’ preseason games in September 2019. This will be the real thing.
“Everyone realizes it is a bit of weird year but at the same time hockey’s hockey,” Lorentz said on the media call. “You just have to be ready to go out there and stick to what got you here. Obviously, you’re going to have a little bit of nerves come game time but right now I’m trying to keep it relaxed.”
Lorentz to be ‘Swiss Army Knife’
Lorentz said he hoped to be a “Swiss Army Knife” kind of player able to help out in different ways. He’ll play hard in the defensive zone. He’ll aggressively forecheck. He can kill penalties. He said he wants to be a “hard-nosed player” like Staal.
“Maybe it’s a chip on my shoulder, that internal drive that maybe sets me apart,” he said. “I’ve always kind of believed in myself. ... Maybe it’s cliche but I just like coming to the rink with a happy, positive mindset.”
Told that Lorentz appeared to be on the verge of hyperventilating Wednesday in talking about his debut, Karon Lorentz laughed again.
“He might have been,” she said. “I just hope he can get some sleep tonight.”
Could be a sleepless night for the whole Lorentz family.
Lightning at Hurricanes
When: 7 p.m., Thursday
Where: PNC Arena, Raleigh
Watch: FSCR
