Marty St. Louis will play for Rangers while mourning mother’s death

On Thursday, Martin St. Louis of the New York Rangers lost his mother. France St. Louis was 63. Her death was unexpected and devastating to his family.

On Friday, the New York Rangers are playing a hockey game at the Pittsburgh Penguins. Lose, and their season is over in five games in the divisional final.

The expectation on Friday morning was that St. Louis, who traveled to Montreal to be with his family, would miss Game 5. But that afternoon, Coach Alain Vigneault revealed that St. Louis had traveled from Montreal to Pittsburgh and would play in the potential elimination game.

"This morning he said that [he] talked to his dad," Vigneault said, via NHL.com. "And him and his dad both agreed that his mom would want him to be here and that's what he did."

St. Louis is in the midst of a six-game point drought after a fast start to the postseason. Overall he has one assist in his last eight playoff games.

Since his trade to the Rangers from Tampa Bay Lightning at the deadline, St. Louis had one goal and seven assists in 19 games. He had 61 points in 62 games with the Bolts before the trade.