Oilers forward Corey Perry is joined by his son Griffin as he speaks with the media on Tuesday. Perry has earned a reputation for scoring greasy goals and getting under his opponents’ skin.Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
Corey Perry tainted his reputation as a bad guy by showing up at the Stanley Cup media day on Tuesday with his young son, Griffin.
Wearing a white dress shirt and a fashionable blue suit, Griffin grabbed a chair directly in front of cameras while his dad, the Oilers’ pesty forward, stood at the rear.
Griffin is fresh-faced and looks like he just stepped out of a Norman Rockwell painting. He negotiated a day off from school and allowed that his classmates likely thought he was sick. He is as slick as his dad is slippery around the net.
He plays centre on a youth hockey team and professes that his father is not a good coach. Who is a better teacher? “Leon Draisaitl,” Griffin said. “He has taught me how to win face-offs.”
Perry is currently 40 and in his 20th season in the NHL. He won a Stanley Cup with Anaheim in 2007 and has had four other chances in the finals but lost each time, including with Edmonton last year.
Oilers thrill home crowd with comeback win in Game 1 of Stanley Cup final
The Oilers took a 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven series on Wednesday with a 4-3 victory in overtime. The aforementioned Draisaitl scored the winner. Game 2 is at Rogers Place on Friday.
“I just want to win again and I want the team to win,” Perry said. “I want other guys to experience that. That what’s been the driving factor behind all this.”
Perry has played in 1,392 regular-season games and in 232 playoff contests. He has scored seven times and had four assists in 17 appearances during this Oilers’ playoff run.
Edmonton has won the Stanley Cup five times but has not claimed a single one since 1990. It lost in the finals to the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006 and fell in seven games to Florida last year.
“It gets harder each and every summer, but at the same time it puts that fire inside you and keeps it burning and you have an opportunity to rewrite that script. That’s what we are trying to do,” Perry said.
Edmonton took Game 1 on Wednesday with a 4-3 victory in overtime. Game 2 is at Rogers Place on Friday.Steph Chambers/Getty Images
Drafted in the first round by Anaheim in 2003, he has earned a reputation for scoring greasy goals and getting under his opponents’ skin.
Todd Bertuzzi, a former teammate with the Ducks, gave him the nickname ‘The Worm’ early in his career and it has stuck.
In this playoff series he is Edmonton’s answer to Florida’s rat, Brad Marchand. The Maple Leafs Ken Linseman was the original rat and ultimate troublemaker but Marchand is a reasonable facsimile.
There is only one worm, however.
Perry has been suspended several times for questionable play and was waived by the Chicago Blackhawks in November of 2023 for what the club called “unacceptable” conduct. The team would only say that it was a workplace issue.
“At the time I didn’t know where my career would go,” Perry said. “I didn’t know what was going to happen. It was a situation that happened and I’ve dealt with it and learned from it. It’s unfortunate but it is something I went through.”
The Oilers picked him up and theirs has become a great partnership. There is a spring in Perry’s step again. He had eight goals in 38 games last year and scored 19 in 81 games this season.
That’s a far cry from the height of his career – in 2010-11 he led the NHL with 50 goals and was selected the league’s most valuable player – but he remains a useful player.
Even at an advanced age he has no inclination to retire.
“It’s not in me to think about it,” Perry said. “I love playing. I love being around the locker room. Quitting is not on my mind any time. It’s just not who I am.”
Perry hopes to sip from the Stanley Cup again.
“I don’t think that feeling of losing ever leaves you,” he said.
He wants to win again. Not only for himself and his teammates, but for Griffin.
“This is why I am still playing,” he said. “I want him to have the opportunity to touch the Stanley Cup.”