Penguins defenseman Kris Letang has worthy case for Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy

It was kind of a ho-hum game by the lofty standards he had established a long time ago.

On 25 shifts, he clocked an ordinary 22 minutes, 14 seconds of ice time. Nice, but nothing special.

No goals, no assists and not even a stinking shot.

Seven hits, that’s not bad. Three blocked shots, OK.

Two penalty minutes? Yuck.

When the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Buffalo Sabres, 3-1, at PPG Paints Arena on Dec. 10, they largely did it without any meaningful contribution by Kris Letang that could be tabulated by any metric that is monitored in the modern game.

But simply being on the ice that night? There weren’t many ways to explain what that meant.

And Letang did not supply many.

A mere dozen days after suffering the second stroke of his career, Letang spoke about recovering from the ailment with the same gravity of a broken foot or a sprained shoulder, maladies far more typical of the rigors of professional hockey.

Letang calmly and mundanely spoke of his latest comeback.

“Timing still has to get a little bit better,” Letang said casually while seated in his stall in the home dressing room. “But the legs are there. Felt pretty good out there.”

A lot of things didn’t feel good for Letang throughout the 2022-23 season.

Less than a month later, his father, Claude Fouquet, died Dec. 31 while Letang was nursing another injury.

Taking time to get his body and spirit right, Letang rejoined his teammates Jan. 24 and scored the winning goal in a wild 7-6 home overtime victory against the Florida Panthers.

“These guys supported me for the last month,” an emotional Letang said of his teammates after that game. “It’s just great to be back.”

The repeated tests of Letang’s resolve are why he is a finalist — if not the favorite — for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, an award the Professional Hockey Writers Association presents to recognize “the National Hockey League player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.”

The honor will be presented Monday during the NHL’s awards presentation at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.

This award often gets misconstrued as a “comeback” award, but its true intent is to recognize those who are committed to the craft of being a professional hockey player.

That said, Letang more than meets any perceived criteria for overcoming hardship.

In addition to suffering his first — and more severe — stroke in 2014, Letang has rebounded from a herniated disc in his neck that ended his 2016-17 season prematurely.

Letang also was a finalist for the award in 2015.

His presence as a high-end NHL player after 17 seasons at the age of 36 is no accident.

An obsessive approach to his off-ice training and a late-career investment into nearly year-round osteopathic work have allowed Letang to exist at this level for nearly two decades.

“As far as taking care of himself and the diet and the workout regimen and the training, he’s always been one of the best at that,” former Penguins defenseman Paul Martin said in April. “He loves the game. He’s always around the rink. He wants to win.

“For him, it’s developing into who he is now.”

Even with considerable impediments during the 2022-23 campaign, Letang produced 41 points (12 goals, 29 assists) in 64 games while averaging 24:51 of ice time per contest. On April 2, he appeared in his 1,000th career game.

There’s little reason to suspect he won’t be capable of more as he enters his 18th season.

“I keep getting the same training in, but I’m a lot more careful than I was with my body,” Letang said last September. “It allows me to be a lot more healthy.

“I don’t feel my legs slowing down anytime soon.”

Notes: Arizona Coyotes forward Clayton Keller and Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Alex Stalock are the other finalists for the award. … Forwards Mario Lemieux (1993) and Lowell MacDonald (1973) are the only members of the Penguins to win the award.