Teamwork of Rivals May Have Saved Life

The NHL can be a league of brutality, of fierce grudges played out inside the boards. But one of the game's most endearing qualities is the sportsmanship demonstrated when the final buzzer sounds. There is, of course, the traditional handshake after playoff series. Then there are the moments you don't hear much about.

David Morehouse (pictured right) arrived safely at home on Thursday morning. The 48-year-old president of the Pittsburgh Penguins had emergency endovascular stent surgery on Sunday in California to repair a blocked artery. But there is a lot more to this story.

"In the National Hockey League, we have more of a family culture than you'd expect because the games are so competitive, the rivalries so intense," said Tom McMillan, the Penguins Vice President of Communications. "The way two teams worked together on Sunday to take care of Dave Morehouse kind of says it all."

On Sunday morning, about 10 hours after the Penguins lost to the Sharks in San Jose, Pittsburgh's players, coaches and staff boarded a charter aircraft bound for home. Ten minutes before the flight's scheduled departure, Morehouse told Penguins head athletic trainer Chris Stewart that he was experiencing discomfort in his chest and pains down his left arm. Stewart immediately took Morehouse off the plane and told his colleagues to travel without them.

This is when the teamwork of rivals began. Stewart reached San Jose Sharks head trainer Ray Tufts and asked if he could provide any assistance. According to an eyewitness account provided to FanHouse, the Sharks staff worked for Morehouse as if he was their team president.

Tufts, who who was honored this week for recently working his 1000th NHL game, bolted immediately to San Jose Mineta International Airport to pick up Morehouse and Stewart. He drove them to a small hospital in Los Gatos for a preliminary observation with a cardiologist. The Sharks trainer also contacted head team physician Dr. John Chiu, who assisted in the early diagnosis and then arranged for Morehouse to be transferred to the larger El Camino Hospital in Mountain View.

Morehouse, who has three children with his wife Vanessa, underwent stent surgery considered minimally invasive, but might have had to endure much more if the Penguins' charter took off for the five-hour flight with him on it. Crediting the poise and quick thinking of his trainer Chris Stewart, Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby said, "Chris was getting a lot of pats on the back. That was scary stuff. He was really smart to tell Dave to stay back. That was big. It's a long flight. He may have saved his life."

Although Tufts, the Sharks trainer, and Chiu, San Jose's medical director, politely declined interview requests from FanHouse -- therefore declining to take any credit -- Morehouse and the Penguins family know the real story behind his extraordinary care.

"The Sharks' medical staff was just incredible to us," said McMillan, the Penguins' VP. "We owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude."