Pronger on how Grant Fuhr nearly cost him a million dollars.
Chris Pronger tells the story of how Grant Fuhr nearly cost him a million dollars.
What would you do if a close personal friend or teammate cost you a million dollars? The answer for most of us is probably something close to losing our minds, and by the sound of things I would wager that legendary National Hockey League defenseman Chris Pronger came pretty close to losing his as well.
Pronger was recently a guest on the Missin Curfew Podcast with former NHL players Shane O'Brien and Scottie Upshall, and it was during his appearance that he shared a story of how legendary NHL goaltender Grant Fuhr nearly cost him a whole lot of money
Both Fuhr and Pronger were playing for the St. Louis Blues at the time and Pronger had a huge bonus of $1 million on the line related to his plus minus rating for the season, a bonus that he informed all of his teammates about prior to the start of the game. In spite of having so much on the line, it doesn't sound like Fuhr was taking things all that seriously.
"Arguably one of the worst puck playing goalies of all time, terrible with the puck," began Pronger. "And I go back and I go into the corner and I'm like 'Fuhrsy Fuhrsy!' and then boom! He smokes me in the chest with the puck.
"And then you can always see him laughing," added Pronger. "You can see his head bobbing up and down and he's laughing in the net... he's just giving me grief."
Pronger would go on to add that Fuhr would let in an ugly goal while he was on the ice, something that had a direct impact on his plus minus rating and something that he wasn't too happy about.
"We're late in the game in the third period and Fuhrsy let's in a s***ty goal," said Pronger. "I've already prepped everybody, it's a meaningless game other than that bonus and I'm like 'Hey! You know what this means man c'mon."
Fuhr's response was legendary.
"Oh! Hey Prongs... is there a bonus on the line? You want me to funnel another one in?" said Pronger in a hilarious imitation of his former goaltender.
You can listen to Pronger tell the whole story in the short clip below: