Martin Biron, playing 500th game, recalls debut vs. Pens

Martin Biron, subbing for Henrik Lundqvist, whose right forearm is sore but practiced and will rest, makes his 20th start tonight, but there's another big number for the 15-year veteran: His 500th game. He made his NHL debut with the Sabres on Dec. 26. 1996, against the Pens, across the street at the Igloo, which is almost completely torn down.

He was summoned from the minors at 18 because Domik Hasek was injured and  wore "00". The Penguins scored four goals in the first, Biron sat out the second period, returned in the third, and kept the Pens off the board in a 6-3 loss. He spoke about it today:

Asked if No. 500 meant something, Biron said: "Obviously, it does. It’s been a long way since my first one, right across the street at the Mellon, so, it’s great personally to play that long, different scenarios, different teams, different players, met a lot of good people, made a lot of good friends, faced a lot of good opponents too, and that team is definitely a tough opponent, I’m really looking forward to that challenge tonight. I know when I played them the last game (a 5-2 loss) …I want to go out with a bang."

Then he spoke specifically about his debut:

"A lot of memories going up to the game and then the game was just a blur, I think I woke up a week later and didn’t remember what happened. I got the call on Christmas Eve, flew to Pittsburgh from Quebec City on Christmas Day, the team was going to meet me at the hotel in the morning and they were running late and went right to Mellon. Kenny Martin was the PR guy with the Sabres, he met me and we ran up the hill from the Omni, the William Penn whatever, with my gear on his shoulders, we tried to make it to the morning skate. Didn’t even know I was starting that night until the warmup. Me and Steve Shields were looking at each other in warmup, who’s going to go in, maybe they told me, I have no idea. Then Petr Nedved came in, my first shot, and scored, so that was very exciting."