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Blackhawks’ Patrick Sharp visits Lisle Junior High

If Patrick Sharp ever offers you a cup, don’t drink out of it.

“The best story I have (about the Stanley Cup) is about (Jonathan) Toews. I had the cup on a Friday and Jonathan had it on Saturday,” Sharp told an assembly of Lisle Junior High School students on Monday. “I have a basset hound and we were letting him drink water and have his breakfast out of the cup. The next day it was in Winnepeg with Jonathan and I saw he was drinking from it.”

The Chicago Blackhawks left wing was in Lisle Monday to celebrate the work the school’s students and Boy Scout Troop 108 did in collecting and donating nearly 75,000 items to Goodwill Cares, capturing first place in Goodwill’s Pass It On Donation Challenge.

Now in its third year, the challenge netted the agency 741,298 items last spring from 1,221 schools. Two other area schools, Jackson Middle School in Villa Park and Hoover Wood Elementary in Batavia, also were top finishers, but none could match the donations generated by Lisle’s 370 students.

During his visit, Sharp shared with students how he spent his most recent day with the Stanley Cup and other locker room insights, including how a penalty some students are familiar with compares to the NHL’s penalty box.

“Being in the penalty box is just like getting detention. The worst part is that the penalty box is directly across from your team’s bench so all the guys get to stare at me and give me dirty looks for taking a bad penalty,” he said. “It’s a tough spot to be.”

When his teammates aren’t mad at him, though, they make the locker room a fun place to be.

“The funniest player on the Blackhawks, believe it or not, is Brent Seabrook. He’s pretty funny,” Sharp said. “He’s always dancing in the locker room, so picture big ol’ Seabs dancing all the time. It makes everyone laugh.”

Sharp says he’s often asked his least favorite city to play in, as he was Monday, and people are always surprised the answer is not Detroit, home of the Hawks’ rival Redwings.

“Everyone wants me to say the Detroit Redwings, but I really don’t mind playing against them because we beat them all the time,” he said.

Instead of identifying his least favorite place, he said the best place to play outside of Chicago is Montreal.

After answering several questions during the afternoon assembly, Sharp visited the students in all of their homeroom classes where he posed for class photos and signed autographs for many teachers.

Principal Tim Pociask said the visit was great way to give students a boost early in the school year.

“If you want to get students psyched up, you’ve got to bring in a winner. And (Sharp’s) a winner in every sense of the word,” Pociask said. “He was great with our kids today and really gave us all a boost.”

Sixth-grader Faith Ryan said students have been looking forward to Sharp’s visit for some time.

“We made posters and all of us, even our teachers, could wear Blackhawks stuff,” she said. “It was a really fun day.”

  Lincoln Junior High School students earned a visit from Patrick Sharp of the Chicago Blackhawks for winning Goodwill’s Pass It On Donation Challenge. Mark Black/mblack@dailyherald.com
  Technology teacher Pete Meyer has Patrick Sharp of the Chicago Blackhawks sign a jersey during Sharp’s visit to Lisle Junior High School. Mark Black/mblack@dailyherald.com
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