When Stothers noticed a pea-sized spot in his groin area, initially, he thought nothing of it. After all, as a former player and now coach, “there’s always something that comes up,” he said. But when the spot started to grow, Stothers decided to have it checked.
At first, the Ducks team doctor thought it might be a hernia, and sent Stothers for blood work. It all came back fine, and continued to even as the spot got bigger. After eventually ruling out the possibility of a hernia, Stothers then had a biopsy. The spot was determined to be Stage 3 melanoma of the lymph node.
At the time, the Ducks were in Tampa Bay as part of an extended road trip, so Stothers got a call from his oncologist as he was loading his belongings onto the team bus. They spoke as he walked to the rink, and she told Stothers he needed to have surgery.
He called his wife Judi and daughters Logan and Ashley right away, which was a difficult conversation to have over the phone. Stothers didn’t tell his fellow coaches until after the game, “and it was kind of bizarre to coach, knowing... but I just needed time to process things,” he said.
“The organization was great. They said, if you want to go home, you can. And I was like, well, be honest with you, I can't get in to see the doctors until we get back anyway. So, I'd rather stay busy. So, I finished out the road trip.
“From there, we went to Washington and then Carolina, and I told (Hurricanes head coach) Rod Brind’Amour since we’re close friends. He was like, what are you doing? Just go home. I’m like, Rod, it's me and my wife, we're both gonna sit there with a million questions. I said, at least I'm busy.”
The reality of the situation set in when Mike and Judi went to the hospital and met with the oncologist in person.
“That was the point where I stopped, and the emotions... like, you just start bawling your eyes out, and you can't really control your feelings at certain times,” Stothers said.
But he felt better after the oncologist explained how they would move forward from there. “She was really direct, which I loved,” Stothers said. “She came up with a great plan. She said, this is what we're going to do, this is what you're going to do.”
It did get to the point where the tumor was too big for surgery, so Stothers went on immunotherapy and went to the hospital for infusions of Keytruda while still handling his coaching duties through the last few weeks of the season.
“I told the players, don't you guys even think about treating me any different. You know what, this is just the way it is, it's just something we're going to deal with,” Stothers said. “It was because of the trust I had in the doctors, and how good I felt about their care and the direction we were going to go.”
The tumor shrank down enough for an operation, which took place after the year ended, followed by lymphatic microsurgery by a plastic surgeon because of the lymph node removal. After that, it was six weeks of doing nothing while dealing with things like drainage bags and a walker for Stothers, who can’t say enough about the care he got from everyone.
“There's a lot of good people out there, and I don't think they get enough credit, the people that deal with cancer on a regular basis,” Stothers said. “Because I'm sure there's some days where maybe I wasn't as pleasant as I could have been, and they just deal with it. Anything that has to do with cancer and cancer research and cancer care, these people are saints. They really are. And I can't say enough good things about the care I got from everybody, mostly my wife. She's going straight to heaven [laughs]. She's got an express pass.”
While Stothers could have stayed on with the Ducks, the role would have been more behind-the-scenes. So, he decided it was a good time to take a step back and head back home to Ontario to be closer to family. He is from Toronto, with a place on a lake in Owen Sound.
“When you're out in California and you're three time zones away, you can tell everybody back home that you're fine and you're feeling good, and nobody believes you. They just say you're saying that to make them feel better,” Stothers chuckled.
“So, I wanted to get back with my wife and get back to my daughters and my grandkids and my parents and whatnot and just kind of spend some more time with them, so that they could see that, yes, I was recovered or recuperating. But I think it helped me, and I don't think I even realized until I took that time how much of an emotional drain the whole process was. So, I think it was good for everybody.”
At that point, Stothers felt satisfied that he had achieved everything he wanted to do in life. So, if he was going to come out of retirement, it wasn’t going to be for just any job. It had to be the right job.
After talking with Dan Muse and learning more about the Penguins organization and how they treat people, “I was like, okay, I can get on board for these guys,” Stothers said.
“And I mean, I've been with a lot of different organizations, and I've enjoyed my time with each and every one. But there's something about the Penguins and how they operate. They are first class, with everything. Certainly, how they treat everybody in the organization. So, that appealed to me, and I did feel like there was some unfinished business. If it had to end that way, that was fine, but it wasn't on my terms. So, I’d kind of like to ride out into the sunset.”
And the Penguins are thrilled Stothers chose to come on board.
“He’s an unbelievable human being. We're all so fortunate that he's here with us on staff,” Muse said. “He adds so much in terms of his knowledge of the game, his passion for the game, everything that he's done in the game, both as a player and as a coach. Then, he's an amazing, amazing coach, and he's an even better human being.”
