Flyers' Pierre-Edouard Bellemare helps France win, then shows his selflessness
After beating one of last year’s finalists, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare was given the player of the game award, but he respectfully declined accepting it.
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare is one of the most unselfish and hardest-working players on the Flyers, and those qualities explain why he was named an alternate captain after Mark Streit was traded last season.
The Flyers' center showed some of those traits Sunday as he helped France stun heavily favored Finland, 5-1, in an early-round game in IIHF World Championship competition in Paris.
After beating one of last year's finalists, Bellemare was given the player of the game award, but he respectfully declined accepting it.
Instead, Bellemare gave the award to his teammate, goaltender Florian Hardy.
"I didn't actually hear my name," Bellemare told NHL.com. "I was clapping for (Hardy), looking at him."
"That was not right," he said of Hardy not being named the game's best player.
Bellemare, who had a goal and an assist in the game, tried to push Hardy (42 saves) to accept the award, but he initially declined. Bellemare went on stage to get the award, then called up Hardy, who received a loud ovation.
"Anybody would have done it that way," Bellemare said. "There was no way I was going to take that prize."