Nick Schultz says

I've got several Nick Schultz stories, but my favorite came in January 2012 coincidentally after Matt Cullen's party to celebrate his 1,000th game at the Downtowner in St. Paul.

I had gone to Tom Reid's Hockey City Pub after a game and parked in the same lot as the players. An hour later, backing out of my parking space, I smacked into the front of a car. I get out and much to my horror, it was a Black Porsche.

As I'm inspecting the scratched hood, I look up and see Jared Spurgeon and his dad, Barry. I sheepishly go, "Whose car did I just hit?" I remember thinking, "Please say Schultzy or Cully," the two nicest guys on the team because I without a doubt knew there were a couple players I definitely didn't want Spurgeon to say.

He goes, "I think … … … Schultzy. … I'll go get him." As Spurgeon ran across West 7th, I yelled, "Spurge, … uh, uh, don't make a scene."

About a minute later, I could hear Schultz laughing as he crossed the street once he realized Spurgeon wasn't playing a joke on him. Before he even looked at his car, Schultz told me to go home. As I profusely apologized, he just laughed and said not to worry. For the next three weeks, I offered to pay for the damages. For the next three weeks, he told me, "Stop worrying about it. It's no big deal."

I'm not just saying this because he let me off scot-free, Nick Schultz is one of the most decent human beings I have covered in 21 years as an NHL beat writer.