Maroon and Martinez play in their final NHL game in the Blackhawks’ home finale

CHICAGO (AP) — Pat Maroon played his first and his last NHL game at the United Center.

In between, it was quite a ride.

Maroon closed his 14th and final season when the Chicago Blackhawks lost to the Winnipeg Jets in a shootout on Saturday night. He was joined by defenseman Alec Martinez, who also made Chicago’s home finale his last game.

While the Blackhawks have two road dates left on their schedule, Maroon and Martinez are going off to retirement.

“It sucks, because this is all we knew,” Maroon said. “And I’m so happy that I got to share it with Marty tonight. A guy that’s a big-time player, scored big-time goals. Hell of a hockey player, competitor.”

Maroon and Martinez each got the start in their last game. The Blackhawks saluted Maroon with a highlight video during a first-period timeout, and they did the same for Martinez in the third.

The crowd responded with a standing ovation after each tribute. An emotional Maroon waved and patted his heart in appreciation, and Martinez also waved and held his stick in the air.

After the game ended, the Jets stuck around for a handshake line with the three-time Stanley Cup winners. Maroon and Martinez then hugged, waved to their families in the cheering crowd and had one more embrace before leaving the ice.

“I’m not really one for the limelight,” Martinez said, “so it’s nice that it was sort of deflected on him, too.”

Maroon, a St. Louis native who turns 37 on April 23, signed a $1.3 million, one-year contract with Chicago in free agency last summer. The rugged forward announced last month that he planned to retire after this season, but he waited until Saturday to reveal that the home finale would be his last game.

“He’s been awesome. Such an enjoyable person to be around,” Blackhawks forward Connor Bedard said. “Obviously, his experience in the league ... he can teach us a lot of things. But I think just the laughs he brings and energy he brings to the room, he’s just a guy that everyone wants to be around.”

Maroon was selected by Philadelphia in the sixth round of the 2007 draft. He was traded to Anaheim in 2010 and made his NHL debut in the Ducks’ shootout loss at Chicago on Oct. 25, 2011.

Maroon helped his hometown Blues win the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history in 2019. He also won back-to-back championships with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and ’21.

He became the fourth player in NHL history and first since 1964 to win the Cup three years in a row with two teams. He finishes his career with 126 goals and 197 assists in 848 regular-season games, also playing for Edmonton, New Jersey, Minnesota and Boston.

“I’ve been fortunate to do what I love for a living for a long time,” Maroon said. “As I look back on my career when this is all done, I’m going to look back on the bad times that I went through in Philly to where it got me to where I’m at today.”

Maroon left open the possibility of working in hockey down the road, but he wasn’t ready to think about that just yet.

“As of right now, my focus is family,” he said. “My wife’s due any day now. So we’re going to focus on that, focus on getting back to Tampa, getting settled in and kind of digesting everything and what our next step is.”

The 37-year-old Martinez, who won it all with Los Angeles twice and Vegas once, also joined Chicago in free agency on July 1. He had 88 goals and 201 assists in 862 regular-season games.

Martinez had one of the biggest moments of his career playing against the Blackhawks. He scored in overtime when Los Angeles eliminated Chicago with a 5-4 victory in Game 7 of the epic 2014 Western Conference Final.

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