DK’s Daily Shot of Penguins: The deserving champs!

DK’s Daily Shot of Penguins: The deserving champs!

congratulations to Evan Rodriguez the nicest man in any room and the new Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers good morning to you good Tuesday morning I’m Deon kovachich of DK Pittsburgh sports and this is daily shot of penguins it comes your way bright and early every weekday if you’re into football Andor baseball I also offer daily shots of Steelers and pirates in the same place that you found this Panthers 2 Oilers one in game seven of a legitimately remarkable final round in fact I kind of fear we’re not going to see another one like it for years and not just because Florida won the first three and Edmonton the next three as I was sharing on yesterday’s episode in advance of this I really felt like the circumstance that had been built up throughout this series had left the series nowhere to go except for some extraordinary Crescendo and that’s what we got people did you love this as much as I did or even half as much as I did I couldn’t sit down I couldn’t sit down other than the intermission breaks I stood behind my couch watching this and understand I’m not all that invested in the outcome I did make pretty clear that I like the Panthers for a very long time and wanted to see them get rewarded here but it’s not as if it was like you know some spiritual connection to the franchise or whatever I just couldn’t get enough of this pace every shift every rush in every shift every block every stop every save this word gets overused a bit in sports lingo but it was breathtaking meaning the shifts would end and I would find that I had lost my own breath but I’ll tell you what I like the most about it I liked the most that the Panthers stayed true to themselves because I’ve liked who they’ve been for quite a while now and I’ve shared that with you on a regular basis Often by the way in comparing the Penguins to them negatively I’d love to see the Penguins develop more of that bite but these guys uh and specifically Paul Marice had a lot of different ways they could have gone into this game seven they could have panicked they could have changed out a bunch of people instead of just putting KY poso in the lineup for Nick cousins they could have altered their forche they could have and I thought this was more impressive than anything kind of pressed a panic button in saying look you get the puck in your own end just flip it out get it out they only really did that over the final I don’t know8 or n minutes of the third period but otherwise it didn’t always go well but they kept trying to make their usual passes boom boom boom Tick Tac and toe getting out of the zone so they could maintain possession get the puck to the other end and for check for check for check and as I’d mentioned on yesterday’s episode I didn’t feel Maurice or his staff would have enough time to implement any sort of significant change or a counter adjustment as we’d all been talking about to what Chris noblock had put in for Edmonton in the middle of game three they needed to be themselves they needed to be their best selves and by God they needed to forget about how they got to game seven this episode is brought to you by bet online your number one source for all your summer Sports needs this season from Major League Baseball golf NHL NBA playoffs get the latest odds and lines including all team matchups player props odds on just about everything that’s out there head to the website today or use your mobile device to get in on the action bet online where the game starts and so it was that in the 24 to 36 hours leading into game seven every time you heard one of the Panthers players being interviewed you heard them really almost mimicking repeating Maurice’s terminology about how blessed they were to be in a game seven as opposed to having been shoved there against their will which is actually what happened and that’s where aoso comes in by now everyone’s heard the story of aoso sharing the news with his eight-year-old son yesterday morning that Daddy was going to be in the Stanley Cup Final even though daddy hadn’t played for the rest of the series he was going to be in game seven and if that was willful on Maurice’s part from a psychological standpoint that’s brilliant if it was accidental so what it would have had the same effect because the message that he was putting in anyway was it’s awesome to be here where we are it’s not a negative it’s not a burden this is great that we’re here this is great that we’re playing in our home arena with a chance to raise the Stanley Cup here tonight loved it loved all of it can’t express that strongly enough and the fact that there are some people with that franchise that I’ve gotten to know and admire over the years including Maurice himself but especially Rodriguez who I felt was dealt a bad hand here in Pittsburgh I’ve shared that with you guys in detail for R Ro to put up four goals in the final and then to be counted on to defend and try to aim for the empty net in the final minute and a half and yeah that was him out there and he almost got that empty Netter from just on the other side of centered it it’s just you can hear it in my voice right this was wonderful a wonderful reminder of what a beautiful sport this is why I believe it’s the best sport on the planet and for all those times you’ll hear me complaining about this or that or officiating or rule changes or even stuff that’s just aimed at the Penguins this this is why this stuff happens this is why you love hockey this is why I love covering it this is why I’ve Loved officiating it playing it coaching it instructing it there’s nothing like it and in all cander here I can’t wait to see these ratings because you know on P it’s the worst case scenario for the NHL because obviously everything in Canada doesn’t count it’s a big zero in US neelon ratings and you would think that the south Florida Market would be the pits of the universe when it comes to hockey ratings because it has been for a very long time this wasn’t that well I should say this wasn’t just that this wasn’t about just Sunrise Florida and Edmonton Alberta this was a drama that played out in front of everyone’s eyes and culminated in just Exquisite hockey when we come back j1q today’s j1q comes from Cody he asks DK why give an award to someone not on the winning team the players don’t like it the fans don’t like it and it only worsens the mood on an otherwise joyous celebration Cody’s referring of course to Connor McDavid being voted the winner of the K SMI trophy that happens on a vote by select members not all members of the professional hockey writers association who are there covering the game you have to be in the building as I know this cuz I was one of the voters in 2016 in San Jose and 2017 in Nashville and to share a little bit of background on this because I’m sure it’s going to become a topic today if it hasn’t already become one overnight that voting is done you’re going to think I’m making this up with 10 minutes left in the third period the NHL insists upon it so someone from the phwa runs around and actually collects paper ballots from people so that there’s time to pick them up what’s more they collect them from two different areas where the Press is seated one is the Press Box which can never handle the media that shows up for a Stanley Cup Final in any building and the other is the auxiliary seating as it’s known where they will just warding off a seating section uh in the Arena Bowl somewhere for the Overflow media meaning the reporters who just don’t fit in the Press Box why do they do this via paper and in two different locations and with a human running around and Counting them because NHL and if I have to elaborate on that for anybody then you’re way too new to hockey to even care about this in the first place they’re just the NHL they’re the worst at everything when it comes to this sort of stuff best sport worst league as I coined a long time ago so now picture yourself being one of these reporters and you’re looking at this ballot I shouldn’t really call it a ballot by the way it’s not like you’re giv a choice of names you you’re filling out a blank piece of paper and the scoreboard shows that the Panthers are winning by the literal slimmest of margins you know there’s a ton of hockey to be played you know there’s a very good chance that the team that’s in the lead might not be the team that wins it so you can’t vote based upon who wins Cody which I think goes to your central point you want it to be someone coming from the team that wins that actually can’t occur that is out of the voters hands all right so let me clear up that part first and then move on to what I think actually happened because I also know a lot of this particular electorate have been doing this for a while and the Stanley Cup Final in general tends to bring a lot of Canadian writers because the Toronto media in particular will go wherever there’s a final because I mean hockey is just King up there and they have to cover the final almost as if it’s their own event so you’re always going to have an outsized number of Canadian media at these things now add into it that the Oilers are obviously from Canada and you have all of the non-c Calgary Alberta media at every event especially a game s and if you know anything about the Canadian media’s history you will know that they don’t like Russians for reasons that are absolutely not rational but they don’t like Russians they think Russians are out to steal their game there’s even a sentiment north of the border which is really bizarre that Russians are somehow Canada’s enemy as if Canada has enemies but some of this originates with the 1972 Summit Series which everyone up there still hails as a National Historic pivoting point or whatever so I can promise you that there was no circumstance under which Sergey babski was going to win this because he’s a Russian I can also promise you that Alexander barov who was born in Finland but you can just hear his name and understand that he’s of Russian descent he wasn’t going to get it either after Conor McDavid had zero points and zero shots in game six I wrote on DK Pittsburgh sports that the KMI was already his no matter what was going to happen in game seven so game seven comes around and McDavid again has zero points this time two whole shots and it didn’t matter I can promise you right now that 90% of those ballots among the Canadian writers were filled out before the puck was even dropped I appreciate the question I appreciate everyone listening to daily shot of penguins and today officially Begins the off seon

The Panthers show why they’re the deserving champs.

#LetsGoPens #PittsburghPenguins #NHL

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