Kristopher Letang was fuming at an official after a penalty in overtime last night, but the Penguins still beat the Sharks in a shootout.
You didn't need to read lips to know the veteran defenseman had plenty to get off his chest. He was animated, he was direct, and the official was on the receiving end.
Letang was sent to the box in the extra frame in San Jose, which is a dangerous place to be with the game tied 2-2 and the next goal ending it. He finished the night with 2 penalty minutes, and the reaction made it clear he wasn't happy about how the call went.
Pittsburgh got out of it anyway. Sergei Murashov made 34 saves on 36 shots and picked up the shootout win, and the Penguins left with the 3-2 result.
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Letang had been doing his work before that moment. He logged 20:36 and picked up an assist, so this was a defenseman who had been in the middle of the game all night, not a player looking for a place to vent.
Did Letang's penalty almost cost the Penguins?
It could have. Overtime penalties have a way of ending games, and Pittsburgh needed its goalie to be sharp once Letang went off. Murashov was, and the Penguins escaped with a point they probably didn't deserve to have in their pocket by the end of that sequence.
That's an opinion, and the call itself is Letang's gripe, not ours. But a 39-year-old defenseman with 1254 career games knows the cost of giving an opponent a power play in overtime. His frustration looked directed at the official, though the result was his team's survival.
The win matters to a Penguins team sitting 27th in the NHL at 7-10-2. Pittsburgh is 3-7-1 on the road, so any two points away from home count.
Samuel Girard scored and Benjamin Kindel added a power-play goal, while Macklin Celebrini had a goal and an assist for the Sharks in a game that stayed close to the end.
Letang and the Penguins return home Saturday to host the Senators, and we'll see whether the whistle stays in his ear.
This article was written with the help of artificial intelligence, based on public reports and official sources.
Was Letang right to go after the official in overtime?
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