Can anything stop Kris Letang?
On Thursday night, a sequence that concluded with a Tampa Bay Lightning goal saw Letang get hit not once, but twice with the puck — including in the face — in the leadup to the tally. Already stung by a Nick Perbix shot, Letang was tied up with Nick Paul in front of the Pittsburgh Penguins net when a drive from Tanner Jeannot hit a stick and deflected right up into Letang’s face. As the Penguins' star D-man dropped to the ice, Ross Colton swiped the puck over the line.
Letang left the game, but only briefly, rejoining his teammates — without even throwing on a full cage, we might add — in their crucial tilt as the Pens vie for one of the final playoff berths in the Eastern Conference.
Of course, this isn’t the first time adversity has found Letang this season. In November, Letang was diagnosed as having suffered the second stroke of his young life. The first was in 2014 and it kept him out of the Penguins lineup for more than two months. This time was less serious, but it was still remarkable to see him return to the Pens less than two weeks after his diagnosis.
Just after Christmas, Letang lost his father and the entire Penguins team showed up at the end of a road trip to attend the wake in Montreal. Letang had just sustained a lower-body injury at that time and missed most of January nursing that ailment. In his first game back, he netted two goals and two helpers in a wild 7-6 win over the Florida Panthers.
Whatever the game — and life — throws at this guy, he just keeps skating.
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