Simon Despres Goes Careening Into Boards, Teammates Troll (video)
Youngster Simon Despres‘ solo collision with the boards resulted in a chalk outline in his honor
Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Simon Despres is the kind of player that any team would kill for — he’s young, he’s delightfully good at speaking English for a kid from Quebec, and he has yet to finish an NHL season with a negative +/-. For a 23-year-old blue liner, that’s worthy of applause.
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Even the best players make mistakes, though — and this mistake made by Despres during the Penguins’ matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning Monday night earned him some go0d-natured trolling by his teammates.
In an attempt to clear the puck out of the neutral zone following his own blocked shot attempt, Despres got a little too enthusiastic in his pursuit of the puck… and ended up crashing into the boards instead.
He wasn’t physically hurt, but it’s hard to imagine his pride isn’t feeling that one a bit. So, naturally, the Pittsburgh Penguins did what the Pittsburgh Penguins do best — they mocked him.
I can neither confirm nor deny that this picture is now my laptop background, just like I’m sure Marc-Andre Fleury can neither confirm nor deny that he’s solely responsible for this. His former prankster-in-arms, Matt Cooke, is busy being injured on the Minnesota Wild — so I get this eerily strong feeling that Fleury is taking his responsibility as the primary team troll very seriously.
Of course, it could also be photo-bomb king Beau Bennett’s handiwork, assuming he’s allowed anywhere near the ice right now.
In case you missed it, here’s the play itself. Keep an eye on the bottom of the video screen, and you’ll see Despres send himself face-first into the boards. It’s great.
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