I'll always try to be honest with you regarding a player that I'll take a liking to or enjoy watching more than maybe someone else.

And yeah, I'm human.

You're going to appreciate some quality interaction.

So sure, I've got my favorites.

And Eric Carlson happens to be one of them.

And I'm not going to apologize for that to anybody.

Good morning to you.

Good Tuesday morning.

I'm Dan Kovachievich of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports.

This is Daily Shot of Penguins. It comes your way bright and early every weekday. If you're into football and or baseball, I also offer daily shots of Steelers and Pirates in the same place that you found this. Penguins versus Islanders tonight at PPG Paints Arena.

That's a 708 p.m. faceoff.

That's a game that I'm not going to try to attach relevance to these things anymore.

But there it is, okay?

That's one of the teams that's in the back.

I am going to, for the most part, try to bring up subjects that have longer term relevance to the franchise. And Carlson's absolutely one of those. He's the team's highest paid player at 11.5

million. In average annual value, he's got two more years on his contract at that rate. He's 34 years old now. He'll obviously be

36 whenever the deal's done. And depending on your perspective, that's either really exciting

or excruciating. Actually, it might depend on the shift. That's who he is. He is extraordinarily talented.

If you happen to pay really close attention to the goal he scored the other day against the

Devils.

It wasn't just the shot that he took from distance.

It wasn't just the way he sized up where Jacob Markstrom was.

...