A couple years ago in Ottawa, this was a morning skate, just kind of BSing with Yaghani Malkin,

retelling a story about something that had happened in that same visiting locker room several years earlier before a game.

The Eastern Conference final.

Gino is one of those people who if you tell a story that he actually doesn't find entertaining,

he won't laugh at it, he won't pretend to think it's amusing.

And he didn't.

Instead, he looked at me and said,

it'd be nice to be playing in games like that again.

Good morning to you, my friends.

Good Friday morning.

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

And this is Daily Shot of Penguins, coming to you from Newark, New Jersey, on the special

occasion of this franchise clinching a Stanley Cup playoff berth here last night.

Penguins, five Devils 2.

You saw the game, you don't need me to analyze it for you.

What you didn't see and what you didn't hear is what I'm going to share today.

Because what you couldn't have seen is anything remotely resembling a celebration.

Game ended.

Players went back to Stuart Skinner, patted him on the helmet. Nice job.

Everybody goes off the ice. And with the end of their runway, watching them, listening to them,

observing to see if there's anything that's different. Nope. nope. They knew this was coming. They've known it

for a long time. They've believed in themselves since going back to training camp. That's a big

...