I sat down next to Kevin Hayes after putting a couple of pretty nice goals last night at PPG Pace Arena.

I had some questions I wanted to ask him about his own season, about his own bounce back here.

Pittsburgh.

Let's just say I didn't have to do a whole lot of work.

Good morning to you.

Good Wednesday morning.

I'm Dan Kovachovich 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 5, Blackhawks, nothing, not the greatest entertainment value for the 15,000 plus

on hand. And that kind of makes sense, given the stakes for either

side, which of course was nothing for either side. But the Penguins got the job done. They

continued playing well as they've been doing for a while. They're now eight, four, and two over their past 14 games. Six of

those eight wins, I should stress, came against teams that are currently in the playoff

picture, and two of those wins came against teams that are among the top four overall in the National Hockey League, those of course

being Golden Knights and the Stars.

It's been kind of an uplifting finish for the team that's been out of it for a good bit.

Part of the reason for that is they've had leadership.

They've had Sidney Crosby, Evgeny Malkin, Chris LaTang,

Brian Rust, the guys you would expect step up. The guys that you don't necessarily either expect

or know about who are in that room who make a difference, they've helped too. And Hayes is probably at the forefront of that.

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