I'm not going to lie, every time I speak or write, anything critical about an athlete's performance, every time wondering what that individual might be dealing with, whether it's physical or mental.

Good morning to you.

Good Thursday 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 in two, football and or baseball, I also offer daily shots of

Steelers and Pirates in the same place that you've found this. Best wishes go out right here from me

to the one, the only Chris LaTang, who had heart surgery yesterday to repair a hole that's located between the upper chambers.

Now, it's common knowledge that he'd had that issue, suffered strokes, real live strokes

in 2014 and 2022.

Now, fortunately, nothing in terms of an event occurred to prompt this.

This is a decision that was being discussed for a long time between Latang and the medical staff about having the surgery voluntarily to address that hole.

And because LaTang was playing, per Mike Sullivan's assessment yesterday after practice,

with a whole lot of bumps and bruises,

on all likelihood, wasn't going to play in tonight's regular season finale against the capitals.

They just went ahead and got it done.

So between Sullivan's public comments, others from the locker room, notably that of P.O. Joseph,

who lives with Letang, saying that he's doing fine, good spirits, ups and downs, and absolutely no

indication of any kind that this is going to impact the rest of his career. The only thing

that matters here, the only thing is that this legitimately great player, husband, father, and everything else that he means to so many more people is healthy and going to live the longest life possible.

Okay.

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