The Only Good Thing To Come From Nick Bonino's Game Winner Was The Hockey Night Punjabi Call
Before last night’s Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, I thought to myself that maybe Hockey Night Punjabi is starting to jump the shark a bit. It was a full month ago at this point that Hockey Night Punjabi was introduced to my life. Since then it’s been getting the “My House” by Flo Rida on the radio treatment. Yeah, it’s an absolute fire track but does it have to be on every station simultaneously at least 3 times per hour? Not so much. When even those dirtbags at ESPN are picking up the Punjabi goal calls, you know that it’s time to maybe give it a break. But then with 2:33 left in the 3rd period, Nick Bonino received a pass in the slot from Kris “Worse Than ISIS” Letang, put the puck by Martin Jones and put the Penguins just 3 wins away from their 2nd Stanley Cup championship this decade. And that’s when I realized that we need Hockey Night Punjabi in our lives. That’s the moment that I realized that some things in this world just can’t be killed, and this is one of them. As much as I hate the Penguins, I kind of need a “Bonino Bonino Bonino Bonino Bonino Boninooooooo” shirt and I need it stat. The Hockey Night Punjabi broadcast is just the perfect way to laugh at other cultures without coming off as a racist. It’s great for guys like you and me. Just two funny sounding Indian guys going bonkers over the greatest sport on Earth. There’s nothing there to not love.
Some more highlights from last night’s game:
Credit where credit is due, the Penguins came out flying around last night. They dominated the entire first period and the Sharks were pretty lucky to get out of there only down by 2. The PA announcer wasn’t even done calling the first goal before Conor Sheary put the Pens up by a pair.
Love him or hate him, you can never dismiss Crosby’s skill level–especially not on this goal. He smokes Justin Braun in a foot race, takes a quick look toward the middle of the ice, hits the brakes, finds Sheary open in the circles and then it’s a quick little snipe fest from there.
Sharks had a nice little 2-goal period of their own in the 2nd and this wrap around from Patrick Marleau was a beaut. But you can’t get thrown on your heels that quickly in the 1st period and still expect to come out of there with a win. Good news for the Sharks is that they really only played 40 minutes last night and still only lost by 1. Bad news is that the Penguins still seem to be the hottest team since Christmas and are clicking all over the place.
Speaking of Patrick Marleau, let’s just talk about this hit on Bryan Rust real quick…
Listen. I’m all for trying to get head shots out of the game. But the NHL got this one right on not handing down any more supplemental discipline for this specific hit. Rust put himself in a vulnerable position here. What, is Marleau supposed to just completely let up before this jack ass came across the blue line with his eyes looking down on the puck? Shit no. Marleau kept his shoulder and his hands down. He didn’t aim for head, it just so happened that Rust’s head was at shoulder level. It got the 2 minute penalty it deserved, nothing more and nothing less.
Last thing here. As much as I hate the Penguins (which has been well documented on this website before), I can’t bring myself to fully hate Nick Bonino personally. “Why?” you may ask. Well because Bonino has one of the cutest pups I’ve ever seen and anybody with this dog is good to go in my book.
