Credit To Ian Cole For Giving Me Credit For His Goal Last Night
NHL – When the Pens were in New York earlier this week to play the Islanders, Nick Bonino and Ian Cole visited the Barstool Sports headquarters to participate in the “El Pres Goalie Challenge.” That’s where the founder of Barstool Sports, Dave Portnoy (also known as El Presidente or El Pres) puts on goalie equipment and challenges a shooter – usually an NHL player – to see how many goals they can score in 10 attempts. Taylor Hall and Logan Couture have both done it in the past. “I tweeted at El Pres I can’t score in real life and I can’t score on him,” Cole laughed after the game. “Apparently he was a great warmup for the game tonight because we were able to get that first one.” That night, after Bonino finally arrived and also went 2-for-10 in his El Pres Goalie Challenge, he offered to put on the pads and let Portnoy shoot on him.After Bonino stopped 10, he joked, “90 more or are we good?” Portnoy said if he could stop 100 in a row, he’d shoot 100 in a row. So they went for it. Bonino was incredible, as Portnoy wasn’t able to score until his 93rd attempt on a phenomenal shot that banked off the back wall and in (much like Sidney Crosby’s score against Dallas). “I think all the credit goes to Barstool. The things that I learned out there in New York from El Pres, enough can’t be said for the things that he taught me,” Cole joked. “The goal that he scored on Bones, I just learned a lot from that. Kudos to him. He’s an inspiration to all of us.”
Kudos to me? No kudos to Ian Cole for giving me kudos. Just a real salt of the earth move to give me the credit for his goal last night. It just goes to prove what I’ve always preached here at Barstool. It’s not always the most talented and most gifted athlete that wins the race. Sports just like life is 97% mental. These pro athletes come into the office for an innocent Goalie Challenge and next thing you know I have them running mental windsprints up and down the hallways. They get to see the big brain in action. They try to withstand my mental onslaught and mind games. And as a result they leave stronger men. Suddenly the NHL doesn’t seem so scary anymore. These guys learn to block out the noise, put pucks on net, skate, skate, skate and the rest takes care of itself. Stopping pucks and building careers. That’s what I do here.
