"Connor wasn't on the bench, he was standing up and didn't take his eyes off the moment," Pang said. "I think about the experiences of what Connor has had so far. The retirement of Chris Chelios' sweater was something else; that gets you right into the history, or at least 10 years of Chris Chelios and the Chicago Blackhawks and a local boy.
"And then Patrick Kane that night [he came back for the first time] … I mean, for some of these players they imitate Patrick Kane's way of celebrating a goal, and they still do. He left that mark on these young players, the showtime mark.
"And then it's the 100th year and Connor and his young teammates are watching decades and decades and decades of players who have worn the Blackhawks sweater all coming out in alumni jackets. Think about trying to get ready for a game when these celebrations are going on. Then you have to play the game and you don't want to disappoint everybody because, my god, those were the guys that won championships. So, you go through that, and then Jonathan Toews steps onto the ice. That's why this was different and that's why I think Connor really soaked it all in. I think he really appreciated that moment and just how Jonathan handled the morning, on the ice.
"I believe that all these experiences have made the young Blackhawks better people, more observant people. It's not just them right now; there's a big part of the game of being an NHL player and representing your city let alone being Connor Bedard. I think these are all such great positives for Connor to experience everything he's been experiencing here."
Later that night, Pang was able to see the highlight of Florida Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky motoring from one end of the ice to the other to take on San Jose Sharks goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, who left his crease to join a fracas nearby.
It was a goalie fight between Bobrovsky and Nedeljkovic, but to Pang, what Bobrovsky did in going to the other end of the ice to defend his teammates represented a moment in the Panthers' season that weeks later we could look back on as the one that brought the team together, especially because it was in the same game that Matthew Tkachuk returned to the lineup for the first time this season.
"If 'Bob' stayed in that net it wouldn't have been Florida Panther hockey and that could be a big turning point for them," Pang said. "There's more to the game than a lot of analytics that I love. There's more to the game than high end speed and speed bursts and skill. There just is. There's gumption, there's team camaraderie. There's that rallying point where you go into that locker room and you have a cold beer together and you go, 'Way to go boys,' and 'Bob, way to go.' He might get more accolades for that in that locker room than winning back-to-back Stanley Cups for those boys."
