Letang Scores OT Winner During Emotional, Surreal Return

After Kris Letang scored the overtime winner on Tuesday against Florida, he stood with his arms wide open, smiling wide at his teammates as they came and mobbed him. Sidney Crosby was the first to get there, lifting Letang off his feet with a huge hug, and the rest of the group followed.

After they headed into the locker room following the 7-6 victory, where Bryan Rust awarded Letang the player of the game helmet, the defenseman's voice broke as he told everyone how grateful he is for their support through a hellish few weeks.
"I just want to say thank you for everything… it's been a tough month," Letang said with emotion. "You guys have been awesome. So thank you very much."

Letang finished with four points (2G-2A) in his first game back since Dec. 28, after missing the last 11 games for injury and personal reasons. He had been in Montreal with his family following the death of his father, Claude Fouquet, before rejoining the team last Tuesday.
"We couldn't be happier for Tanger with everything that he's been through over the last little while," head coach Mike Sullivan said.
"To come back and have the night that he had, I think that was an emotional night for him - and for the whole team, for that matter. Because we're all living through it with him. So, I think everybody was ecstatic to get Tanger back in the lineup, and you see the impact he has on our team."
It meant so much for Letang simply to be back out there and in the team atmosphere for the first time in a while, doing what he loves with the organization that he's been a part of since the Penguins drafted him in 2005.
He had worked hard to prepare himself for game action from both a rehab standpoint and a conditioning standpoint, after not skating for quite some time before coming back to Pittsburgh.
"It was evident tonight that he was ready to come back," goaltender Casey DeSmith said. "He was a huge part of that win."
His first goal came in the opening frame, with the sequence beginning when Crosby won an offensive-zone back. Letang grabbed it and skated it down behind the net, where the puck found its way to Brian Dumoulin's stick. His D partner drifted down to re-direct it.
Letang had another golden opportunity in overtime with the Penguins on a power play, but Panthers netminder Alex Lyon absolutely robbed him.

"You bury your head and try to go at it again," Letang said with a smile. "It was good to have the winner."
It came when Malkin softly dished it over on a silver platter for Letang, who wound up and buried a one-timer short-side as PPG Paints Arena exploded to cap off the night, which belonged to him.
"It was kind of surreal, you know?" Letang said. "I didn't know what to think or how it was going to go. These guys supported me for the last month... it's just great to be back."