Tyler Toffoli was sitting on 2 goals as the Canadiens were up 4–3 late in the 3rd vs. Vancouver. The Canucks had the goalie pulled looking to tie things up at the brink. With time winding down Toffoli gets the puck around center ice, clear shot at an empty to lock up the hat trick as time expires. The puck on his stick, net literally void of a human. And what does hockey player Tyler Toffoli do? Tosses one up to his teammate Jeff Petry who found the empty net (glory be to PLJ). Passing up the hatty to get his teammate a tuck on the scoresheet.
Fast Forward just mere minutes and what do you know? The Dallas Stars are up two and killing the final few minutes of the game and the Blue Jackets have the goalie pulled. Joe Pavelski had scored two goals early in the game so he too was looking for that hat trick. Probably didn’t even remember scoring them at this point in the game, was just glad his team was in position to get the win. Jamie Benn sends the puck to Pavelski, this too around center ice, no defenders near him. Joe receives the puck, surveys the ice, sees the wide open net, but also sees a wide open teammate. And what does hockey player Joe Pavelski do? YUP. Passes it to Alexander Radulov who places it in the back of the net. Instead of a hattrick, 2 goals and 2 helpers from Joe.
Two near simultaneous acts of selfless hockey. Stuff you can’t teach. At the same time this happened I bet an NBA player took a contested shot to try to get a 40 piece while his teammate stood wide open and another talked about himself in the postgame. Hockey guys being hockey guys.
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