Justin Schultz lowered his bum shoulder, leveled his blade into the puck, and let loose. He couldn't have known in that moment that the Stanley Cup Final was about to change course.
But he sure did with the next sound he heard.
No, wait, not the very next sound. Because that, apparently, was some other, more immediate result of this play:
"Honestly," No. 4 would tell me, "I heard the puck hit the net."
Huh? The net? From center point?
"Yeah, the bottom padding. The puck kind of makes a thud sound when it hits there."
Wow, OK, Superman. But I'm talking about what followed that relative silence. I'm talking about that concourse-shaking, triple-digit-decibel sound once everyone inside PPG Paints Arena processed what had just occurred.
I won't over-dramatize this, I promise. Because it doesn't need that. Not for anyone who felt it, much less those who participated in the cacophony Thursday night for the opening strike of the Penguins' 6-0 Game 5 gutting of the Predators.
How might that have felt?
“They were so pumped tonight," he said of the fans. "I wouldn't say it was a chip on the shoulder, necessarily, but all they’ve heard is, ‘Nashville this. Nashville that.’ Well, Penguins fans are really great. And they’ve been really loyal to this team for a long, long time. They showed why they’re some of the greatest fans in all of hockey tonight.”
Of the Schultz reaction in particular, he added, "That was a Civic Arena roar."
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“I don’t know how he does it," Chris Kunitz said. "But when you exude that kind of confidence, it makes everyone around you better.”
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Got kicked out for banging on the glass?! Man that's crazy!! Sorry we just won two fights!
— Chris Boswell (@WizardOfBoz09) June 9, 2017
