Who was the big hero in the Pittsburgh Penguins Eastern Conference Final Game 7 win on Thursday? Why, Ryan Whitney. Kind of.
Whitney, who last played in the NHL in 2013-14 and now works as an analyst for the NHL Network, was quick to point out how Chris Kunitz ended up in Pittsburgh.
In 2009, the Penguins traded Whitney to the Anaheim Ducks for Kunitz and Eric Tangradi. Tangradi played all of 45 games with the Penguins before being traded to the Winnipeg Jets in 2013, which prompted this reaction from the center current playing in the American Hockey League.
But Kunitz, of course, went on to score the game-winning goal against the Ottawa Senators in double-overtime of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final, lifting Pittsburgh to its third Stanley Cup Final appearance since the trade. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.
