Florida Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle was nothing short of a howl at the 2019 All-Star Game, bringing fun and laughter to the fans.
By no means was Keith Yandle the best player to represent the Florida Panthers in terms of pure talent, but he happened to be the best individual to choose from in terms of personality and character.
As we all know, the All-Star Game is about having fun and engaging your audience. During the Skills Competition and the game itself, Keith Yandle did exactly that, providing fans with some funny content online via the Panthers Twitter page.
As you can see below, Yandle was showing off his goofy self, asking a few players who their favorite player was. He started off with the two Russians on the Tampa Bay Lightning.
First, he approached sniper Nikita Kucherov and got no answer. Then, he skated over to goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy and was ignored for the second straight time. Perhaps a third time would be a charm, right?
And in fact, the third time was a charm! Tampa’s other sniper, Steven Stamkos, gladly (while jokingly) acknowledged his Russian teammates ignoring him from time-to-time, further sparking a discussion with Yandle.
The two enjoyed some pretty good company and Yandle later skated off to get some answers out of Capitals defenseman John Carlson and Sabres captain Jack Eichel.
https://twitter.com/FlaPanthers/status/1089030506707079168
In the Skills Competition, Yandle didn’t quite perform as well as some of his colleagues, but he did manage to give it a go at the very least.
He participated in two events: the Ticketmaster NHL Save Streak and the Enterprise NHL Premier Passer. I’m sure by reading the two that you can fully guess which contest Yandle performed best in.
Starting with the Ticketmaster NHL Save Streak, Yandle had four shootout attempts and was denied three times by Henrik Lundqvist and once by Braden Holtby, ending the contest off 0/4 on the night.
He performed a lot better in the Enterprise NHL Premier Passer, finishing the obstacle in a time of 1:34.611, placing fourth out of eight skaters.
In the game, however, Yandle was placed on a line with Steven Stamkos and John Tavares, as the three represented Team Atlantic in a two-period, 3-on-3 game against their divisional rival, the Metropolitan.
Unfortunately, Yandle and his division fell to the Metro by a score of 7-4 in the opening game. Fortunately enough, Yandle did register a point, which happened to be a primary assist on John Tavares’ goal.
As you can see, while Yandle wasn’t one of the more talented players at this year’s games, he was (in fact) one of the more comedic individuals.
The way in which he conducted himself was nothing short of class, showing integrity and respect for the people around him.
Now that it’s all said and done, I can safely say that Yandle represented the Panthers organization perfectly and showed why he was the right person to be selected.
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