Denis Potvin says Sedin ‘goaded’ Panthers bench, showed no respect
When we last heard Florida Panthers color commentator Denis Potvin, he was calling Daniel Sedin a “low life” and unleashing one of the strangest insults in the history of hockey or spreadable legumes: “The Sedins are pointing fingers now … Normally they only use those fingers to lick the peanut butter off of their bread.”*
This was a result from the chaos near the benches at the end of the Vancouver Canucks’ 3-2 win, snapping the Cats’ 12-game winning streak. Daniel Sedin scored the game-winner in overtime, skated over to the Panthers’ bench, said something, and then everyone started hugging. In, like, an aggressive hockey way.
Denis Potvin was on XM NHL Network Radio for his weekly hit on Tuesday morning, and explained what he saw between the benches:
“In terms of what happened, there were so many different stories. Just picture this. This was what was tough to swallow. Daniel Sedin is about 10 feet inside of the Panthers blue line in the overtime, which means they’re at the opposite end of the rink from the Panthers bench, which means they’re about 90 feet away. Daniel Sedin scores the goal, he immediately turns around and goes to the Florida Panthers bench and it appears he’s goading them, pointing a finger. Well, the place went nuts obviously. And I still don’t know what happened.
“[Derek] Dorsett was saying in the paper this morning that someone said something that upset Sedin. I don’t understand that. Sedin was playing hockey and scores the goal, and then instead of jumping up and celebrating with his teammates, he goes directly to the Panthers bench. And I still don’t know why.”
In the aftermath of the incident, the Sedins were quiet on what was said by the Panthers.
Jason Botchford of The Province suspected the culprit was Shawn Thornton, and reported that “as for what was said, the word I got after the game was that it was something along the lines of ‘same sisters’ which I took to mean ‘you’re still the same old sisters’ from the way it was presented to me.”
According to Sportsnet’s Andrew Walker, a source near Thornton said they heard "I have my name on two Stanley Cups. Where's yours? Where yours? Where's yours, Daniel?"
But no matter what was said, Potvin told the station that actions speak louder than words and Sedin’s actions were capital-D-disrespectful.
From Potvin:
“It ended badly because of Sedin’s actions. In any decade, if a player turns around and starts goading the other bench after the winning goal … could you imagine that in Philly? Or Boston?”
“Usually when you beat a team that’s on a streak, you talk about incredible respect for what they were able to accomplish.
“Instead of that, you had a team score a winning goal and then goad the opposing bench.”
So there you go: Daniel Sedin should have simply ignored whatever was said to set off one of the most demure and congenial players in the NHL, and kissed the Panthers' collective ring for that 12-game winning streak.
Listen to the full interview here:
(*Yeah, we have no idea either. Best we can figure was that he meant “eating peanut butter out of the jar with their hands,” unless he’s portraying the Sedins as some kind of poo-tossing Swedish marsupials who don’t know how to use a knife. Or their tongues, apparently.)
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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
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