Kris Letang remembers his first-ever shift in the NHL.
He remembers it vividly -- even though he'd probably prefer to forget it.
It was Oct. 6, 2005, a 4-0 season-opening win over the Flyers in front of 16,957 fans at the Mellon Arena. A 19-year-old Letang played 15:01 in the win with no points, no shots on goal, and a plus-1. It was the first of his 17 shifts that game that went a little haywire.
"It was not a pretty one," Letang recalled to me earlier this week after a Penguins practice at the Lemieux Complex.