Bob Pompeani

They've got to go back to regular work now.

The last 30 games of the season starts on Wednesday for some.

Toothless in Milan, but with a gold medal in exchange.

Toothless, yeah.

He should be.

I mean, listen, once the guy comes here, they introduce him as a gold medalist, everyone should stand, absolutely salute that performance.

And once the game starts, you can boo him all you want.

But it's just a sign of respect.

Penguin fans are good at this.

They understand it, and they will give him a standing ovation.

I'm confident of that.

that if i play i might be hurting this hockey team which i think is a really noble move on his part your thoughts i totally agree with it and keep in mind this is a guy who hasn't missed a game in the regular season the last two years he's played every game and he wanted to continue to do that with the penguins too now that may be in jeopardy

But I think if he could have played, you know how he is, Joe.

He's as competitive as they come.

But he also knows, why would I cost myself an additional forward if I can't be of any use to them?

I'm not going to go out there and make it more difficult.

So I think that's an unselfish choice.

I think if it's up to him, he probably would have tried to push it, but maybe they just said, look, you're not going to be able to.

And he knows by skating around the day before.

He knows what his body's capable of.