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Daniel Sprong taunts his own teammates after game-winning goal.
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- Daniel Sprong taunts his own teammates after game-winning goal.
Daniel Sprong taunts his own teammates after game-winning goal.
The Kontinental Hockey League's preseason has barely even gotten underway and already it has produce one of the most unbelievable highlights you're ever going to see in elite level hockey.
Each and every year the KHL and its 22 member teams produce some pretty amazing and unbelievable highlights, but what just transpired during a recent game between Yekaterinburg Automobilist and Chelyabinsk Traktor has to be seen to be believed.
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A Game Winning Goal And A Most Bizarre Celebration.
Former NHL forward Daniel Sprong was the man of the hour and it would be Sprong that would score the game winning goal to give Auto a 4-3 win on the night. Up until this point nothing out of the ordinary for an exhibition game, but it was what came after the goal that has caused this moment to go viral on social media.
Rather than celebrating the goal with his teammates as you would normally expect, Sprong instead turned towards his own team's bench to seemingly mock his own teammates. According to reports Sprong looked directly at his teammates while yelling "That's why I'm the best!" at the top of his lungs all the while banging on his chest repeatedly as he did it. It is a surreal scene and it's no surprise it's garnered all kinds of attention.
While the scene that unfolds seems quite surreal it does make sense in the greater context of Sprong's career in the National Hockey League and the reputation that he earned there. Despite being a gifted offensive talent, Sprong was never able to establish himself with any NHL team for any significant length of time, bouncing around between the Pittsburgh Penguins , Anaheim Ducks , Washington Capitals , Seattle Kraken , Detroit Red Wings , Vancouver Canucks and New Jersey Devils over a 374 game career.
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Rumors of being difficult to work with followed Sprong throughout his career in the NHL and this latest incident does certainly seem to lend some credibility to those rumors.
Just last season as a member of the KHL's premier organization, CSKA Moscow, Sprong was leading the team with 12 goals and 19 assists for 31 points in 28 games but found himself benched for half the season after clashing with coach Igor Nikitin over his lack of defensive responsibility, another criticism that hounded him throughout his NHL career.
