Perhaps it’s been said too much, or perhaps its the 40 of Crown Royal we drank over meetings this morning… But we just can’t help but get a little bit of a glow when we think about Fernando Pisani’s glorious return to the NHL.

Consider that this guy went through what amounts to a living hell, and was facing retirement. Instead of calling it a career, he’s come back, scored twice and has a shootout winner on the books.

Let #34 stand as an example to underperforming players around the league and on the Oilers (*cough* Torres): whatever you think your obstacles are, or whatever you need to overcome, think of ‘Nando. He’s worked his way into being a hell of a two-way player, then went on the run in the playoffs, then almost lost it all.

But does ‘Nando turtle? No! He wills himself back into the lineup, doing 5,000 pushups a day* and pots himself a pair of goals and an assist in his first eight games back.

Welcome back, Fernando.

*We’ve made an assumption here. It’s probably much higher than that.