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Clutch? Clutch is swatting a puck out of mid-air with 4.7 seconds to go while you're down one goal to the defending Stanley Cup Champs. Clutch is knotting the game and then turning around to celebrate...and ending up two zones away with the spotlight still on you.
Clutch is burying a goal on a goalie you spent time trash-talking in the first period, telling him how you were going to bury one on him eventually. And you did.
Clutch is Nail Yakupov. Clutch is scoring on the defending Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings and literally taking the spotlight off of them.
And clutch is the Rexall place light operator. Like Neal said:
Mad props to the Rexall spotlight man. Followed Nail through the entire slide celebration. Epic! #Oilers
— Neal (@tweetneal) January 25, 2013
And to every sports writer that questions the celebration because Yakupov is young, or Russian, or young and Russian -- go score the biggest goal of your career, the biggest goal in the last six years of the franchise, against the defending Stanley Cup champions, and stand still and solemnly salute the honor of Orr, Howe and Morenz while the crowd roars around you. I can only hope that Yakupov's celebration is just the beginning.