Abby Sciuto
Abby, sipping a Caff-Pow, is watching 25 seconds of hockey frame by frame. As we draw closer, we see it’s Avalanche goalie
Calvin Pickard‘s save on John Michael Liles.
Excited, she points to the beginning of the play. “See how Jordan Staal just skates right into the zone? Nate Guenin, Gabriel Landeskog and Ryan O’Reilly are all chasing him, but they can’t catch up.”
So, the problem is the usual — lack of defense?
“Wait, I’m not done. Watch this.” She plays the next few frames. “Landeskog boxes him out. See, then Calvin Pickard drops into the classic butterfly and makes a save. But watch this.”
The puck bounces off of Pickard’s pads, and John Michael Liles scoops it up, firing it off toward Pickard again. He drops back into the butterfly, and the puck rebounds again. “See, rebounds.”
So, Picks doesn’t cover the puck enough?
“Well, by this point in the game, he’s faced something like 30 shots — and the game isn’t even half over.”
That’s a lot of shots in a short period of time.
“Yes, it is. It’s hard to control the puck perfectly when you’re facing that many shots. But look at this.”
We watch the next few seconds. O’Reilly corrals the second rebound and passes it right to MacKinnon. He moves up the ice with speed — of course. For the most part, he has time. However, he winds up and… PING!
“He had Anton Khudobin beat, but the puck luck wasn’t with him.”
“Rule #1: You make your own luck.”
We all whirl around. Who’s here? The guy with all the answers, of course.