Colorado Avalanche: Anatomy of Matt Duchene’s Goal

Colorado Avalanche center Matt Duchene scored a textbook goal against the Dallas Stars. Unfortunately, it was the only one the Avs got.

The Colorado Avalanche fell to the Dallas Stars last night. They scored only one goal, but it was a beauty.

And who scores the most beautiful goals on the team? Matt Duchene, of course.

Here’s the video:

During the post-game show, Altitude TV studio analyst (and former Av) Mark Rycroft talked viewers through the goal. He observed that Matt Duchene’s goal shows that “practice makes perfect.”

It starts with Wilson in the corner. He passes to Barrie. The Dallas Stars center, Radek Faksa, tries to lift Barrie’s stick. So he pulls off an old trick and slides the puck under Faksa’s stick. He re-takes possession right away.

Barrie passes the puck to Duchene, who pulls off what Mark Rycroft calls a “non-duster,” meaning the puck doesn’t have time to collect any dust. He “grabs and releases” and pulls off a nifty wrister that beats goalie Ben Bishop as Rycroft said, “Where Mama keeps the double-stuffed Oreos.”

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As Rycroft observes, that’s what talent and hard work get you. He estimates Duchene probably practiced that shot 1,000 times over the summer (on what’s apparently concrete with a high gloss finish.) Rycroft further observes “He is dialed in this season.”

Right now Duchene has three goals and three assists, which puts him in first place for scoring on the team, tied with Sven Andrighetto. Yes, he is dialed in.

During his post-game presser, Duchene was asked about the Patrik Nemeth fight against Tyler Seguin (more on that in a moment). He remarked that you always have a little chip on your shoulder when you’ve been released from a team. (The Avalanche picked Nemeth up on waivers — from the Stars.)

Well, Duchene hasn’t been released from the Avalanche, but with all the media frenzy around him, he probably goes into each game with a chip on his shoulder. And that’s working out just fine for the Avs even if they didn’t “get the result” that they wanted.

Next: Duchene Line on Fire

Patrik Nemeth vs Tyler Seguin

Midway through the third period, the game got a little chippy. It started with Nikita Zadorov taking issue with Jamie Benn. He proceeded to go all cave man on Benn in how he dragged him around. Unfortunately, that’s a penalty.

Patrik Nemeth, formerly of the Dallas Stars, seemed to take that as a catalyst to square off with Tyler Seguin. Now, this wasn’t any gentlemanly, “Hey, help me show my new team where my allegiance is now” in the matter of Cody McLeod and Jarome Iginla. This was real animosity between two men:

Patrik Nemeth VS Tyler Seguinhttps://t.co/loy1INMp7u
— Nathan Rudolph (@DNVR_Rudo) October 15, 2017

Now, Seguin is a pure goal scorer. He’s not known for fighting. In fact, in his entire seven years in the NHL, Seguin has never gotten into a fight. Yet he decided to go toe-to-toe with his former teammate. And after the heated scuffle, there wasn’t any friendly banter or a pat on the hockey pants. There was continued animosity.

What did you do, Seguin?

Anyway, Seguin also earned a Gordie Howe hat trick of a goal, an assist and a fight. And… Nemeth didn’t return to the game. Apparently Seguin’s face is particularly hard.

And, the Colorado Avalanche earned their second loss on the season.

That Matt Duchene goal, though — we could use a few more of those this season. Maybe even 27 more.