Colorado Avalanche Tornado: Sam Girard’s Four Goals

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Sam Girard had a good year for a sophomore blueliner. Watch his four goals and some other tidbits.

In case you din’t know, Samuel Girard‘s nickname is La Tornade, French for The Tornado. It is, of course, named after his trademark spin-o-rama move.

Now, according to Girard himself, he calls the move “tourner,” which is just French for spin. However, as Kyle Keefe points out, opponents tend to fall down with their jock straps tumbling to the ice, so we’ll stick with calling him La Tournade:

As Marc Moser points out, the effortless nature of the spin is what makes the move so impressive for Girard. According to the man himself, it’s just natural for him to spin. (Also to sing.)

Now, not all four of Sam Girard’s goals result from his spin move, but let’s go ahead and look at one that did. This goal came as the last score of, unfortunately, a 4-3 loss for the Colorado Avalanche:

That is classic Sammy G right there. Also, oopsie, Thornton. You just got owned by someone your kids’ age. (But then, that’s the trend in today’s NHL.)

Now this next goal isn’t a La Tornade Special. However, it shows you that our young blueliner has more tolls in his box than just the tourner.

Oh, Sammy, so tiny, so unemotional.

Ok, maybe not always unemotional:

And maybe not so tiny anymore:

Anyway, back to the goals.

Here’s an example of Sam Girard using size to his advantage. Not his own size — despite his new beefcake stature, he’s still the smallest guy on the team. Rather, he uses big Mikko Rantanen’s size to his advantage:

The big Finn fends off not one, not two, but three defenders. Don’t take anything away from Girard, though– he pinched in at just the right time.

The final goal of this post  was actually Sam’s first of the season. It came against the Ottawa Senators, a game the Colorado Avalanche ultimately won:

We saw just four goals from Sam Girard this season, but that’s ok because the young blueliner recorded a total 27 points — so he made 23 plays that ended in a teammate scoring. Not too shabby.

You may not have noticed, but our big captain of the blueline, Erik Johnson, has taken little Sam under his Condor’s wing.

Indeed, Johnson and some of the Avs veterans took young G out to Vegas for the youngster’s 21st birthday in May. I think EJ has also made it his mission to help the young defenseman fully transition in the NHL, a service he’s provided throughout the years.

Anyway, I don’t know that Samuel Girard is going to take Tyson Barrie’s place as an offensive defenseman. I think he’s going to provide another valuable service for the Colorado Avalanche. I think he’s going to be that coveted puck-moving defenseman who can defend and create plays.

And pot in a few goals a year.