Colorado Avalanche efenseman Sam Girard is keeping his aim up by playing Pockets at his home in Quebec. He’s quite good at it.
Colorado Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard is in self-quarantine in his Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec home. Apparently he’s keeping busy honing in on his Pockets game.
I believe Pockets may be a form of Cornhole, perhaps just the Canadian version of Cornhole. In any case, he talked about it in a call the NHL organized yesterday — French NHL. I’m not even sure the Avs social knew about it because they haven’t referenced it.
The latest video call was between three French-speaking players — Girard, Canucks forward Antoine Roussel, Panthers winger Jonathan Huberdeau, and Vegas forward Jonathan Marchessault. They talked about many topics — including star rookie Cale Makar — but part of the conversation was about Girard’s ability at Pockets — Poches in French.
A couple weeks ago the NHL shared a picture from a video Girard’s dad put on Facebook. In the video, Girard is outside in his driveway playing Pockets. He got eight pockets in a row, which is quite impressive.
In the video call, Roussel teased Girard that the video of his making eight pockets in a row “must be a montage.”
In fact, Girard shared that he started to love playing the game when he was 15 and would play with his grandfather. He said of his hobby:
"“I practice often. I play with my father and my brothers. It’s a sport that we play on weekends in summer, beer in hand. “"
What’s interesting is that Tyson Jost referenced Girard’s passion for Pockets in his happy hour interview with Kyle Keefe. The Altitude broadcaster brought up the video, and Jost declared that Girard had the game set up in his basement in Denver — and that he’d seen him make 30 pockets in a row.
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Perhaps Jost was exaggerating, but he did declare that Girard could play the game professionally.
Alas, it sounds like his passion for Pockets may have usurped one of his other talents. Marchessault asked if he was as good at the game as he was at singing — we all remember that Girard has an operatic singing voice.
Girard declared that he’d retired from singing. Apparently the choir in his hometown wanted to recruit him. He declared, “I was still not going to be part of the Roberval choir.”
Well, maybe he’s not singing professionally. However, Jost rooms with him on the road, and he swears he has video of Girard singing — and even rapping!
Besides his Pockets play, it doesn’t sound like Girard is having the best time at the moment. Apparently it’s been snowing in his town. Remember, he posted a video of himself on his Instagram chopping ice from his driveway. He may have to go at it again.He complained that it had snowed two inches the previous evening and that snow was predicted for the next five days.
Here’s part of the video:
https://twitter.com/LNH_FR/status/1258926292113805312
Peep the Avs jerseys behind Girard.
Well, hopefully Girard can travel back to Denver soon if the Colorado Avalanche are able to open up their practice facilities for informal practices.