Before Saturday night, the Preds had lost four of their last five games. Yippee. This seems like as good an opportunity as any to take a look at a recent goal against and break down exactly what happened, so that’s what I did and I found some gold. Hold on to your butts, ladies and gentlemen, because it’s about to get all festive up in here!
Note: They must have known I was writing this over the weekend, because they came back with a pretty solid 3-2 win over Minnesota on Saturday. Atta way, boys.
Note-2: They also beat Montreal 5-1 on Monday, so I think I’m on to something here…
Avalanche Goal: Andreas Martinsen (2) from Carl Soderberg (15) and Francois Beauchemin (13)
Per usual, the highlight from NHL.com doesn’t go back far enough to show us how this whole debacle actually developed, so the first few pictures are not in the video clip.
‘Twas The Week Before Christmas
‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through the ice,
The Preds were not winning – this was really not nice.
The puck was just thrown into the zone without care,
In hopes that our forwards soon would be there.
Ryan Ellis nestled the puck all snug on his stick,
And threw it behind him, I guess looking for Ek?
And Forsberg in all his glory and Jarnkrok with a stick tap,
Were just not enough to wake Ellis from his brain-nap.
And over in the corner there came such a clatter,
That every single Pred looked to see what was the matter.
Away to the puck Ekholm flew like a flash,
Opened up that left ice, and then stunk up his pass!
Comeau’s skates on the ice of the chilly Bridgestone,
Made the eeriest of sounds as he kicked up some snow.
And then what to my wondering eye did appear,
But a Norwegian forward with nobody near!
Comeau picked up the puck so lively and quick,
I thought for a moment that I might just be sick.
More rapid than eagles his teammates they came,
And he whistled and shouted and called them by name:
“Now Soder! Now Marty!
Now Beauchy, come hither!
Before Rinne you must stand
The man is a wizard.
To the top of the crease,
Make sure you stand tall!
Now shoot away, pass away – do anything at all!
As dead sticks in a hot fireplace soon will collapse
Each Preds watched Comeau while he sat on his ass.
So up to the blue line Comeau’s pass flew
To a man who scores goals once in every blue moon.
Then in a twinkling the Preds saw it was not good,
That within just 20 feet, each one of them stood.
They all spun their heads and were turning around,
While over to Beauch the puck went with a bound.
He was dressed mostly in white, from his head to his boot,
And with a touch of maroon, but without the Yeti foot.
His stick he had flung way up over his back,
He swung down to the ice and gave the puck a whack.
The puck, how it bounced! Rinne’s save, how scary!
The players were like hawks, the puck a little bunny.
Soderberg drew back his stick to give the puck one more blow,
And Craig Smith just knew he could not let this go.
The stick he held tight in his hands like a beast,
And he began to lean forward, as a challenge at least.
Sody had a broad shot but he didn’t get to celly,
The puck wouldn’t settle and Smith jumped in to rally.
Smith leaned and poked, his right helpful old self
And I laughed when I saw that, in spite of myself.
Then a tweak of Ellis’ skate and the twist of Martinsen’s head,
Soon gave me to know I had everything to dread.
The puck made not a sound as it popped up like a spark,
His eyes followed its path, then his stick gave a jerk.
And laying his stick along side of that puck,
After giving a smack, the Preds said, “Oh ****.”
The puck sprang into the net and the ref gave a whistle
And away the Avs flew while the Preds sat and bristled.
But I heard the Preds exclaim as they skated out of sight,
“Well we sucked that one up. Let’s do better the next night.”