Casey Mittelstadt Did These Things Right To Help The Colorado Avalanche Win

one of the things we do here is we like to teach hockey and elaborate on things that happen in a particular game or teach you more behind the scenes things and we have a video coming out in the next two weeks that the Shane defin Bach the defin lock is going to help me prepare the for more beginning fans that we're going to to get more beginning fans able to understand the game as the hockey season starts so we're going to have a lot of video primers teaching you the game and what to look for but there are also times when we we can't show live video on a live show apparently there's some kind of copyright thing but we can show screen shots so I'm going to teach you a little bit one thing how the Colorado Avalanche were able to win game five and how many little things it takes to create a goal in the National Hockey League and I know but you're going to have to if you're on the YouTube channel this will make sense if you're following along on the audio podcast use your imagination isn't that isn't that imagination that's a kid's thing never mind it was my son okay okay Danielle let's roll it I I'm kind of thrown off by you just thr thr out a SpongeBob reference she got it impressive thrown up all right we talking about yeah let's take a look so it starts with clip number one and this is where Minnesota native Casey middlest really sets the play we talk a lot about face offs on this show and and I don't believe faceoffs are an important um situation in the game until they are it's key faceoffs that are important this Faceoff is important but Casey midad wins his Faceoff he was horrific in the neutral zone he won 14 14% of his face off defensive Zone he won 80% of his face off in the defensive Zone but after he wins the draw a really key play as you see Gerard Sam Gerard holds up his opponent means in basketball terms he picks his opponent so Robertson can't clearly get to the puck quickly and and beat Manson to the puck great play by Sam Gerard it's those little plays those little nuances where Gerard steps in front of Robertson impedes him for just a second that second is long enough for Manson to get to the puck behind the net Manson Rings the puck to to to um landeskog and here's what's funny now I said landeskog like I don't think he's sorry to the the ad fans it was rant and I I'm sorry it's nerves um but the one thing about the Colorado Avalanche speed up the ice it intimidates their opponent and because they're so fast up the ice Dallas isn't there to pinch or keep the puck in the offensive zone Dallas backs off through the neutral zone so that that gives Ron all of this room through the neutral zone to approach to his speed so then he's able to dump the puck in and when he dumps the puck in now they can attack with speed Dallas is flat footed you've got three Colorado forwards busting on the puck and this is where Colorado's speed is intimidating and this is how they end up getting this goal because their speed Ron's able to beat him to the puck the defenseman to the puck and now the foot races on so now Colorado's possession in the offensive zone and then you got to look for their rats and this is where paresi takes the defenseman and wins the battle along the wall and gets full possession of the puck along the wall again it's the little races and these little 50-50 battles that make a difference and so what par does after he gets the puck he drives uses his feet to get to the net movement creates space when he moves tanov the defenseman goes with him so when tanov goes with him it opens up all of this space in behind for Gerard and when Gerard steps into it he has a look at the net and here's where Puck luuck comes in it's not always about skill and X's and O's tanov the defenseman for for Dallas perfect positioning blocks the shot absolutely great no shot on that everything is fine right no because what happens the puck goes right off tanov and right in midair right in front of par who is driving the net and pares makes an unbelievable hand eye coordination play and he's able to tap the puck out of midair through the crease onto a waiting Casey midad who just happened to be driving the net Taps it in and it hits off on J in so Faceoff the faceoff win is great the faceoff win is what creates the whole thing the case Casey middle side Faceoff win but because of the Colorado speed throughout the game pushing back Dallas's defense for the entire game that creates the opening for Ranon through the middle of the ice then Ranon first on the puck P checks the player off the puck and all of those things are high skill x's and those things but it's a lucky bounce off Brandon tanov his shinpad that allows them to score because AER can't track the puck off of the shin pad he loses the puck middle stat is there right on his stick and he Taps it in so one thing about hockey it's not always the skill and it's not always one thing it's six seven eight nine little things that lead up to a goal and those are the things that I really like to show people hey don't miss this look how important this is make sure you're looking over here because what happened two 210 15 20 seconds ago is going to be really important later on so part of what we do here at at phnx hockey is we're going to try to teach you the game because if you're an educated fan you're an Engaged fan and you're going to enjoy watching the game more and that's what we want we want you to love the sport of hockey I want you to love it as much as I do