Daugavins Almost Scores Shootout Goal Of The Year

http://youtube.com/watch?v=sa4sJCKA7D8?rel=0

During the 4th round of the shootout in last night's game, friend of the blog Kaspars Daugavins decided to try something a little different, by pressing the toe of his stick on top of the puck before executing a 360° spin towards the right post. Unfortunately, Rask made a great save, and stopped DOGMAN'S attempt on the goal line with his left pad. To make things worse, David Krejci, Boston's next shooter, scored on Robin Lehner to win it for Boston.

Daugavins had actually pulled off the same move in 2010 in an AHL exhibition game against the Hamilton Bulldogs:

Now, a lot of people are critizing Daugavins, because they believe he wasted a shootout attempt by trying to something "fancy". What people have to realize, is this wasn't one of those "hey guys watch this" moments; it was a legitimate attempt at scoring. That move may not seem like a good way to beat a goaltender of Tuukka Rask's calibre 1-on-0, but it nearly worked because it was unexpected, and because Daugavins executed it perfectly. Despite his "fluky" attempt, Kaspars came a lot closer to scoring than the team's first two shooters, Jakob Silfverberg and Daniel Alfredsson. Although to be fair, that wasn't even Daugvains' flukiest shootout attempt this season.

It's worth mentioning that the last time Daugavins faced Rask 1-on-0 and tried a "normal" move, he didn't even come close to scoring, and needed the help of Zack Smith and Jim O'Brien to put the puck in the net.

It's too bad Daugavins didn't score, or else we may have been able to witness another Tuukka Rask meltdown.

In the end, the Sens blew a 2 goal lead to a divisional rival, but at the same time I'm glad the team walked away with 1 point given the difference in talent between the two teams.

Post Game Reactions

After the game, Coach Paul Maclean said the following:

"My initial reaction when the stick went down was "buckle up, because I don't know what's happening".  But then he's Latvian, so I rarely know what's going on. It was very entertaining though."

Well, if David Krejci wouldn't like his teammates pulling off that move, then I'm sure he isn't too proud of Hamilton and McQuaid for their dirty hits last night, especially given the Bruins aren't exactly a bunch of angels.

Here's my own wonderful post-game reaction.

Have a wonderful Tuesday everybody.