Anders Sorensen chooses veterans over young guns in shootout
Photo credit: NHL
The Chicago Blackhawks fell 6-5 to the St Louis Blues last night in a shootout. The shootout happened to go ten rounds.
The following was the shootout order:
FINAL after a 10-round shootout: Blues 6, Blackhawks 5
Neighbours: saved
Bedard: saved
Schenn: scored
Teravainen: scored
Holloway: saved
Donato: saved
Kyrou: saved
Smith: saved
Thomas: saved
Reichel: saved
Buchnevich: saved
Nazar: missed
Bolduc: saved
Mikheyev: saved
Walker: saved
Maroon: saved
Joseph: saved
Foligno: saved
Faksa: scored
Bertuzzi: missed
Neighbours: saved
Bedard: saved
Schenn: scored
Teravainen: scored
Holloway: saved
Donato: saved
Kyrou: saved
Smith: saved
Thomas: saved
Reichel: saved
Buchnevich: saved
Nazar: missed
Bolduc: saved
Mikheyev: saved
Walker: saved
Maroon: saved
Joseph: saved
Foligno: saved
Faksa: scored
Bertuzzi: missed
Guys like Landon Slaggert, Philipp Kurashev, and even Seth Jones who is the highest paid player on the team didn't get a try, but Craig Smith and Pat Maroon did.
Anders Sorensen, the interim head coach, was asked about it, and he said that he went off background information to decide.
Interesting that Kurashev and Slaggert were the two Blackhawks forwards who didn't get shootout attempts. Anders Sorensen said he looked at «some background» to decide the order.
No matter what information he went off of, having Smith go fourth after a red hot Ryan Donato was certainly a choice.
Landon Slaggert has been on fire recently too and he's only 22; you have to give him experience in these situations when he's young and when Chicago isn't competing for anything and are still rebuilding and looking at high lottery picks.
Plus, having Pat Maroon go in the late stages didn't make any sense either. He's not fast enough nor has the hands to make much happen with the puck on one-on-one attempts.
Maroon's great at being a big-bodied enforcer who can check some people to make things happen on both sides of the ice and can pick up a scrappy rebound, but he shouldn't be a person who goes in the shootout over a Slaggert or Kurashev.
Although this was a poor decision on Sorensen's end, over the next two weeks the Blackhawks have off, the players better practice their shootout attempts, because the attempts yesterday were poor.
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