In The Room: The Avalanche Picked Apart Wild’s Jesper Wallstedt in Game 1

Nazem Kadri

Kadri wasn’t even asked about pre-scouting the goalie. He got into it himself, when I asked for what he saw on his goal. “I feel like I was in a pretty good scoring area. Ross made a nice pass to spring me on the half breakaway. Been watching a lot of this goaltender, so picked my spot, and definitely picked it properly.”

Cale Makar

Makar’s two goals were almost identical. Was that a coincidence? “I’m just trying to shoot wherever I see open lanes. Both those plays, we did a really good job creating space up high and then finding those seams.  Toewser, great pass, and Nate off the faceoff. For me, it’s just trying to get pucks there and hopefully, either if not score, get rebounds and hopefully get guys there.”

Jesper Wallstedt

Wallstedt was asked about the pattern of how the pucks were beating him. He denied that it was an issue. “I’ve faced shots from everywhere in the zone. That’s maybe just where it ended up happening [tonight]. They got some good shooters. And today the puck just had eyes, and ended up going in. I just gotta be better for next game.”

Jared Bednar

Bednar broke down how the Avs pre-scout goalies. “Same as every series that we go through. To get into how we would pre-scout a goalie, you’re going to give [your players] target areas in certain situations. And sometimes you hit them a lot, and sometimes you don’t. It’s a lot easier to say, ‘Hey, you’ve got to shoot here in this situation’ than actually do it. There are defenders, sticks, you’re going to get leaned on, all those things. And some nights, you hit those target areas a lot, and the goalie makes the saves. Some nights they go in and some nights they don’t.” It’s safe to say this was a game where they were going in. The post In The Room: The Avalanche Picked Apart Wild’s Jesper Wallstedt in Game 1 appeared first on Colorado Hockey Now.