Photo credit: Bruce Bennett
With eight games left in the regular season and the Capitals struggling to hold onto the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, every standings point matters. So when the Caps were unable to break a 1-1 tie with the Flyers after 60 minutes of regulation and a five-minute overtime, the shootout carried high stakes.
Enter Matt Hendricks.
Dale Hunter selected Hendy as the Capitals first shooter. The Blaine, Minnesota native did not disappoint. Hendricks used his patented move, this time baiting Ilya Bryzgalov to pokecheck. Bryz missed, allowing yet another highlight-reel shootout goal for the team’s leader in penalty minutes. Video is below the jump.
The shootout tally was so great that it prompted Craig Laughlin to exclaim,”[Hendricks] should copyright those moves right there.” Joe Beninati, equally as impressed, observed that Hendricks “paralyzed” Bryzgalov.
Hendricks now is 6 for 10 in the shootout during his three-year career in the NHL. If I were Dale Hunter, I’m putting him in the shootout line-up from now until the end of time.
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