Andrei Kuteikin did his best Nicklas Lidstrom impression earlier today, scoring a playoff goal on a slap shot from centre ice.
The Dynamo Msk defenseman walked in just past his own blue line, wound up and sent a howitzer along the ice, which eventually bounced at about the top of the circles and went top corner. It’s hard to see the bounce, so it makes the shot look like it’s almost like a rising slap shot, similar to the flight path of a well struck drive in golf.
Unfortunately they still lost the game. This is something that Lidstrom did a couple times in his career and at one point even mentioned that he does it on purpose:
"I took some off the shot just to see if I could land it in front of him, just go for a bounce or create something in front of him.''
Funny enough, as mentioned in the tweet above, it’s not the first time he’s done this – in these playoffs alone.
Maybe, like how Steph Curry and the new-age NBA sharpshooters revolutionized where players shoot from, he can start a movement of slap shots from the red line. Probably not though.
