Someone’s got to do it, I guess. Slide in front of an opponent getting ready to send a puck towards the net with ill intentions. It today’s game, blocking shots is a key element to most team’s defenses, more a skill than luck. Without players willing to sacrifice parts of their body to the impact of frozen rubber hurtling through space at 90+ MPH, teams usually don’t get very far in the postseason.
One man has now knocked aside more pucks with his body in the postseason than any other player in NHL history. That man wears a Tampa Bay Lightning uniform and his name is Ryan McDonagh.