Andreas Athanasiou nets Goal of the Year candidate originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Andreas Athanasiou is one of the fastest players in the NHL, but he’s also a supremely gifted puck handler and both of those skills were on full display on Sunday at the United Center.
In the third period of Sunday’s game against Minnesota, Athanasiou retrieved the puck from Patrick Kane on his backhand, kicked it to himself in front of him, undressed defenseman Matt Dumba then roofed a backhander past former Blackhawks goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to put Chicago up. 3-2.
It should be the NHL’s early front-runner for Goal of the Year.
“I kind of just blacked out in the situation and just tried to make a play,” Athanasiou said following a 4-3 shootout loss. “I just kept working and the puck kept coming back to me, so it was definitely a feel-good thing when you get a scoring opportunity like that.”
Athanasiou’s teammates and coaches were in awe on the bench.
“It was special,” Jonathan Toews said. “It felt like he maybe could’ve gone back for another one to his forehand. For me, the biggest thing is, he’s got great hands, but his footwork and his speed is something else. He just somehow seemed to keep gliding and to keep moving with all those moves, so it was pretty special to see him finish it off.”
“That was a pretty special goal, for sure,” Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson echoed. “And that’s what he is. He’s very dangerous like that. … When we need a goal, he knows how to be explosive. The other team has to stay on their toes. He actually didn’t even have a breakaway, he created his own dipsy doodle twice on Dumba. It was a special goal when he finished it off upstairs like that.”
All three goals by Athanasiou this season have been pretty memorable, and we’re not even into November yet. His first goal with the Blackhawks was a penalty shot, his second goal came on a breakaway because of his ridiculous speed and his third will go down as one of the prettiest of his career.
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