Quote:
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“Every critic that’s out there says he doesn’t defend hard enough, which I disagree with,” Drinkill said. “He’s just smart about how he defends. If you really watch him play and how he defends, even on the penalty kill, his stick’s so active, he breaks up plays, he reads plays before they happen.”
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The Italians call it
sprezzatura – the art of making difficult things look easy. I find it admirable when someone is good enough to do that. Some sports fans can't appreciate an athlete's skill unless he makes it look like he's about to bust his rivets straining.
I'm pretty positive that Parekh will never be among the league leaders in shot-blocking. As we learned by watching Kris Russell years ago, blocking a shot is often a last-ditch effort to make up for a mistake you made further up the ice. If you're smart, read the play well, and make the right defensive move early, the opponent's play never develops and you don't get the chance to show off your rivet-busting abilities. The brain does the hardest part of the work so the body doesn't have to.