How impressive of a feat is it to drain an empty netter from across the rink under the pressure cooker of the Stanley Cup Playoffs?
Well, it depends on who you ask.
Capitals center Lars Eller accomplished this feat in Tuesday's Game 2 against the Florida Panthers, burying an empty netter in the final minute of the third period to salt the game away by giving the Caps an unreachable 4-2 lead.
For those unfamiliar, an empty-net goal is like the hockey equivalent of an onside kick in football, a last-ditch effort to try to make some offense happen out of desperation. So Florida pulls goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky from the net to give themselves an extra skater, with no line of defense if the puck springs loose towards their end of the rink.
It looks like this:
"People sleep on the difficulty level," Junkies host Eric Bickel said Thursday in an interview with Eller, driven by Dulles Motorcars. "I know that's harder than it looks."
"And, by the way, it's probably about a 140-foot shot, roughly," John Auville added.
"To bury one from that deep, is that easy for you or no?" Bickel asked.
"No. Really, I was trying to... first of all, you want to clear it," Eller said, explaining the process of getting the puck beyond Florida's blue line to force their offense to retreat.
"Yeah, you want to get it out of the zone. You want to get it by that defenseman," Eller continued. "And then once you get that, you want to try to get it somewhat towards the net. But when you're under pressure, no, it's never easy."
"If there was no pressure, Lars, like if you were standing there and let's say you're 140 feet, because you're a professional, out of 10, how many would you bury," Bickel asked. "Five? Is that too high?"
"I think you'd probably bury, I would say, eight out of 10 or something like that," Eller guesstimated.
"From that distance?" Bickel asked.
"Yeah, maybe nine out of 10," Eller said.
Bickel changed his tune: "Okay, then I'm not as impressed!"
