Share Video
Parayko, who scored his seventh goal in Tuesday's shootout loss to the Jets, has been encouraged by his coaches and teammates to shoot more often, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. "There's a lot of guys that can shoot the puck hard, but there's not a lot of guys that can really shoot it hard, and he's one of those guys," teammate Jay Bouwmeester said.
The rookie defenseman with the heavy shot surprised opponents early in the season, when he scored five times in 14 games and averaged nearly three shots per game, but teams learned they had to minimize Parayko's time and space. Since that quick start, he's scored twice and averaged less than two shots in 38 games. As Parayko becomes more experienced in the NHL, he'll see that good things often result from getting pucks to the net.
