Liles clearly has shown his ability to defend, but can he keep it up?
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It wasn’t all that long ago (February 9th here at ProSportsColorado.com) that John-Michael Liles was being held out as trade bait, if not by the organization then by the media. It was inconceivable that a player making over $4M per year that was spending more games as a healthy scratch than on the ice would not be moved at the trading deadline. Across the media, it was a foregone conclusion that if a trading partner could be found, Liles would be on his way out with nothing but a “don’t let the door hit ya” from media and fans alike.
Instead, the Avs held the line on Liles and instead sent Wojtek Wolski to Phoenix in exchange for Peter Mueller, who immediately began to light up the scoreboard for his new team. Kevin Porter joined Mueller in coming to the Avs, but Liles stayed put.
The major knock on Liles was that while he plays well from the point, he’s a defensive liability. While you can’t think that every issue Liles had is gone just like that, his play in recent games has gone a long way toward bringing him back into the good graces of the Avalanche top brass. No play is more indicative of this phoenix-like return (the mythical bird, not the hockey team) than his skate-from-behind poke check on Sedin in last night’s Vancouver game. Sedin had a sure fire one on one against Anderson, and as good as Anderson has been, you have to give Sedin the advantage in that situation. Liles caught up from several feet behind, and cleanly poked the puck right off of Sedin’s stick and harmlessly to the side, all this while avoiding contact which would have drawn a costly penalty.
As the Avs head into the playoffs (is it bad that I hope they stay in the 8 seed because I’d rather see San Jose than Chicago or Vancouver?), all eyes will be on Liles and his newfound defensive tenacity.
