Why is Colin Squires Not Allowed to Shoot?
By Adam Lamberti
Jun 29, 2023
The Whipsnakes have a few general rules within their locker room.
- Hit singles.
- Be selfless.
- Colin Squires isn’t allowed to shoot.
So when Colin Squires broke team rules and scored his first career goal two weeks ago, it was immediately met with friendly ribbing. First, it was from Matt Rambo, who was mic’d up during the game and made a comment to Head Coach Jim Stagnitta.
Then, after the game, Stagnitta commented on it himself in the postgame press conference.
“Squires is not supposed to shoot, like that’s a rule. When he does, it has to go in.”
So why isn’t Colin Squires allowed to shoot?
To fully understand, you have to go back to Squires’ rookie year during the 2021 Championship game when he let one go on 3x Goalie of the Year Blaze Riorden.
“Joe Nardella was yelling ‘Shoot it! Shoot it!’ to me, and then I obviously kind of came off and Stags was not too happy with the shot.”
From that day forward, the joke has become a team favorite.
Defenseman Bryce Young, who also scored a goal against the Redwoods, says the team jokes about it because of Squires’ personality.
“He is always a breath of fresh air to be around, he is an awesome guy to be around and just a great locker room guy,” Young said. “So when a joke like that goes public, Coach Stags and the rest of the team will make that joke because we know he can take it, and it's easy for us to joke with Squires because I think he knows that he's not much of an offensive threat.”
It’s true that Squires isn’t exactly an offensive threat. He only took four shots during his college career at the University of Denver, and the last goal he scored in a game dates back to his high school days attending West Linn HS in Oregon.
Yet, warming up before the Redwoods game two weeks ago, Squires felt it was going to be his day.
“What's funny is before the game, I kind of turned to Brad [Smith] and I said ‘I feel like I'm scoring this game and I feel like Will Manny’s going to assist me’ for whatever reason.”
As chance would have it, with about a minute left in the first quarter, Will Manny found a trailing Squires, who set his feet and ripped a sidearm shot that found the back of the net.
The goal capped a five goal run from the Whipsnakes, who went into halftime with a comfortable lead to secure their first win of the season.
Despite the goal, Squires says he still doesn’t know where he stands regarding Coach Stagnitta’s no-shooting rule.
“I think it's half serious and half joking at times.”
But don’t be surprised if we see Squires take more shots this season. Not only does the league’s new 32-second shot clock off a faceoff win open up more opportunities for LSM’s and SSDM’s to score, Squires also says guys like Michael Ehrhardt and Matt Rambo have given him more confidence to pull the trigger when given the opportunity.
“I certainly made an emphasis of working on my shooting in the off-season, because that was definitely something that was lacking in my game.”
