He makes a great backhand pass off the boards to himself while spinning around to start the breakaway, and after being pulled down as he skates towards the crease, while sliding on his right side he somehow guides it in. "Unstoppable!" Indeed.
Okay, that's it, I'm dusting off my skates and playing some hockey again. (I'm not saying that I'd even be able to skate at all, but watching this guy makes me want to try.)
That's unreal. The amount of skill, athleticism and concentration that went into scoring that goal is simply off the charts.
Rob pointed out that during "power skating" classes that we both took, part of the drill required you to "jump over the blue line". Well, it might sound easy but it was nearly impossible to do, so I can't imagine jumping over a sliding defenseman (even if it is an Islander defenseman, and one who happened to be crowned the worst player of the year at the All-Star break).
Here's a nifty dangle followed by a through-the-legs move by Sabres winger Drew Stafford vs. Toronto's Mike Van Ryn to score against goaltender Justin Pogge, on Jeffuary 4, 2009.
It seems like an inordinate amount of highlight reels come at the expense of the Maple Leaves defense, so we can all thank god they're awful.
Now that it's all over but the crying and Stanley Cup posingfor random photos, here are the Top 10 Goals of the Year for the 2007-08 season, according to some dumb French-CanadiansRDS.
While we here at Open Hockey blog agree with Rick Nash at #1 (as well as the other one he got in the top 4) and #2 by Toews, this list is really screwed up in that they include 2 goals at some positions. For instance, they show Andrei Kostitsyn scoring in two different games at #3, and the Ducks get two at #8, and for nice passing plays, not great goals. So this Top 10 has a total of 12 goals--you get 2 for free! Still, overall it's a good highlight reel. However, I would remove the Ducks' passing clinic and add this one.
Johnny Oduya goes end-to-end (9 Feb 2008 vs. CAR):
And yes, this is going to appear Devilcentric, but how about this knocked outta mid-air Gionta shorty (no pun intended, Bri)?
I spent the weekend at my sister's VERSUS-free household to see the family for Mother's Day and didn't see ONE SECOND of hockey: not a highlight, not a mention on ESPN (shocking!) or the local news, not a single online highlight reel. It was probably for the best, since the only thing that anyone is talking about is the ridiculous Game 2 Osgood butt-end/Ribeiro two-handed baseball swing to the chest protector/Osgood's excellent "I've just been shot by a sniper in the rafters" acting job. A stupid play by both of them.
However, I would be remiss if I didn't post Henrik Zetterberg's spectacular goal from the previous round (Game 4 vs. Colorado on 5/1/2008).
Egads! That might be the goal of the year. (And he's from EUROPE!)
I did get to listen to the Penguins radio call (via XM) of the Game 2 win against vs. the Lyers last night, featuring the imitable play-by-play announcer Mike Lange. After "Mad" Maxime Talbot scored what proved to be the winning goal he declared, "Oh, she wants to sell my monkey!"
I have no idea what that means but it cracked me up. For all those people who rant about his colorful calls, I say: GET A SENSE OF HUMOR. If you take away personality from hockey, you'd end up with something like the NBA or arena league football. (I suppose this is a backhanded endorsement of Don "Holy Crap What Is He Wearing?" Cherry, but so be it. Oh, I do agree with those annoyed by Tampa Bay's Dave Mishkin's screeching, though.)
One other note: VERSUS did end up showing the hockey game in HD on Friday. Whether or not it was due to voluminous fan complaints or a fleeting moment of common sense on the network's part, it was good to see. (Of course, I didn't actually get to see it but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.) Any praise I give VERSUS will essentially be nullified if they decide to re-visit "puck tracking technology". Did you learn nothing from the horrid FOX glow puck?
It's easy for me to follow it, not so easy for Toskala.
This happened at the Leaves/Isles game at the Mausoleum last night. I saw the replay on MSG and just found it on YouTube: it's the LONGEST GOAL EVER.
"Talk about a bad infield!" Great call by MSG analyst Billy Jaffe.
Of course, the PK-clearing-attempt-turned-shorthanded-goal (Davison's first as an Islander) was the team's only goal in a 3-1 loss as they play out the string.
Here's a clip of the (currently tied for 1st place) Canadiens' Andrei Kostitsyn scoring against the Flyers' Niittymaki:
Reminiscent of the famous Ovechkin goal from 2006, it's more of a "circus" goal (as Rob puts it) than an amazing individual effort (the Nash goal). But it's still fantastic.
(And I never get sick of seeing goals scored against the Flyers.)
Holy crap. Nash makes the Phoenix D look silly with a stunning assortment of moves.
AND it was the winning goal with 21.5 seconds left (which more than made up for a high sticking penalty two minutes earlier that created a PP goal to give Columbus the lead). Wow.
