The Two-Line Pass

The Lead

When you watch as much hockey as I do (I’ll ballpark it at 20 games a week), it’s kind of easy to get jaded. Almost every goal, with a few notable exceptions, has been done before. That goal Drew Stafford scored last night was gorgeous, but we’ve seen Rick Nash and Alex Ovechkin and Jon Toews do it better. Mike Legg’s famous goal in the NCAA tournament has to have been one of the first of its kind, but every once in a while some cheeky junior player (like Sid Crosby) will try it again.

Every highlight reel goal you’ve ever seen has been attempted and many have been scored. It takes a very rare confluence of perfect speed, positioning, and line combinations for any number of players and both teams for the circumstances surrounding all-time classic goals (like Ovechkin’s against the Coyotes) to even be created.

But this goal by Richard Zednick tonight.. I’ve never seen anything even a little like it. I mean, just look at that. The fact that it ended up as the game-winner too, that’s awesome.

So many little things on that goal are very, very pretty. The chip-around on Radek Martinek, the presence of mind to pull it back around Brendan Witt, the ability to clear Witt at full speed, the ability to corral the puck while still in midair and somehow put it on net.

Stop the fight. This one’s over. Who could possibly top that? How?

Richard Zednik, congratulations on scoring the Goal of the Year.

Elsewhere…

Los Angeles 5, Washington 4

This was the Caps’ first home loss in a while, if I’m not mistaken. While Mike Green may have had a goal and an assist, maybe he should’ve concentrated a little bit on defense since Anze Kopitar went on an absolute killing spree in the attacking zone. The other news, of course, is that Alex Ovechkin scored his 200th career goal in his 296th game. If he keeps scoring at this pace (and with a better supporting cast around him every year, he might even kick it up a bit), he’ll have 675 goals by the time he reaches 1000 games. Which is crazy.

Boston 4, Ottawa 3 (SO)

Bruins keep rolling despite another lackluster performance that saw them give up two third-period goals to the freakin’ Senators. Ah well. Who knew PJ Axelsson was a shootout monster?

Nashville 4, Anaheim 2

Goddamn Bobby Ryan. You get one Sports Illustrated story about you and now you figure “Oh heck I can just not get any points against the Predators. No one’s fantasy team will mind.” Well MY fantasy team minds, you New Jersey piece of garbage. Letting Corey Perry do all the scoring for you? Ugh. That’s the worst.

Edmonton 2, St. Louis 1 (SO)

Hey great, thanks St. Louis. This really means a lot to me. You could only score one friggin’ goal against Dwayne Roloson? That’s weak, dude.

Colorado 3, Dallas 2

Two going-nowhere teams that have beaten the Flames recently. Awesome. Wish the stadium had collapsed.

Chicago 5, Calgary 2

Ah, here’s the root of all this anger from these last few Western Conference games. Calgary completely pissed themselves once again tonight. Another brutal goddamn effort in a growing line of them. At least before I could blame their terrible play on the fact that they’re not a good road team. But this game was IN CALGARY. That’s 0-3-1 against Chicago this year, with 19 goals allowed. Jesus tapdancing Christ.

Carolina 4, San Jose 3 (SO)

What’s this? The Sharks give away two points to a team they should beat easily? You don’t say. And this, folks, is why they won’t win a Cup this year or any other year in the forseeable future. They’re the Shelley Levene of the NHL. Put that coffee down, Nabokov. Coffee’s for closers.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 6th, 2009 at 2:46 am and is filed under Good night. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.