Here Are The Top 5 Goals From The NHL Last Night (10/9/18)
Yesterday was the 7th day of the 2018-19 NHL season. In those 7 days, there have been 41 games played. And in those 41 games, there have been 263 goals scored (I did the math. Not a big deal). So that comes out to just about 6.5 goals per game. In other words–OVERS OVERS OVERS OVERS. There have already been at least 6 games where the total has gone double digits, and a shit ton of games that have ended at either 8 or 9 goals. Now this is usually the case in the first few weeks of the season. So I don’t know how much is to blame here on the new goaltending equipment. All I know is that the goalies can’t be complaining too much about getting hit with pucks when so many shots are flying right past them and in to the back of the net. But yeah, there were 42 goals scored in 6 games last night and here are my personal top 5 of them.
5. Ilya Kovalchuk Scores His First NHL Goal In Over 5 Years
So I already blogged this goal last night and said I wasn’t exactly taken aback by it at all. It was a nice play but not something that screamed “Kovy’s back”. But upon a few more watches, holy shit what a filthy feed from Drew Doughty. I mean just look at this set up right here.
There are 5 Winnipeg Jets between Drew Doughty and Ilya Kovalchuk here. Five of them. But Doughty is such an assassin that he commands the eyeballs of all 5 Jets. Everybody has their eyes locked on Doughty Donuts to see what that savage is about to do next with the puck. And everybody just forgets that Kovalchuk is out there. So they lock eye contact, Kovalchuk knows he’s still faster than everybody out there so he can get his ass to the front of the net, and that’s when Doughty Doughboy Fresh sets him up with a dish.
Threads the needle. Takes plenty of skill to deflect that puck on the backhand like that, especially when the pass came in a little tight to the skates. That’s pretty right there.
4. Nathan MacKinnon Trust Shot
Oh wow. I hope Gabriel Landeskog wears a cup because this could have very easily ended up being a vasectomy for him if not. Either that or he has the ultimate trust in Nathan MacKinnon’s wrist shot because this replay sure as shit makes it look like Landeskog knew what was coming here.
Obviously the shot is nasty. Top bunk right over the glove and shoulder of Sergei Bobrovsky. That’s what we’ve come to expect out of Nathan MacKinnon. But it’s the work of Landeskog that makes this goal happen because he does a couple of things here. 1) He essentially sets a pick on Markus Nutivaara and continues to push him back toward the net. So not only does he stop Nutivaara from being able to step up and get a stick on MacKinnon, but he also gives MacKinnon more time and room to walk that shot down a little before letting it rip. And then 2) Landeskog provides a screen and allows MacKinnon to shoot this one between his legs all while Bobrovsky has to find a way to see around that pick he’s setting. So no chance in hell can Bobrovsky track that one. I don’t know if he would have been able to get to it anyway since MacKinnon is a stud. But throw a couple of assists on to Landeskog’s point total for that one.
3. Speaking Of Snipes, Evander Kane Might Want To Lay Low For A While
I can’t find an actual video of this goal right now which is a goddamn shame. Because I was watching this game from my apartment last night and I could still hear the ping of that crossbar from here and I’m a full 5 miles away from the Wells Fargo Center. But yeah. You see that traffic that Kane has to shoot through with MacDonald and Donskoi getting tied up in the slot, and somehow he manages to squeeze it through that little gap between them that opened up for less than a second and was just big enough for the puck to get by. All while going Bar Mexico to make it 5-1 in the 2nd. What a sniz.
2. Johnny Ham & Cheese With A Little Side Of Sauce
Johnny Gaudreau. Confirmed Rude Boy. This move on the zone entry should be clipped up and sent to 30 different NHL teams this morning as a tutorial on how to not defend Gaudreau on the penalty kill.
If you try to step up to him on the blueline like that, he’ll dance your soul straight out of your body and you’ll have nothing left but a great angle to watch Johnny Hockey work some magic out there. Poor Colton Sissons had to find out the hard way. And to think that this happened on the night that the Predators held their “Regular Season Western Conference Champions” banner raising ceremony. For shame. And oh yeah, the feed was nasty here too. He had to pull that one back a little to get it around Bitetto and he still managed to put it right on the tape of Lindholm who is a righty coming down that right wing. Would have been easy to put that pass in Lindhom’s skates but not Johnny Ham & Cheese. He’s strictly tape to tape.
1. Sven Baertschi Says “Bring Back Dangle Days
So over the last couple of years we’ve seen Nikita Kucherov really start to popularize the “No Move”. But the thing is that goalies are often pretty prideful guys. So they’re not going to let a guy like Kucherov continue to make a mockery out of them without doing something to combat it. So goalies are starting to prepare for the No Move a little more and they’re starting to sense it coming. Which is why Sven Baertschi set this one up like he was going for the Kucherov, only to fake the fake.
If you fake a fake shot on a breakaway and end up stuffing the puck in the back of the net, you end up getting the #1 goal of the night. Those are the rules. I don’t make ‘em, I just abide by them. Well… no… actually I do make the rules here. But I also abide by them. And the rules here say that Sven Baertschi scored the top goal of the night on Tuesday October 9, 2018. Put it down in the books. Pure filth.