12/30/24
December 03, 2006
Yet Another Link Dump:: This play by Erik Cole (NHL.com video) has to be in the running for play of the year. Warning: NSFBF (Not Safe For Bruins Fans). You also have to watch a commercial first.
posted by NoMich to navel gazing at 09:41 PM - 31 comments
That is Cole at his best -- he made two NHL defensemen look like children. Wow.
posted by Amateur at 07:30 AM on December 04, 2006
It's not just the goal that makes the play. He's the one that went down to block the shot on the other end. After he blocked the shot, he got right back on his skates and finished the play.
posted by NoMich at 07:36 AM on December 04, 2006
Old now, but a different take on the motion capture session.
posted by yerfatma at 07:55 AM on December 04, 2006
Great work by Cole. That was awesome. It's hard to believe he had a broken neck last year.
posted by MrFrisby at 07:58 AM on December 04, 2006
It's not just the goal that makes the play. Absolutely, Cole's block is flat out awesome. Malkin loses a couple points since his is a bit of a cherry pick, but the moves he makes are just silly.
posted by SummersEve at 08:00 AM on December 04, 2006
TSN's piece on referee Kerry Fraser's hair. Make sure to click on the video link, it's hilarious.
posted by MrFrisby at 08:16 AM on December 04, 2006
Nice goal by Cole, although it wasn't even the most spectacular goal of the night.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 09:39 AM on December 04, 2006
No way, Dr. John. Cole humiliated a team, by himself; not with fancy moves but with raw guts, power, and speed. How do you defend against that?
posted by Amateur at 11:43 AM on December 04, 2006
First of all, all sorts of credit is due to Cole for the way he blocked the shot, recovered quickly to gain possession, then sped down the ice and aggressively went to the net. It was a great goal, and I'm not trying to downplay his talent. But this is a poster goal of the NHL's current transition period. That goal won't be as easy to pull off in three years. The NHL's offensive game was given an immediate boost with the rule changes, and the defensive game hasn't adjusted yet. Every single player on the ice would've been taught from an early age to hook onto Cole to slow him down, and then stick an arm in there to get in his way. Of course that's against the rules now (and thank goodness for that), but you can't re-learn how to play defence in just one year. The two defencemen manage to almost catch up to him, but just kind of skate next to him, hesitating, knowing that executing anything they were trained to do will result in a penalty. In three to five years, with fresh blood in the system and mature new-NHL defensive strategies, defence will be much more confident and effective than it is now. You'll see better power-play positioning to avoid that kind of speedy breakaway. You'll see more speed on defence, with players knowing how to contain or take out a player without hooking or holding. You'll see more big hits and poke checks and basic overpowering possession theft. It'll be a great game, but not because it's such an easy walk to the goal for anyone with enough power and speed. Cole's goal is great because it's got a lot to do with power and speed on offense, but it's also a little disappointing because that new-NHL defence just isn't effective enough to counter that power and speed... yet.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 12:45 PM on December 04, 2006
Ovechkin steps into a giant pile of doo doo (youtube).
posted by NoMich at 01:01 PM on December 04, 2006
So I watched the Ovechkin-Briere video. Has anyone in the NHL ever gone absolutely nuts and wielded a hockey stick as a weapon? I'm not talking about high sticking or anything within the normal course of play. I'm talking about a situation (for instance) where Gaustad sees Briere go down and then decides he's going to go Braveheart on Ovechkin. Surely there's some sort of unwritten rules of hockey where this is forbidden. But I have to think that at some point, one of the testosterone laden players has lost his mind in the heat of competition and done this.
posted by mbd1 at 01:46 PM on December 04, 2006
Alexander Perezhogin swung his stick to the face of an opponent during the 2004 AHL playoffs. From most accounts, it's the worst use of the stick ever in professional hockey. I have never seen any images or video of the hit. Perezhogin now plays with the Canadiens.
posted by qbert72 at 02:08 PM on December 04, 2006
Has anyone in the NHL ever gone absolutely nuts and wielded a hockey stick as a weapon? Isn't that what Marty McSorley did to Donald Brashear?
posted by NoMich at 02:09 PM on December 04, 2006
Turns out, of course, that YouTube has footage of the Perezhogin incident. Not for the faint of heart.
posted by qbert72 at 02:11 PM on December 04, 2006
Wayne Maki v. Terrible Ted Green. In the pre-season.
posted by yerfatma at 02:13 PM on December 04, 2006
DrJohn, I don't disagree with your forecasts of the future, but I am not sure I agree with your assessment of this goal. He took a pretty good whack from each of the defensemen (the second took a bad line to the goal -- clearly fooled by Cole's speed). And I remember Cole from the Hurricanes-Habs series in the pre-lockout season. He can play with that kind of dominance at times, under anybody's rules.
posted by Amateur at 02:23 PM on December 04, 2006
Yeah, I had forgotten about the McSorley incident . But the Perezhogin thing is more what I was imagining. The sidebar on longest suspensions suggests that slashes to the head do happen occasionally.
posted by mbd1 at 02:24 PM on December 04, 2006
Here's the Youtube version of DrJohn's post upthread.
posted by NoMich at 02:38 PM on December 04, 2006
Here's the Youtube version of DrJohn's post upthread. Wow. That's awesome. Replay is crucial on that one.
posted by SummersEve at 02:44 PM on December 04, 2006
Has anyone in the NHL ever gone absolutely nuts and wielded a hockey stick as a weapon? Dino Ciccarelli went coo-coo-for-cocoa-puffs on Luke Richardson and smacked him over the head with his stick. He got charged, too. The next time they faced each other, Luke Richardson beat him like a punching bag.
posted by grum@work at 04:53 PM on December 04, 2006
I liked Vermette's goal. Tres crafty. Cole's goal was nice, too. I hardly see how one could call it the play of the year, though. He blocked the shot and it took a good bounce for him, and the defence were all going the wrong way. Fortuitous, with a great finish. Vermette made something extraordinary happen when there was nothing there. That one's up there for goal of the year, right now in my books. I think the Malkin goal is a pretty great example of power and speed, too. And that's Marty Bordeur he's making look silly to boot.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 05:53 PM on December 04, 2006
Crosby had a nice one last night. Not as good as others in this thread, but worth a look.
posted by SummersEve at 06:29 AM on December 06, 2006
If you're interested in hockey books for Christmas, here's some new ones.
posted by smithers at 12:43 PM on December 06, 2006
NSFBF (Not Safe For Bruins Fans) That whole game was NSFBF. For the record, though, the Bruins behind Tim Thomas have had their fair share of amazing plays from the Defense/Goalie this year, too.
posted by Samsonov14 at 06:56 PM on December 08, 2006
So that Ovechkin clip is seven minutes long and yet cuts out just before the referee announces the actual penalties, WTF? Why did whoever posted it leave all the rambling speculation by the TV crew and cut this last piece off? Somebody tell me what happened please, and if Briere is okay.
posted by billsaysthis at 08:05 PM on December 09, 2006
He got ejected from the game and fined a thousand bucks. I think that's it.
posted by NoMich at 09:02 PM on December 09, 2006
And Brière is fine.
posted by qbert72 at 12:46 AM on December 10, 2006
On my quest to find an up-to-date goalie stat list, I ran across this little gem on the history of hockey.
posted by MrFrisby at 09:32 AM on December 11, 2006
Back to the linkdumping: Steven Gerrard is to be made an Honorary Freeman of the borough of Knowsley. Whatever the frack that means, we all know there aren't enough honors in England to match StevieG's greatness.
posted by billsaysthis at 07:25 PM on December 13, 2006
Our very own DrJohnEvans got a feature article published on A List Apart. I'm impressed
posted by qbert72 at 12:58 PM on December 14, 2006
I'll see your Cole and raise you a Malkin. Cheers to the NHL for setting up that highlight machine. It pretty much has every goal and you can sort by team, date or player.