Malkin mocks the Hurricanes

Update: According to Max Talbot, Malkin actually called his shot.

GOY Candidate

What can be said, except that it is quite possibly the most ridiculous shoot-out move ever recorded.

Is it a true GOY candidate though? There are two serious problems;

- its a shootout goal (which admittedly bugs me)
- it occurred in the minors (instant disqualification)

The shooter is a 28 year old career minor leaguer from Sweden named Nick Lindberg. Way to make yourself famous kid!

GOY Candidate

Here's another GOY candidate, this time from 'The Mule' Johan Franzen...



A cut through the crease, have your legs taken out from under you, full-windmill slapshot while doing a legs kicking, almost completely horizontal 'Superman'.

Make sure you check out the super-super slow-motion replay. Ultra-ridiculous.

GOY Candidate

Linus Omark again...



IMO this is simply the sickest goal of the year - unfortunately, he's scoring on the shootout against a Swiss goaltender in a non-NHL game - so I can't see it as fully qualifying.

That said, the Oilers draftee is definitely moving up my prospect list.

GOY Candidate

Henrik Sedin pulls out the ole spin-o-rama, outside-inside fake, wrist-shot to the short side. Very nifty.

GOY Candidate

I'm convinced that Semin will be an eventual salary cap casualty in Washington, but for now he can treat Cap fans like this.

GOY Candidate

I like the goal a lot, but I do have a couple of quibbles with it;

- it's in the shoot-out, which isn't IMO quite as legit as scoring during a game

- he runs over the goaltender with the move, and again, IMO this could have been disqualified as goalie interference as easily as counted as a score

GOY Candidate

Its almost not fair to include Ovechkin in the contest. He seems to score a ridiculous goal every week and this one is no exception.

- Starts with a spinning backhand pass to himself off the boards. Very nice.
- Beats defenseman wide with his speed.
- Gets hauled down, one hands the puck past the goaltender as he slides into him.
- Heroically encourages his team mates and then the crowd to cheer his exploit

Degree of difficulty 11.

It's not quite the level of his spinning on his back like a turtle one hand it while upside down move - but we are getting close.

Update: Puck Daddy's dissent on this being the GOY

GOY Candidates

First Nik Hagman unveils his inner Jagr...



and Drew Stafford shows off a wicked toe-drag...



Last but not least Richard Zednik has decided to resubmit his GOY entry by leapfrogging a defenseman after going outside-inside on him. Consider this his new entry...

GOY Candidates so far...

As of this writing I have seven candidates for Goal of the Year...

1. Blake Wheeler does his Rick Nash impression with an 'I can beat every guy you got' goal.

2. Pavel Datsyuk splits the D and goes high to the AHL side.

3. Linus Omark's ridiculous between the legs top-shelfer (note: this was not scored in the NHL)

4. Bobby Ryan's Savardian Spin-o-rama

5. Evgeni Malkin's cheeky between the legs move at the All-Star game

6. Richard Zednik's outisde inside dangle.

7. Ville Leino's 1st NHL goal is scored while going backwards

Which is a nice enough list, if a bit heavy on the Severed Heads side of the ledger (Malkin, Ryan, and Leino).

So please forward me any contenders you have for the list so at the end of the year we can all vote on who has the GOY!

Goal Of The Year Candidate

Ville Leino shows Severed Heads mgt how happy he is to be part of their franchise.

The Return of Z

He still has a ways to go to reach 10 on the season, but the Zednik tally above is definitely a candidate for goal of the year.

Note, of you have any nominations for GOY feel free to post them to the blog, or e-mail them to me and I can do so for you. I'll re-post the finalist candidates at the end of the season and we can put it to a vote.

In other news, Phil Kessel returned from his bout of Mono earlier than anyone (especially his GM) expected, and registered a pair of assists in his first game back after missing 6 games. Heads mgt had been expecting a month long layoff and a slow return to form after that, so this is definitely good news.

The best news (for everyone but the Personal Vendetta) is that both Lidstrom and Zetterberg were suspended for a game for skipping the All-Star game. The three Red Wings on the PV roster have been absolutely killing it lately and any kind of slow-down in their production is a godsend to the teams chasing him.

John Tavares seems to have responded well to his new team-mates in London, as he has been blitzing the opposition routinely since he arrived and has regained his status atop the OHL scoring leaders including goal a game production rate overall, and a ridiculous 13 goals in his first 7 games (to go with 7 assists for 20 points) as a London Knight. Chances of him not being the first player picked in next years NHL-ED are growing smaller each day.

Malkin scores All-Star Games best goal

As the Brits would say, 'cheeky'.

Bobby Ryan returns to the Severed Heads

How do you feel about returning to the team that drafted you originally?



Well alright then!

1001

It's official, the last post put the FUNHL blog at 1000, and this one takes us over the Millenium mark. Thanks to everyone in the pool for their contributions so far!

To celebrate, here is Linus Omark (Oilers prospect) scoring one of the sickest top-shelf goals you will ever, ever, see - 34 seconds of pure undiluted goodness.



And here is Sheldon Souray taking on the Wild's Craig Weller (who?).

Boom Goes The Dynamite;

Datsyuk scores another beauty

Wheeler's GOY candidate