If you were watching the Edmonton Oilers game against Nashville on Tuesday, you saw something that is super rare and almost never happens: a highlight reel Connor McDavid goal that makes everyone say “how in the world did he do that?!”, followed by lots of comments that state “NBD, I do that in beer league all the time”, and “the defence was putrid, any real dman would have been able to grow three extra limbs and a clone to stop that.”
Let’s be real, out of McDavid’s 305 career goals, probably at least 100 would classify as highlight reel worthy.
Which goals are worth highlighting?
We could do his top goal against every one of the other 31 teams that would all be in the top 10 of any other player’s career highlight reel, but we only have so much bandwith on this site.
We could also try to do his overall top 10 goals, where you would see some of his most famous ones, like the one against Columbus when returning from his collar bone injury or the one against the New York Rangers where he went one-on-four and somehow wasn’t even touched by a dman. What about when he did it against the Toronto Maple Leafs as well, when he made Morgan Reilly look silly, or perhaps one that is famous not so much for being a beautiful goal but because of the significance of it being an OT series winner that won the Oilers the first playoff Battle of Alberta since 1991 and seemed to basically break the Calgary Flames.
But you’ve seen those so many times you’ve probably gotten…well not sick of them because they are so nasty, but used to seeing them I guess? Because there can be too much of a good thing supposedly?
So instead, we are going to do 10 goals that don’t tend to show up on the usual Connor McDavid highlight reel, but that are beautiful nonetheless.
Anaheim: Stumble, fake pass, short side deke
We’ll start this list off with a goal that may be one many of you still remember, but honestly there is so much going on here that it requires multiple views to appreciate it.
When the play starts, McDavid is below the hashmarks in the defensive zone, behind two Anaheim Duck players who are already back tracking and two teammates.
By the time he hits the blueline, he is already past the second last defender, Jakob Silfverberg (no slouch defensively for a forward) who he shrugs off with ease. That defender, in a last ditch attempt, swings his stick to trip up McDavid, who indeed stumbles to one knee. Despite that, he maintains full control of the puck both during the stumble and while he gets back up. But at this point, he is below the hashmark, and the other defender has sealed off the pass to Jesse Puljujarvi on the two-on-one. So basically a dead play right?
Wrong.
McDavid manages a solid four dekes in an area that probably is literally the size of a phone booth (I don’t know for sure, I haven’t been in one in about two decades), faking a pass that fools everyone and freezes John Gibson, then calmly shoots in top corner from almost the goal-line. On his forehand. While gliding backwards.
In case you don’t fully appreciate the ridiculousness of this goal, I tried this move in beer league the other day and almost died. No I will not elaborate further.
Colorado: Eye-hand coordination
If I simply told you that there was a highlight reel McDavid goal you had to see, I’m guessing you would envision an end-to-end rush where he uses his godly speed to rush by the opposing defencemen then pull a ridiculous move that makes the goalie pull every muscles in his body while somehow ending up at centre ice with his jockstrap pulled out fully intact Zoolander style.
This goal is not that.
While it does start with a typical two-on-one rush with him and Leon Draisaitl, McDavid only has the ability to simply deflect the puck towards the net, for what is a fairly easy stop for Jonathan Bernier. Except Bernier made an absolute cardinal sin for a goalie: let the puck do a slight rebound pop up at over waist level for a split second.
McDavid made him pay for such a careless mistake, simply batting it out of mid-air immediately top-shelf, which is, as Drew Remenda put it, “eye-hand coordination at it’s best.” I wouldn’t be too hard on him though, after seeing that I’m just impressed he could still talk in that state of awe.
If you need any further evidence of how amazing of a goal this was, look at all the fans in the crowd with their hand out, palm face up, which is the universal sign for “how in the what?!”
Washington: Hand-eye, but make it shorthanded
Ok so we’ve hand one rush goal, and one hand-eye bat goal. Each is pretty good on their own, but as that famous Old El Paso girl once asked, “Why can’t we have both?”
Ask and McJesus shall deliver. On the PK no less. For funsies.
John Carlson, who I hear is a pretty good PP defenceman, tries to make a fairly routine saucer pass to the right side. And when we say sauce, this is waist-high, Boston Pizza lasagna level amount of sauce (I swear I’m not getting paid for these food company references, I’m just really hungry right now,)
Just like Bernier, Carlson should have realized how stupid of a mistake that was with McDavid’s stick barely in the passing lane.
McDavid uses that “eye-hand” coordination again, knocking the puck forward to give himself a breakaway from his on blue line in, and finishes it off with a nice five-hold finish past Charlie Lindgren.
Just how sick is this goal? It almost crashed my laptop trying to load it up. Yup that’s the reason why. Not the fact it is 11 years old. Or that I dropped it. Twice. Today.
Tampa Bay: There’s always room for Connor
In case anyone was worried about McDavid’s ability to shoot the puck with accuracy, this goal should assuage that fear.
Flying down the left wing, McDavid is forced outside by Steven Stamkos, who prevented him from being able to cut in front of the net and have a scoring chance. Well done Stamkos.
Just kidding. Like Bernier and Carlson, you absolutely screwed this up.
Like, how on earth did you think that giving McDavid the chance to shoot at the net from basically the goal line was a good idea? Jon Cooper was probably livid at you after this.
Oh and Andrei Vasilevskiy, don’t think you are avoiding any blame on this one either. You are 6’4″ and can’t cover the top corner of the net when there’s like a 0.1% chance a shot from that angle and distance could get there? Vezina and Conn Smythe winner, my butt.
Sarcasm aside, as someone who was there in person, I can tell you that it was even more impressive in person.
Winnipeg: Easy as 1, 2, 3
You’d be forgiven for forgetting this goal. After all, we’ve seen McDavid walk four of the opposing team’s players, so is three really that impressive?
Yes, yes it is.
At one point, all three Winnipeg Jets players reach out to poke check the puck. Those players have heights of 6’7″, 6’5″, and 6’1″. The three sticks are meeting in the middle from three different directions like some sort of trigonometry question I failed in Grade 12 math.
And yet not a single one touches the puck.
Oh and then he just beats one of the best goalies in the world to show that he is the best Connor on the ice.
Philadelphia: Three’s a crowd
Once again, a team sticks three players to McDavid to no avail.
In this case, McDavid blows past them, and then all three hold onto him looking like the Dutch bobsled team doing their running start.
Despite these hangers-on, McDavid manages to get a shot off from almost on one knee, sniping far-side top corner.
What have we learned here kids? Put five players on him and maybe you will stop him.
Washington 2: Electric Boogaloo
In this one, you can’t blame Washington for not sicking five guys on McDavid, because they were only allowed four on the ice.
Also, you have to give it to Dylan Strome here for lifting McDavid’s stick for a full two seconds, preventing him from touching the puck again until it’s right on the edge of the crease.
But that’s all McDavid needed to have enough room to pull the puck around poor Charlie Lindgren yet again.
Nashville: Imma just take that puck right there
As it turns out, Draisaitl is not the only Oiler who seems to have his way with the Nashville Predators. In addition to Tuesday’s beauty, McDavid had a previous highlight reel goal.
This time, McDavid follows a bouncing puck that drops in front of the crease, and he dipsy doodles Pekka Rinne.
It also appears to be Mattias Ekholm’s first ever assist on a McDavid goal, although that night he didn’t seem to be too happy about it.
Arizona: That’s a wrap folks
McDavid shows in this clip that he is not a one trick (two trick? three trick?) pony, finishing off a beauty Draisaitl pass with a wrap around that would make Ryan Smyth proud.
One thing you’ll notice here is just how far out of position Connor Ingram is on the wrap around. I wonder if it has anything to do with the impossible angle goals McDavid has scored in the past?
Also, it is impressive how fast McDavid is able to skate around the net and tuck it in right on the post at that speed. Guy had the whole net to shoot at and still did that, presumably to again show he is the best Connor on the ice.
Calgary –
For someone who has as many breakaways as McDavid has, it’s quite astonishing that he has only had six penalty shots in his whole career. Even more surprising is that he has only scored on two of them.
But his first ever penalty shot was poetic.
It was the first ever Oilers regular season game in Rogers Place and his first home game as Oilers’ Captain. It was against the rival Calgary Flames and awarded right after the Flames thought there should have been a call on Johnny Gaudreau, which was the birth of the “crying Johnny” meme.
Oh and even if you take that all away, it was still one heck of a goal.
There were a lot of goals against Calgary to choose from, but I’m betting this is one you haven’t thought about in a while.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
