Jake Walman came back from injury to start his season off with a bang, scoring the overtime winner against the Ottawa Senators Tuesday night, on what was essentially a knucklepuck that would make Russ Tyler proud.
But what really made the headlines was Walman’s celebration of the goal:
Walman is known for his celebrations, mind you, especially hitting the griddy while a member of the Detroit Red Wings. Twice.
Hockey celebrations are not nearly as notorious as football touchdown celebrations, where there is definitely some pre-game preparation going on. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some good ones from time to time, as demonstrated by Walman.
Here are some other times an Edmonton Oilers player’s celebration was potentially even better/bigger than the goal itself.
Connor McDavid tells the referee to check upstairs
The Oilers thought they had scored the overtime winner in a heated game against the rival Calgary Flames, but the goal ended up being overturned due to McDavid apparently interfering with goaltender David Rittich. Considering it didn’t look like even Rittich thought there was interference on the play, you can understand that the Oilers were a bit frustrated by that call.
So when McDavid scored in the shootout, he did the polite thing and asked the referee to check upstairs before he started celebrating, just in case. Burned once, twice shy, right?
It definitely takes some balls to chirp the referee, and McDavid did earn himself a 10-minute penalty for abuse of officials for the gesture. It would appear that hasn’t been the end of Steve Kozari’s beef against McDavid for it as well, as the Oilers won just one out of five games in the 2024 playoffs when Kozari was in charge. Now, does Kozari actually hold a grudge from this? Probably not, and if you look at the regular season stats in that link, the Oilers actually did pretty well with him. But still, why let that get in the way of a good villain narrative?
The infamous Nail Yakupov slide
You can’t have an article about goal celebrations and not include Nail Yakupov. After all, this is basically the highlight of his Oilers career.
Yes, some might say that sliding down the ice on a game-tying goal in just the third game of the season may be a bit extreme, but there was some high emotion going on in that game that definitely justified the exuberance.
Like the McDavid celebration above, this one was also provoked by a waived-off goal. When just a minute prior, the Oilers had what they thought was the tying goal overturned for goaltender interference. This one is even more rage-inducing because this was before they would review for goaltender interference, so despite the referee calling it a goal on the ice, they then changed their mind.
So yeah, like I said, emotions were high, and this celebration was more than justified in the circumstances. Also, clearly, the best way to get a memorable goal celebration is to score a goal after having a super important one be overturned.
The Zack Kassian fan club
2017 Playoffs Zack Kassian was something special and will always be fondly remembered by Oilers fans. The fan who is likely the most fond of him is the guy who was sitting behind the Anaheim Ducks’ net in game six of the second round. The only person that Kassian seemed to have eyes for after scoring. It gave very big “did we just become best friends” vibes, and I am here for it. Whatever that man paid for that seat was well worth it.
McDavid’s “Did I just do that?!”
McDavid has had more than his fair share of goals or plays that leave everyone else slack-jawed in awe. But his goal against the New York Rangers took it to a whole new level. A goal so nice that he seemed to have even stunned himself.
Sure, it’s not technically a celebration, but having that kind of reaction to your own goal definitely counts for something (note, this is what I look like every the one time I somehow managed to score in beer league).
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Evander Kane “Game 7” taunt
Evander Kane started his Oilers career hot. Scoring 22 goals in just 43 games after signing as a free agent on January 27, 2022. He kept that goal-scoring touch going in the playoffs, with a ridiculous 13 goals in 15 games.
He scored seven of those in the first round against the L.A. Kings, with the seventh one being the empty-netter in Game 6 that forced Game 7. In celebration, Kane did what he does best as a heel, and held up seven fingers to the Los Angeles crowd to let them know that there was going to be a Game 7 (and not because it was his seventh goal of the series, which some people inexplicably seemed to think).
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The Nurse says the head is okay
After missing three games due to a concussion from a dirty hit from Ryan Reaves, Darnell Nurse made his way back into the lineup and scored the Oilers’ second goal of the game with just seconds remaining in the first period.
Just in case the goal wasn’t enough to show that he had recovered from the head injury, Nurse tapped his head multiple times in celebration to make it clear to his teammates and fans that he was all good.
