As hockey fans, there are a lot of things that we get excited about. Amazing glove saves dazzle us, Kronwall-level hits draw raucous cheers, but it’s the goals scored by our favorite team that make us jump out of our seats. They end up on highlight reels and fill us with glee when we watch them on repeat.
This post is not for those goals. Today we are here to celebrate the aftermath. I’ve asked my fellow writers for their favorite goal celebrations, and while we can’t post every beautiful moment of Red Wings joy, this is what we’ve come up with to start you off.
Vintage Red Wings
This is the goal that brought the Stanley Cup back to Detroit after 42 long years away. I simply couldn’t give you all just the gif version of this, even though I’m pretty sure you’d still hear “McCarty draws, McCarty in, McCarty… SCOOORES!! A MAGNIFICENT GOAL!!” in your heads. The way McCarty pirouettes and then slams into the glass before jumping into the arms of a waiting Tomas Sandstrom is reflective of the feelings of every fan in that building.
Is there a draft in here? Because I just got serious chills. Set in the style of the old “History Will Be Made” videos, Red Wings youtube guru awood40 gives us the best moments of an incredible Stanley Cup Final comeback in forty-five amazing seconds. Doug Brown spinning and yelling like crazy, the reaction of Martin LaPointe on the bench, and of course Kris Draper dancing for his first goal of the playoffs into the arms of his teammates make these celebrations some of the best.
Brendan Shanahan just scored an empty-netter in Game 5 of the 2002 Final, so I think everybody inside Joe Louis Arena wanted to do what Steve Yzerman does – tackle his teammate to the ground in this Cup-securing Hockey Hug.
The Datsyuk
Pavel Datsyuk doesn’t get visibly excited often, since in most of his goal celebrations he acts like it’s business as usual. But he doesn’t always score bare-handed goals.
This kind of fun usually happens when Datsyuk knows he’s done something really special, like the pickpocket on Klein in 2010.
Or that time he made the entire Nashville Predators team look like a bunch of scrubs.
Never change, Pav.
All Aboard the Feels Train
Choo choo! We all remember the goal Tomas Tatar scored right after his father passed away. It was emotional and beautiful when he honored Jan Tatar with a salute to the rafters.
This was the part that actually got me teary-eyed: Z’s comforting hug to a clearly somber Tatar. Excuse me, I need a tissue. *sniffle*
The Prospects
This is about as flashy as you’ll see Teemu Pulkkinen get. The best part about this gif? His goal song is Toto’s “Africa”, and the fans at Van Andel were treated to it for the third time as Pulkky celebrated a hat trick in this year’s playoffs.
Another milestone for a Baby Wing! This time it’s Tyler Bertuzzi, and he’s scoring his first ever goal at the professional level in a playoff game for the Griffins. Teammate Andy Miele tries and fails to lift him off the ice, but it’s the thought that counts, right?
Kyle’s Favorite
Yes, that’s Luke Glendening scoring his first NHL goal. You knew this one was coming.
Nyquist’s OT Winner
This is exactly the goal you’re thinking of: the 28-second wonder-goal that earned Nyquist’s TSN Play of the Year honors for a Red Wings three-peat for that honor. This part of the celebration, however, may have gotten lost in the excitement of the win…
Logically, you should just attack the goal-scorer when they do crazy things with the puck. It’s okay, Mule, I would have done the same thing.
So that’s just a little introduction into our favorite gifs and videos of the Red Wings being better than all the other teams in the league. Got any favorites of your own? Share them in the comments! The more the merrier!*
*Or at least until we crash SBNation with the number of gifs in this thread.
Are you Team Gary or Team Banana?
| Team Gary | 11 |
| Team Banana | 57 |
| What on earth are you talking about? | 61 |
