Playing Street Hockey

There's no doubt that the Anaheim Ducks are playing, and a large component of their success this season has been the play of their young stars. Ryan Getzlaf is still up in the top-four for team scoring for the Ducks, but the other three players are all 15 year-old or younger. Those players include Troy Terry, who leads the team in scoring, and the two men to the left in Trevor Zegras and Sonny Milano who have found all sorts of chemistry as linemates. And they put that chemistry on display and the NHL on notice in Buffalo tonight with a ridiculous goal!

We've seen lacrosse-style goals in the NHL from various players, and they seem to be more and more common in hockey across the world. It takes some real skill to pull off a lacrosse-style goal, but have we ever seen a lacrosse-style assist? If not, here's your first example of the "lacrosse assist" with Trevor Zegras showing off his hands and Sonny Milano showing some incredible hand-eye coordination tonight! Ok, that's a street hockey goal if I ever saw one, and kudos to Zegras and Milano for making this one work! I remember trying stuff like this on the cold, winter streets when I was a kid. Somehow, Zegras and Milano made it work against the Buffalo Sabres, and this is the first instance I can recall of a goal like this being scored in the NHL.

The reaction by Zegras after the goal tells you how much faith he had in seeing this work as even he's amazed that his flip-pass over the net to Milano not only connected, but ended up behind Buffalo netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen for the Anaheim goal. This is truly a goal of pure skill, and Zegras and Milano deserve a little recognition for this effort. Amazing job by the two Ducks youngsters who may use practice to work on a pile of other street hockey moves now that they know they work!

If there's any proof needed that hockey is now a young man's game, let this highlight be submitted as evidence. I don't know if any player in he twilight of his career would have the vision, let alone the skills, to pull off an offensive move like this in a game.

Until next time, keep your sticks... actually, no, never mind that saying. If you can do what Zegras and Milano did, do that. Forget about keeping your sticks on the ice with that kind of skill!