The Bruins And Flames Scored A Bunch Of Weird Goals On Thursday Night
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Bruins returned to action Thursday night, playing on their home ice while coming off a victorious skate at Notre Dame Stadium in the Winter Classic on Tuesday. Everything was back to normal. Or so we thought.
Throughout the course of the Bruins' 6-4 win over the Calgary Flames, the TD Garden crowd managed to witness a half-dozen weird, strange, and downright odd goals -- the type you don't often see scored at the NHL level.
The odd trend began on the first goal of the night. The Bruins had a two-man advantage for 1:55 but mustered just two shots on net. Calgary exited the zone as the first penalty expired, leading to a mostly-nothing 2-on-4 rush.
It wasn't expected to produce a goal, and Mark Jankowski's shot was really just an opportunity for Calgary to switch off some penalty killers to drain the remaining time on the second half of a double minor penalty. But then ...
That was a sloppy one. And so, it's time to bust out a new scale of weirdness to rank that one. What scale is that, you ask? Why of course, it's the Weird Don Cherry Outfit scale.
Michael Frolik's Short-Handed Goal:
3 out of 5 Weird Don Cherry Outfits
The Bruins answered right back, with Mike Smith allowing a goal that generally doesn't get allowed by a goaltender past the mite level.
Oops.
John Moore's Power-Play Goal:
2 out of 5 Weird Don Cherry Outfits
The Bruins took a 2-1 lead on a more standard NHL goal, with Jake DeBrusk redirecting a David Krejci point shot, and the teams headed to their locker rooms shortly thereafter for the first intermission.
Then, things only got weirder. Jaroslav Halak stoned Johnny Gaudreau on a partial breakaway, then stopped the gifted goal scorer again on a rebound bid, with the goalie holding his left skate over the puck after making the save. But the referee either didn't see the puck or ruled that it was not covered up by Halak, thus allowing Elias Lindholm to swoop in and score a Nok-Hockey goal for Calgary.
The Bruins challenged the goal, but to no avail, and the score was tied at 2-2. But that didn't last long, as Brad Marchand redirected a Torey Krug shot from the left point to regain the advantage for Boston.
Elias Lindholm's Goal
3 out of 5 Weird Don Cherry Outfits
The score remained that way until the third period, when the most fun goal of the night was scored. On the power play, this one really started from nothing, as Krug sent a 140-foot slap shot from behind his own blue line all the way down the other end of the ice. The shot kicked off the end boards and ricocheted directly to the tape of a streaking David Pastrnak.
Pastrnak caught the defense off guard, slipping past them to retrieve the puck, deke to his backhand, and casually deliver his 25th goal of the season.
That one was straight out of a video game. It was maybe not "weird," per se. But it was pretty rare.
David Pastrnak's Power-Play Goal:
3 out of 5 Weird Don Cherry Outfits
But the wacky scoring was not done yet. With the Flames trailing by two, Gaudreau skated in the corner and fired a shot on net from behind the goal line toward the net. It was, as they say, a goal scorer's goal, as Gaudreau banked it off Halak's right arm and into the net (with a brief detour to the left post):
Wild stuff.
Johnny Gaudreau's Bank Shot:
4 out of 5 Weird Don Cherry Outfits
DeBrusk scored for Boston to stretch that lead back to two, but the Flames had one more wacky goal in them. This time it was Mikael Backlund, with his back to the net while battling for position in the slot, firing a blind "Why The Heck Not" backhand shot toward net. It somehow found its way to the back of the net:
Mikael Backlund's No-Look Backhand:
3 out of 5 Weird Don Cherry Outfits
That one once again made it a one-goal lead for Boston, but Marchand was able to bury an empty-netter to officially put an end to this one.
When it was all said and done, the Bruins skated away with a 6-4 victory. It'll only go down as two points in the standings, but you might watch hockey for the rest of the year without seeing so many strange, peculiar and unique goals scored in any given night across the entire league.
BONUS: The goals weren't the only unique moments from Thursday night, as we all witnessed a near-showdown very quickly extinguish when Michael Frolik thought better than to actually challenge Kevan Miller to a fight.
This one gets ZERO Weird Don Cherry Outfits, though. Not wanting to fight Kevan Miller is a completely normal human desire. It's called self-preservation, and it's how our species has survived for thousands of years.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
