This week’s roundup also features steeplechase drama and an astronaut being brought back down to Earth with a bump
1) Nashville Predators’ Pekka Rinne joins the short list of NHL goaltenders with an eye for finding the opposing net thanks to this effort against Chicago Blackhawks. He’s the first since 2013, when Mike Smith just beat the buzzer for Phoenix Coyotes.
New York Islanders’ Billy Smith, back in 1979, is credited with the earliest example, as the last player on his team to touch the puck before Colorado Rockies’ Rob Ramage passed to empty ice and watched forlornly as it made its way to an unguarded net. However, Ron Hextall shot and scored for Philadelphia Flyers in 1987 – and also contributed the next on the list, in the 1989 play-offs against the Capitals. New Jersey Devils’ Martin Brodeur has three goals to his name, with one sterling full-rink effort, followed by two Ramage-like pieces of charity from Daymond Langkow and Jordan Staal respectively. Leaving the technicalities aside, three more managed the feat from their own sticks: Chris Osgood, Evgeni Nabokov and Jose Theodore, whose 9-iron-style swing is arguably the pick of the bunch.
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We turned @thatssovillage's epic thread into a montage... Enjoy! pic.twitter.com/PkK9gC4nop