With the Stanley Cup Final currently ongoing, we count down the greatest goals from the New York Islanders 2016-17 NHL season.
With NHL season coming to an end soon (hopefully without the Pittsburgh Penguins hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup), fans can look back at another great season of hockey for the sports centennial year. During this time of the year, the New York Islanders social media team runs a poll for various different categories that we the fans can vote for.Two days ago, the Islanders Instagram page posted a video for the nominations for goal of the year.
All of these goals were phenomenal in different ways and came from the team’s biggest stars. However, there can only be one winner.
Here are my personal rankings of these goals and who I think will come away with the best Islanders goal of 2016-17:
4. Josh Bailey‘s Overtime Goal
As we all know by now, the beginning of the season did not treat the Islanders and their fans very well. Despite the great play under interim head coach Doug Weight, the deep hole early in the season doomed this team. There weren’t many positive highlights to look back at from October-December, but this game winning goal by Josh Bailey against the Anaheim Ducks was.
After starting the season 0-2, the Islanders headed home to the Barclays Center for their home opener. After blowing a 2-0 in the third, which included a Ryan Getzlaf goal with a minute to go, the Islanders headed into their first overtime game.
Being the Islander fan I am, I had zero faith to come out with a win. But Josh Bailey proved me wrong with this beautiful goal. This goal was a sign of great things to come for Bailey, as he had his best statistical season as an Islander, producing a career-high 56 points.
3. John Tavares Does John Tavares Things
The Doug Weight era began back on Jan. 19 against the Dallas Stars in Brooklyn and captain John Tavares started it off right with this dazzling goal. After a gritty effort by Anders Lee to keep this puck in the zone, Tavares snags the puck and dances around out front to sneak it past Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen to give the Islanders the early lead.
Tavares would later score a shorthanded goal and the Islanders went on to win 3-0, kicking of Doug Weight’s coaching career with a dub.
2. Josh Ho-Sang Shows Off His Silky Mittens
Now some of you may disagree and think that the previous Tavares goal should be two, but for those who have read my previous articles about Josh Ho-Sang, know how high I am on this kid.
During a must win stretch, Ho-Sang rose to the occasion and delivered with this tremendous goal. This goal showed off various skills in his game. His speed to break away from defenders and his smooth hands and patience in front of the cage. Oh, and his celebration twirl of the stick after makes it even better.
This kid is poised to be a star and we can all, but hope that he keeps progressing as he gets older and more mature.
1. Who Else Would Have It?
Is it really a surprise that John Tavares, the face of the franchise has the goal of the year for the Islanders? I’m sticking to what I picked for my goal of the year in my Islanders season awards article. It’ll be one of the two, but this one will be in his top five when his career is over.
The Islanders social media team described it best with the hashtag. This goal was just straight up #savage. He graciously skates around two St. Louis Blues defensemen, keeping his balance to rip off a shot, going bar down on goalie Jake Allen. The only problem I have with it is that when we are watching this many years from now, reflecting on the great career John Tavares had, it will remind all of us about these atrocious black uniforms the Islanders rocked for two seasons. Other than that, this is one of the best-looking goals we’ll ever see from our beloved captain.
All of these Tavares goals has me reminiscing, so here’s a mandatory video to his number one goal of his entire hockey career. (FYI skip to 5:27 for Howie Rose’s call)