Finding Beauty In Thomas Vanek Deflections

This goal will not get the credit it deserves for just how hard that goal is to score. First, as you see, Vanek is set up to the right side of Bobrovsky with his feet planted on goal line. With the puck coming in to Vanek from such a steep angle, redirecting the puck 100 degrees and into the net is not easy. The puck makes contact with the blade of Vanek's Warrior Covert near the toe, allowing the puck to ride the taper and the curve to lift it up and over. You can see the motion of the stick as the blade flexes backward and returns to normal just as the puck changes direction.

Deflections and tip-ins have been apart of the game for a long time. Changing direction of the puck often allows the player to beat a goalie, whom nowadays, could stop most straight shots that he is able to track. More often than not, the deflection is happening out in front of the goaltender - usually between 5-10 feet in front of the net. The key is to give the puck enough time to change its trajectory so that it will miss the goalie. With goalies playing a butterfly style and playing at the top of the goal crease to cut down the angle, a shallow tip will most likely get stopped. So seeing a puck go in from a seemingly impossible angle and missing the goalie within that 5 foot radius from the crease really is amazing.

Again, this goal will likely get over-looked on the next compilation list for top goals because those tend to choose the flash and dash type goals, but make no mistake, Thomas Vanek made a hell of a play to win the game for the Wild.