WATCH: Hockey player stuns crowd with 'javelin' goal at KHL event
Absolutely nobody saw this move coming
By
Chris Peters
•
1 min read
The KHL may have never seriously competed with the NHL as a top professional league as it set out to do, but have they ever got the NHL beat on trick shots. It seems every year we'll get one or two incredible shots from across the pond at various fan events or during their annual all-star skills competition.
With the KHL's preseason already underway, Ak-Bars Kazan held a fan event at their home arena over the weekend. All of the players took to the ice to entertain the fans who will be cheering them on all season and in the time-honored tradition of incredible trick shots coming out of Russia, forward Vladimir Tkachyov took things to new heights.
Instead of your traditional things like between-the-legs or a spin-o-rama, or even setting the stick on fire, Tkachyov did something rather unexpected. The 23-year-old Ukrainian scooped the puck up on his backhand, carried it from center ice and instead of dropping the puck or trying to swat it out of the air, he just threw the whole stick at the net like a javelin.
It spiraled perfectly as the goalie wisely slid out of the way. As the stick spun, the puck stayed on it before everything hit the back of the net.
Of course, that would be highly illegal in a game, but it still looks cool. Also, I'm not convinced Tkachyov didn't have some help from two-sided tape or the extra-sticky friction tape some players use on their sticks. Still it all came together perfectly and it sounded like just about everybody in the building was stunned by what they just saw, especially the in-arena announcer.
NHL players need to start watching the Russians for the trick shot competitions. These guys have cornered the market on creativity, apparently.
[H/T Reddit]
