The next time you’re flipping through channels and come across a hockey game, stop for a few minutes. Your odds of seeing a goal will be about as good as your odds of correctly pronouncing the players’ names. It’s really hard to score in hockey!
That’s at least part of the reason the NHL’s popularity is lagging, and it’s also why even someone who falls asleep to hockey games will appreciate the history made in Brooklyn last night. It started with the Islanders and Penguins tied up 3-3. Isles center Anders Lee deflected a shot into goal to put his team up 4-3. The Penguins pulled goalie Matt Murray on the ensuing face off, which allowed Nikolay Kulemin to guide the puck in from the center line. Two goals in three seconds.
With this sequence, the Islanders tied the NHL record for the fastest two goals ever scored. It’s happened this quickly twice before. Once in 1935, before TV cameras were stationed around NHL arenas, and once in 2004, when it looked like this.