The 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs have already sent thousands to work with little sleep after featuring a record number of overtime games in the first round.
From the lowest-ranking fourth liner to the franchise star, every single player on a roster spends some time visualizing their effort to score an OT goal to win a playoff game for his team. The dream of scoring a goal in extra time that wins a series or the Stanley Cup is a mental picture that can sustain the hopeful from childhood through the end of a long career.
Only a precious few have found themselves in the record book having done so, and here are the NHL’s 10 best examples of Expansion Era overtime playoff glory.
10. Alex Burrows: April 26, 2011
The Presidents’ Trophy-winning Vancouver Canucks won the first three games against the reigning champion Blackhawks, then suddenly lost three straight and looked awful doing so. Desperately trying to avoid being the second team (Boston) in as many seasons to cough up a 3-0 series edge, Burrows rode to the rescue with a no-doubt blast, saving his club’s Cup hopes for what would be three more rounds.
9. Pat LaFontaine: April 19, 1987
Though four years removed from their last of four consecutive Cups, the New York Islanders of the late ’80s stuck around like your favorite hard-to-kill Saturday morning creature-feature star. In this first-round series, the Washington Capitals wasted a 3-1 series lead, then agonizingly lost Game 7 in the fourth overtime on home ice thanks to this infamous turnaround seeing-eye shot.
8. Lanny McDonald, April 29, 1978
Long Island’s team on the rise won a division title in just its sixth season of existence, but leave it to one of the Original Six franchises to teach a lesson about finishing off an opponent. One of the most beloved players in all of hockey scored one of the most important goals for a franchise that was then only 11 years separated from Stanley’s silver.
7. Yvon Lambert: May 10, 1979
Though the infamous too-many-men penalty against Boston just resulted in the Habs scoring the goal that forced extra time in Game 7, it was this bullet from one of the fantastic Frenchmen that allowed Montreal the chance to compete for a fourth consecutive Stanley Cup. The Canadiens would secure that title in the next round by edging the Rangers
6. Bob Nystrom: May 24, 1980
A dynasty was born, partly out of the fear of returning to Philadelphia for a deciding Game 7 in what was still one of the league’s most notoriously intimidating buildings for opponents. For the Flyers, this was a sobering way to recall how a record 35-game unbeaten streak in the regular season provided zero guarantees in the title round.
5. Patrick Kane: June 9, 2010
The only man to admit he saw the puck enter the net was the one who shot the puck. The source of confusion for fan and broadcaster alike ended 49 years of waiting for the Cup to return to Chicago in Game 6 at the Wachovia Center.
4. Alec Martinez: June 13, 2014
Usually, the province of game-winning goals belongs to the forwards, the guys expected to take the puck and rush it into the offensive zone. But on this night in Los Angeles, the guy who began and ended this Cup-deciding sequence was a defenseman who looked like a forward — in the right place at the right time to make history.
3. Brad May: April 24, 1993
Despite a high-powered offense, Buffalo finished 23 points behind first-place Boston in the regular season, but completed a shocking four-game sweep in shocking fashion. The ambitious hosts overcame an early 5-2 deficit and took the series on a grinder making both a Hall of Fame defenseman and a goaltender who had won three Stanley Cups look foolish. Plus, the call from Rick Jeanneret is an all-timer.
2. Stephane Matteau: May 27, 1994
The New York Rangers’ quest for their first Cup in 54 years was jarringly deferred when New Jersey scored with 7.7 seconds left in regulation in Game 7 of the conference final. As the subsequent fifth period wore on, enter a role player, brought to Broadway from Chicago by coach Mike Keenan, to provide heroics for the second time in the series and keep the title quest alive.
1. Bobby Orr: May 10, 1970
It was a play ended a rather anticlimactic Stanley Cup Finals sweep. But it was also a play that cemented a legend in his own time, gave the city its first hockey title since before the U.S. became involved in World War II, and was awesome enough to be immortalized in bronze.
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