The Vancouver Canucks ended the Detroit Red Wings' historic home winning streak at 23 games Thursday, defeating the Wings 4-3 in a shootout. The winner was scored by Alex Burrows, who celebrated the streak-ending goal in reminiscent fashion, pretending to break a stick over his knee, just as he did after a very similar big goal four years ago.
Here's Burrows, beating Jimmy Howard with his go-to backhand deke to win the game for Vancouver:
You'll notice that, after the goal, he curls around to the boards and feigns breaking his stick over his knee.
The gesture is a familiar one to Canuck fans. In 2008, with the team mired in an 8-game losing streak and 1:30 to go in a 3-3 tie versus the Carolina Hurricanes, Burrows broke in alone, shorthanded, and scored the eventual game-winner using the exact same deke -- and then he celebrated in the exact same way.
Of course, in that case, it was the Canucks' own streak they were breaking, not someone else's. When you break someone else's streak then celebrate like this, isn't it just showboating?
While we're talking about this, to anyone complaining that the Wings' streak ended in a skills competition: it was made possible by the same skills competition. Either there's asterisks everywhere or there's none anywhere. I'm in the latter camp.
It was an incredible streak and now it's over. That is all. As the saying goes: live by the arbitrary skills competition, die by the arbitrary skills competition.
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