Zegras-Milano goal amongst greatest plays of the century

John Tortorella may not have been impressed but the unreal goal Trevor Zegras and Sonny Milano combined for ranks in the top-20 plays NHL fans have seen this century.

On this week's Zone Time, Julian, Justin, Omar and Avry also discuss reports that the Montreal Canadiens have least three women on their list of candidates to replace Marc Bergevin as General Manager, and wonder what the growing number of COVID-19 cases across the NHL mean for the regular season and the Olympics.

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Video Transcript

JULIAN MCKENZIE: I can't wait to talk about this because I don't even remember if we got a chance to talk about it on last week's episode, but Trevor Zegras has turned himself into a star in this league off of his play. I mean, earlier this year, he had the sick tossed into the crowd, and already that should be able to give yourself some attention.

And then, he performs the dish again, the pass behind the net that Sunny Milano whacks into the net. And how many times have you heard sunny Milano being credited for that goal that he scored? It's pretty nuts.

So it was a pretty sick goal. So of course, we all have to talk about it. So of course, people like John Tortorella got to sit up on their perch at ESPN and say something about it. I originally thought for this segment, we could be talking about John Tortorella and the fact that, you know what, man? He had to take that he had about how this play is not really good for the game, and all of that, and all these other discussions that have happened.

OMAR: No, it's cool.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: If you want to bring up John--

OMAR: 95 Devils neutral zone trap, yeah. That'll get people in the seats.

- Try and get the 12-year-old watching TikTok.

- Yo, check out this defense. You see that? You see that five-man locked down. He's not entering, no way. Remember that game between Tampa and Philly, where no one--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah, I was about to say. Where's the love for--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

- Let's do that. Let's do that. That's it. No one's doing anything. That's it. We're just standing. That's it. Come on.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: He misses the days when if you were just trying to carry a puck through the neutral zone, Scott Stevens would take your head off. I dare you to keep your head.

He literally would take your head off. How dare you go away for those days? But anyway, I thought it would be fun to do that, but I realized, do we want to give energy to this? Do we want to give energy to the fact that people are speaking negatively about this?

Shouldn't we be contributing to the positive contributions of this goal and talk about the fact that this might be one of the greatest plays we've seen this century the National Hockey League? Where does it rank? So I mean, it's a little bit more open ended for this topic, but I'd love to know where you guys think this place ranks in terms of some of the best plays we've seen in this century.

I'm not going to open up the 20th century because let's be real here, I think Cuthbert is the only one out of all of us who's really seen stuff like Lemieux going coast-to-coast.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Hey, Lemieux? I'm not that old, Lemieux.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: You're like, what, six?

- Do you know who I feel bad for in that goal, guys? I feel bad for John Casey. He had a decent career, and people only know him for getting undressed by Mario Lemieux. He had a good career. But all [INAUDIBLE] about John Casey is getting undressed by Mario Lemieux in that goal.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Thank you for helping me out there, Avery.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: The one thing I always think about with that goal is the way that Mario Lemieux addresses everybody, but look at how he lands into Casey. And look at where his skate goes. I just hope that he's well-protected down there, if you get what I'm saying.

That's the one thing I thought about for years with that man. You know what I'm saying? Look, you got to remember hockey is played by a bunch of bed wearing pointy knives on their feet. I have a genuine concern.

Anyway, I'm getting away from the topic at hand here. In terms of plays we've seen this century, I'm thinking Ovechkin. I'm thinking anything Crosby's done. Where does this rank for you guys? Is this the best thing you see? What do you think?

- Oh, man, I don't know. Remember when Datsyuk did the Datsyukian deek? I think it's in that category because when I saw the play, I thought it was a blooper. And that Zegras just batted in off of the goalie.

Then when I looked, I was like, no, that was a pass. It's disgusting. It's a filthy patch, so I'm putting it up there it's just a magician-like play. And like I think of like Pavel Datsyuk and all the things that Pavel Datsyuk used to do, which again, is an error that John Tortorella coached him.

So like Trevor Zegras is the only player to ever do anything cheeky. Look what Datsyuk did to Logan Couture, hilarious clip. If anyone wants to look on YouTube, search Pavel Datsyuk geeks out Logan Couture. It's the best clip you'll ever see.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: And is it a Michael Bunting goal? What? I was just asking a question.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: He went from exasperation to him just savoring it.

- I'm sorry, I just lost my train of thought just remembering the beauty.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

It's just straight-up his creativity, and I think that's what you need to see in the league. And when it comes to a creative player just doing things and moments out of nothing know Pavel Datsyuk stands up for me, so good on Zegras. That was a sick play.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Sorry, go ahead, Avery. Go ahead.

- No, in this entry, we've seen a lot of cool things. We've seen the Datsyuk goals. We saw Marek Malik between the legs in the shootout. We saw Jussi Jokinen shootout goals, which are crazy in the early 2000s.

But this goal, again, a pass behind the net to a pass in the air to a player who knocks out of midair. Now, knocking a puck out of mid air is already hard enough to do. To do it in an NHL game like that is next level hard to do and get it right because if Milano misses the puck, it's a turnover. And the puck is the other way for a Sabers three on two, most likely.

So in terms of plays, this entry, I'm going to say it is at least a top 15 play this century.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Top 15 play?

- Yes.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: I mean, you don't have to say all 14 plays above it, but what are some of the plays that rank above? And top 15, that's a pretty specific.

- Anything Connor McDavid has ever done.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Yeah, I was going to say. Connor McDavid

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

David has three nicer goals, just off the top of my head.

- Honestly.

- I mean, he has three nicer goals in the last calendar year.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Yeah.

- I mean, McDavid's Ranger goal, I was in the press box for that game. When he scored that goal against Rangers, I burst out laughing. I started laughing. I was like, No, no, he didn't. I started laughing out loud in the press box because what else can you do.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: You can't do anything. There's nothing you can do.

- [INAUDIBLE].

- That's so funny.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

- I couldn't believe that.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Justin-- go ahead.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: I was just going to say. It's not as good as the McDavid goals for me, but it's better than any other Michigan spin goal, I think, because it was done in cooperation with someone else, right? So the act of picking it up, it's honestly fairly simple. We see that to referees between whistles all the time.

But the fact that these two connected on this, and it went seamlessly, I think, that's the most special part about the goal because the flip up, not that crazy. We see goals batted in all the time, but rarely do we see two players plan what happened, premeditated beforehand, like Milano and Zegras did. And that's why it stands apart in terms of those type of goals.

It's not on McDavid's level, but maybe top 15. I think Avery nailed it, to be honest.

- And I think the coolest thing about that is that you see the genuine shock. Like, just afterwards, that actually worked. You know what I mean?

And I think that's what makes the play like the best is that on the bench, they're like that actually worked, holy crap. So, yeah, it was just like a full-on human moment, and everything about it was amazing. Just let hockey be fun. Isn't hockey cool when it's fun?

JULIAN MCKENZIE: No, Omar, it's bad for our game.

- Bad for the game.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: It should tell you something that no one has come up to Zegras, stepped Zegras since the goal happened, right? I haven't seen anything. I think everybody is cool with it.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Me either.

- But what do you step to him for? Hey, you scored a nice goal. I'm going to fight you and go on the penalty kill as a result. What?

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Exactly. I mean, in previous years, though, Scott Stephens, as we mentioned, would have taken his head off probably, but we've gone past that clearly. And John Tortorella, unfortunately, his commentary hasn't quite gone past that.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: But it's really ridiculous to think about it, right? Imagine being the next opponent Trevor Zegras plays. Let's go all the way back to like 1998 or something. You're a guy playing Trevor Zegras the game after he pulls off the dish again, and you're just thinking, well, I don't like the fact that he's showing us up in our game. How dare you do that? I'm going to go fight you, take an instigator penalty, and kick your ass. That doesn't make any sense.

- Yeah, it makes no sense. You, sir, have more skill than I do. Yes, I do. Stick. It's just like--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

- How does it make sense?

- It makes absolutely no sense. The man is still-- the player was sick. They scored a goal.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Stop, man, but we got to go back to the good old days of hockey. We got to go back to the days when it was black and white.

- And it was stick fights.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Oh, man, you couldn't raise the puck, my brother. I mean, there weren't even brothers in the league back in them days.

- Honestly, you know what? Let's just go back to the time where you couldn't pass the puck forward. Let's go back there.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Oh, yeah, for sure.

- Back to Eddie Shaw.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Back to Eddie Shaw.

- No helmets, that's it. Nothing, let's just go back to that. IPads? No, we're not doing this. It's bad for the game. Highlights? No.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Maybe I'm wrong. John Tortorella definitely doesn't seem like a guy who'd like iPads behind the bench. His reasoning is probably like, Yo, some player is going to download some app and watch

- Honestly.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

- What's a popular game right now? Mid shift like when Torch still the coach at Columbus. Patrick Laine whips out Candy Crush.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: I was going say, Laine would be the guy.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

JULIAN MCKENZIE: They couldn't work together.

- Yo, Adam's got us playing Fortnite on the bench.

- Honestly, yeah, it's like, OK, I got to build up here. I was like, oh, man, OK, a one-v-one. He's like, Yo, you're on your shift. He's like, hey, relax, I'm in endgame right now. Come on, come on, let me finish.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, I got to start watching Ted Lasso. I got Apple TV on the iPad--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

- Oh, my God.

- If a player was caught watching a TV show on the bench, that would kill me. I would die laughing.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: There is no way that would ever happen.

- That would be a legendary moment if that ever happened. I would laugh so hard.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: That company lock on anything of that nature. No games, no gambling, just highlights probably.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah, do you get to a point where you're literally pulled up the BetMGM app while you on the bench.

- I'd respect it.

- Imagine a player tweets mid-shift, Yo, that was trash.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: My Kingdom for a player who has the gall, even if it's during an all-star game, anyone to tweet in the middle of a game, they would turn it to an instant legend.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: That happened in baseball. Wasn't someone liking Instagram pics in the bathroom in the clubhouse.

- I think so, yes.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: That could happen.

- Just imagine McDavid's like, Yo, this defence-man tried to defend me, lol. Oh, my God, oh, my God, that's so funny.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Connor McDavid's like, Four defense-man, really?

[INTERPOSING VOICES]