Statistically, Johnny Gaudreau is off to the best start to any season of his NHL career. The 24-year-old, fourth-year forward has 38 points in his first 31 games, and has never finished a full season at higher than a point per-game (the 78 points he recorded in 79 games in 2015-16 represent a career high).
It's been a hot start for the Calgary Flames leading scorer, who is as creative a player alive in the offensive zone. On Tuesday night, Gaudreau's Flames dropped a 2-1 shootout loss against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center, but the 5-foot-9 puck wizard still supplied a jaw-dropping highlight in the shootout.
The Wild's Chris Stewart would match Gaudreau's make, and Minnesota's Mikael Granlund converted in the fifth round to secure a second point for the home team. The Flames, who spent so much of the first quarter of the NHL season in the top-three in the Pacific Division, are 4-4-2 in their past 10 games and have slipped to 10th in the Western Conference, though four teams (Calgary, Minnesota, the Dallas Stars, and the Chicago Blackhawks) each sit at 35 points, with Minnesota and Dallas occupying the two wild-card spots.
Gaudreau's shootout highlight came for naught, but after the game, Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau questioned whether the move was actually so fancy that it broke the rules.
Boudreau said refs missed interference on the regulation Calgary goal and he believes Gaudreau was going backward on his shootout goal
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) December 13, 2017
According to the NHL rule book, while a skater partcipitates in the shootout, the ... "puck must be kept in motion towards the opponent’s goal line." When Gaudreau pulls up, he veers left, and though he's skating backwards, it's certainly up for interpretation whether or not his path is consistent with the the letter of the law, though, apparently the goal was checked by league office's in Toronto and given the 'OK.'
No matter what, when people start questioning if your shootout move is breaking the rules it means it was probably a pretty creative attempt.