Tarasenko and the goal-of-the-year

After slicing by four defencemen, Vladimir Tarasenko scored what some have called an early goal-of-the-year candidate with only one hand. But is it too early to anoint a goal-of-the-year candidate, what exactly is a goal-of-the-year and how do we decide what qualifies as a potential goal-of-the-year?

While goal-of-the-year sounds like something the heavens bestow on a goal that easily surpasses all others in its magnificence, it is actually an unofficial award given out by pretty much every sports media organization and argued by fans all over the Internet. Sometimes the goal-of-the-year is clear-cut like this Ovechkin goal, and sometimes there are multiple worthy candidates. 

It seems as soon as a player scores a fantastic goal, no matter how early in the season, members of the sports media rush to call it a potential goal-of-the-year. To me, it seems a little contrived to talk about which goal is in the lead for an ill-defined title that no one really has the ability to give out. But if we must, let's talk about some standards we can use to evaluate potential goal-of-the-year candidates.

Difficulty

It may seem obvious, but any goal of the year candidate must show off a high level of skill. 

When you look at a goal-of-the-year candidate, the high difficulty level should be obvious, but it should also look fluid and pretty. One of the best at scoring goals like this is Pavel Datsyuk.

The goal should also be scored with defending players on the ice. While some interesting goals get scored during penalty shots and shootouts, rarely does anyone suggest they should qualify as goal-of-the-year candidates. In the NHL every player has a massive amount of skill. When I used to frequent hockey message boards, sometimes you would see a poster who watched an NHL practice and was convinced that a fourth-line player was going to have a breakout season. Usually the poster saw the player stick around after practice where he would skate around, dangle and take trick shots. 

Tarasenko's goal clearly demonstrates a high level of skill, looks fluid and he beats about three defensemen before getting to the net. Clearly this goal passes the standard difficulty test.

Creativity

Here is where the Tarasenko goal may lose some points. On the Marek vs. Wyshynski podcast, Jeff Marek, who isn't convinced the goal was goal-of-the-year calibre, pointed out the quality of the players on the ice (we'll get to that later) and the fact we have seen the "postage stamp goal" before.

In fact, here the "postage stamp goal" is: 

The goal's nickname comes from the fact the goal was made into a postage stamp in Sweden.

While Tarasenko pulled off the move during regular play, he is not the first to do that either. So how original does a goal have to be to qualify as a goal-of-the-year candidate? That is difficult to say. Pretty much everything has been done before, from between the legs goals to lacrosse-style goals from behind the net. Personally, I would have liked to see Tarasenko put a little more of his own touch on Forsberg's signature goal.

Quality of competition 

We talked about the importance of scoring the goal with defending players on the ice, but does it matter who those players are? Tarasenko scored his goal against a line of players that aren't widely considered high-end defensive players and a goalie who hasn't played a ton of NHL games. 

Quality of competition is something that advanced stats are beginning to track. Essentially, if an offensive player regularly scores goals against other teams' top defensive players, it is more impressive than a player who scores the same amount of goals agains other teams' bottom lines.

Pavel Datsyuk is probably the gold standard for pulling off highlight-reel moves on high-end players. He can take the best defensive players in the world and make them look silly.

To me, quality of competition is probably the biggest reason why Tarasenko's goal will ultimately fall short of the seemingly divine goal-of-the-year title. Tarasenko is clearly an amazingly skilled player, but he benefited from a fortuitous matchup. If (and possibly when), Tarasenko scores a goal like that with Shea Webber on the ice, then we will seriously talk goal-of-the-year. For now, the season is young and I am sure there are lots of pretty goals ahead of us.