Like me, Patrick Kane was born in the 1980s, meaning he no doubt grew up on the hockey wisdom of "The Mighty Ducks." The great philosopher Gordon Bombay taught that three is the appropriate number of dekes in a shootout. It's a time-honored method: forehand, backhand, forehand. Then you shoot. That's the way it's always been done.
But, on Wednesday night, Kane went rogue. Needing a goal in order to beat the Minnesota Wild in the shootout, Kane abandoned the tried and tested philosophy of the triple deke and instead broke out the never-before-seen fiftuple deke.
The shootout remains a crummy way to decide hockey games, but when it produces incredible goals like this one, it's a little more tolerable.
Five dekes in, Niklas Backstrom was out of his jock strap. Ten dekes later, the puck was in the back of the net. Never before have I seen so many dekes.
Gutsy move by Kane, who also went against the grain by coming in slow, rather than with speed, giving him time to handle the puck on the way in more times than some guys do in a game. Had this tactic failed, people would have complained about his languid pace, but it didn't. So it and its perpetrator are awesome.
The goal gave the Blackhawks a 4-3 shootout victory over the Wild.
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