Montreal Canadiens: Ranking Nicolas Deslauriers’ goal celebrations
Nicolas Deslauriers has had the best goal celebrations for the Montreal Canadiens season. Let’s take a look at them and see where they should rank.
I don’t know about you, but I love seeing players celebrate goals. There are some who aren’t a fan of them and think that it’s ‘showing people up’ or ‘hot dogging’, but there’s nothing better than seeing the raw emotion after a team finds the back of the net. The Montreal Canadiens have had their fair share of solid celebrations that make you want to get up and celebrate with them.
So who has had the best ones? Alex Galchenyuk has a knack for cellying hard when he scores, the same goes for Brendan Gallagher. We also can’t forget Max Pacioretty who’s best, or at least funniest, goal celebration was the non-goal celebration on his shorthanded tally against Tampa.
Great options for sure, but no one has been better at this season than Nicolas Deslauriers. When the Habs first called him up, we all expected that he would provide some quality energy shifts and possibly drop the gloves once in a while. Deslauriers has had experience of contributing to a team’s offensive numbers in the AHL, but that was in the AHL.
A player will sometimes have to change their style to find a niche in the NHL and it looked like Deslauriers had to adjust to being more of a physical type. However, he’s found a way to score some goals with the Montreal Canadiens, and celebrate them well.
You can see the passion Deslauriers has on the ice and he’s continuing to prove why the Habs can’t take that jersey off of him. The 26-year-old has scored seven goals this season – a career high – and has had a nice celebration to match each of them. I thought it would be fun to revisit them and see where they should rank amongst each other.
7) Goal #5 vs Boston Bruins
The first matchup this season against the Boston Bruins was intense. After Pacioretty put the Habs up by one to start the game, the Bruins scored on the power-play and then opening minutes of the second period to get a 2-1 lead.
The fourth line that night came out and Deslauriers got things started. He rushed the puck from the neutral zone into Bruins end and fired a shot past Tuuka Rask blocker side. Obviously you couldn’t hear the scream (0:07) yourself with the goal horn and the fans cheering, but it’s as if you could feel it.
Watching Deslauriers at the moment almost brought player and fan to the same level.
6) Goal #6 vs New York Islanders
This goal celebration (0:07) was similar to the previous one but had a little extra weight to it. The NHL is a televised event and there are cameras everywhere waiting for a chance to capture something worth seeing over and over.
After Deslauriers made the nice move to put the puck over Thomas Greiss, he raised his gloved hand up and beats his chest yelling right at the camera. Makes you wonder what the man behind the lens was thinking during the whole thing.
5) Goal #4 vs Calgary Flames
Nothing beats the old ‘jump into the boards’ celebration (0:08). It was solid work by Byron Froese to get the initial shot on Mike Smith, but Deslauriers was right there to bat in the rebound out of mid-air. The Lasalle native fist pumped twice before jumping into the boards. What put this above the previous two, and I doubt Deslauriers even noticed, but he did all this while a disgruntled Flames fan was flashing him the ‘L’ sign.
4) Goal #7 vs Colorado Avalanche
The next two celebrations show how falling during a goal-scoring sequence can look epic in one instance and both epic and funny in another. Montreal was looking to play spoiler and end the Avalanche’s ten game winning streak. The two teams played a fairly even first period that went scorless, but that changed in the second period.
The Habs started to turn things up, and it started with none other than Deslauriers. It was a nice play by Jonathan Drouin to get the puck into the zone and get the initial shot. However, Deslauriers put himself in the right spot to score on the rebound and put the Habs up by one.
Deslauriers began to wave his first in the air and throw a few jabs before completely blowing a tire (0:08). The fall didn’t hurt the celebration at all, in fact, it made us like and appreciate the forward even more. Not to mention Drouin had a funny comment on it after the game.
“He’s a goal scorer now, I think he’s got to figure out his celebrations a little bit more. He’s had a couple of good ones, but that one’s definitely the low one this year.” - Drouin, still talking about Deslauriers.
— Arpon Basu (@ArponBasu) January 24, 2018
3) Goal #3 vs Vancouver Canucks
Have you ever come home exhausted from a long day at work and on your way to your bed, trip such that you’re laying face down on it? Then instead of getting back up to take off your jacket or extra sweater, you just figure you’re already where you want to be and sleep? We can put Deslauriers’ next celebration in a similar category.
This took place back when the Deslaurier-Froese-Carr line was at it’s peak in Vancouver. Daniel Carr entered the Canucks’ zone along the wall and sent a one-timer pass to Deslauriers who sent it past Anders Nilsson for his second goal of the game. Either he lost his footing or wanted to put everything into the shot, but Deslauriers went down after firing the shot and celebrated (0:02) on his knees.
Related Story: The Plan for Carr
Similar to the bed scenario, I guess it was easier to celebrate right then and there and he looked good doing it too.
2) Goal #1 vs Detroit Red Wings
It was Deslauriers’ ninth game with the Montreal Canadiens. The shock at him getting the call from the Laval Rocket was long gone as fans saw what kind of effort he could bring to the team every night. Obviously, we knew that Deslauriers wanted to contribute to the Habs anyway he could, but you could tell that he wanted this one.
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Claude Julien sent his line over the boards right after Paul Byron scored the first goal of the game. They were doing a good job in hemming the Red Wings in their zone before Froese set up Deslauriers for a moment he will never forget. It was special seeing him score his first and thinking back to his words on how much playing for the Habs means to him.
Deslauriers got on one knee for the opened fist pump before huddling up with his teammates (0:12). He would’ve made Danny Briere proud with that one.
1) Goal #2 vs Vancouver Canucks
You could have this or the previous one here, but personally, Deslauriers’ celebration after scoring his second goal against the Canucks takes the top prize. It started out with an incredible rush from Jeff Petry that started back in his end. Petry beat four Canucks players in all three zones before dishing the puck over to Froese.
Froese to Deslauriers was a common trend back then, and he made it count again putting another puck past Nilsson. A large portion of this celebration looks like a macho man pose but he added a little fist twirl at the end (0:40). To be honest, and I’m sorry if this strikes a nerve, but it was reminiscent of how P.K. Subban celebrated his goals.
It’s safe to say that Deslauriers has continued to become a fan favourite in Montreal. Although this season is lost, he gives fans another reason to keep watching.
Where would you rank Deslauriers’ goal celebrations? Let us know down in the comments.