"You mean the Michigan?"
There’s a kid at the end of my street in Hermosa Beach that has been shooting pucks into a hockey net next to the garage for years. It’s not something you think you’d see a few blocks from the ocean in southern California. When I bike or drive by I usually stop for some friendly neighborly small talk, he’s about 12 now.
Today as I was biking by for some reason the Mike Legg goal came to mind. So I thought I’d ask him if he’s ever seen anyone try to do that, or if he even knew that was possible.
ME: Have you ever tried to pick up the puck with your stick and shoot it?
Him: What do you mean?
Me: Like lay the stick down flat then sort of scoop the puck up with the blade?
Him: You mean the Michigan?
I wasn’t sure if I heard him correctly, but I did. He said that he and his friends “all call it the Michigan, because we don’t know the guy’s name that did it”. So of course I explained to him that I was a student at Michigan and watched it live from a bar (Touchdowns) when it happened. And told him the guy’s name is Mike Legg. I’m sure I sounded old AF.
He then proceeded to scoop the puck up with the blade, whirl around a few times, and fire it into the net. Well played, kid. I'll just hop on my boomer bike and be on my way...
For the small % of you that haven’t seen it, here you go. Go blue.
To pull that off in a game of that magnitude......
That goalie was going a great impression of a brick wall as I recall. And he almost saved this one too.
It's like Desmond striking the pose in the endzone. Many will copy it, but no one will ever come close to topping how epic the original was
Desmond’s lay out catch against ND was also pretty epic.
Forget Dwight Clark in the back of the end zone...THAT one of Desmond's will always be "The Catch" for me.
SOO SO CLUTCH! Still get chills thinking back to that play as a kid.
The Michigan goal is the best goal, and everybody knows it. All the biggest and best people are working on it - tremendous really. It's a perfect goal, you know it, I know it, everyone knows it. A big, perfect, tremendous, goal really - everyone is saying it.
no politics, dammit!
(well done sir).
You're a 3rd rate poster, total hack, you'll never make it.
Nothing political about my post - it's a perfect post really, and everyone knows it. All the best people are saying it.
You can never trust that wolverine from michigan..
(S)hes nasty. Just nasty.
I think you tried too hard on that one.
One day I hope to do something so well that all the best people say it.
Never gets old.
The Hockey News had an article on Carolina Hurricanes player Andrei Svechnikov. He scored like that. People in Raleigh started calling it The Svech. He said he is not going to call it that because that would be a little bit cocky. I'm just going to call it The Michigan.
In related news, his was named Goal of the Year by HNIC:
https://twitter.com/hockeynight/status/1247987064739696641?s=20
That's nice and all, but I saw Matthew Tkachuk score a one timer between his legs from the high slot to win a game in the final second of overtime. That would get my vote for goal of the year.
There's a guy in my beer league that tries to pull that move off. I've never seen him actually succeed at it, but he tries so often that any time he's behind the net I let him go until he gets the puck on his stick. Then I just slash it from below and the puck goes flying somewhere else. It's pretty funny to me.
random question, is that your actual name? I understand that it's robert backwards. I know a guy named trebor and haven't seen it anywhere else.
Nope, just my middle name backwards.
your middle name is roberT?
Shut up beeT
I bet your friends call you boB.
My cool story bro moment happened in either summer of ‘96 or ‘97 living in Ann Arbor. I used to go down to the sports fields and play pick up roller hockey in the parking lot. A couple times some of the hockey players would drop in (including Marty Turco who was a pretty good skater).
One time Mike Legg came down and we all bugged him to try to score a goal by picking up the ball on his stick. He was very sheepish about it but a good sport. He finally got him to do it during a game and he scored. Of course the goals where just those little green recycling bins on their sides on the ground, but it was pretty funny and cool.
Mine was being at that game (at Munn so even sweeter) around center ice and not knowing what the F everyone was cheering about. Didn't see the replay for a day or two.
Best thing about the video is everyone there, including the announcers, have no idea what they just witnessed. Not like they are in awe, but they comprehend. They literally don't know what happened.
The fans are calmly clapping along like "ah, yes, a normal goal, all of this is normal" instead of the rational reaction, which would have been to lose their minds. Hockey happens so fast that truly "where were you when..." plays almost can't be appreciated in real time.
Legg used to do that at the end of every warm-up that season. I had tried copying it a few times before the Minnesota game and failed miserably(I'm decent at it now, but still could never do it in a real game situation). I remember the first thing I said when he did it was, "I can't believe he did that in a real game"
I'm late to this party, but you are 100% correct. My two brothers and I are the kids at 00:30 in the video just singing the fight song. We were in the 4th or 5th row right behind the opposite net. We definitely had no idea until later.
We got called by a lot of friends that night who told us we were on TV.
p.s. sweet jackets
Cool stuff when a California kid is referencing us
Did he have any thoughts on Michigan football recruiting ?
nah, but he was pretty geeked that Jace is walking on.
Interesting perspective from back in the day:
“I had my life threatened. I had a bounty on my head,” Legg says. “At the start of games, guys would come up to me and say, ‘If you’re going to try that tonight, we are bench-clearing-brawling you. Like, we will jump you.’"
https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/qa-mike-legg-michigan-goal-inspiring-offensive-phenomenon/
The LA Kings practice facility is in El Segundo. Many of the players end up living in Manhattan Beach because it's nearby El Segundo, and it's not El Segundo. (No offense to El Segundo readers, but to be fair, El Segundo is known for it's airport and it's refinery. And the George Brett Memorial little league field. Downtown El Segundo is actually very nice. Reminds me of Mayberry. What was I saying? Oh yeah,...) Manhattan Beach is, of course, next to Hermosa Beach. There's a small, but rabid, hockey base in the South Bay.
I think you've confused George Brett with Keith Jackson.
oh, I'm very aware after being here 15 years. I got a picture with the cup inside Jeff Carter's house in Hermosa 12 hours after they won is in 2014. Run into a ton of them at North End all the time.
Bro, I was at Touchdown Cafe that night, also. Do you remember me? I was wearing the Michigan shirt and drinking beer...
Seriously, though, I was with a bunch of Asian dudes (as my name would suggest), not that you'd recall that.
Andrei svechnicov pulled it off twice this year
...and Happy Gilmore accomplished that feat no more than an hour ago
Nice story. Makes me think of how each generation seems to get better and better at sports; like the above commenter noted, this is becoming much more common and happened twice in the NHL this year. When I first saw that goal, I thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Now the kids are doing it on the regular.
Tom Mees was a class act and died way too early.
That is an awesome shot!
....
Iconic. Legendary.
IMMORTAL.
Next year will mark the 25-year anniversary of this goal!
did you maintain 6 feet distance during this conversation?
Good to see someone from Hermosa Beach at this forum. Lucky you.
I lived there from 02-18 and am now living in Brentwood. Can't wait to move back to the best city in LA.
Is the strand open or did they close that along with the beach? Id like to get down there for a run on Friday morning.
unfortunately it's closed. I have run probably 3,000 miles on the sand down here, always alone. So frustrated that they don't allow people like me to use the beach for solo runs. I've run on the green belt twice now and it really fucked up my back. Uggh.