He Dekes, He Scores...

''Ohh, Corey Perry pouring it on 

like a readied mule...!!'' 

would say that old CBC broadcaster time forgot...!

The NHL season is beyond the half-mark (scheduled to take an Olympic hiatus for close to a month just about now, in fact: and, then, there will be only a month and half of, ah, ''activity'' left there before the damnable playoffs (the tournament as European players call it) begin...) and one can see the organisation trying to persuade the masses that this is, indeed, the ''coolest game on ice''...

Please watch some evidence of that, 

brought up to our attention by the powers-that-be, 

right now: 

All Rights - NHL Properties: just promoting them here! 

Now, in hockey language, to ''deke'' an opponent is to deceive him: to fake a move, say, going to the left, when the intent was to go to the right all along... And the next thing you know, the deception bears fruit and you can score a relatively easy goal on the fraction of a second that follows.  What makes Corey the Quack's score so ''spectacular'' indeed, is the mere fact that he ultimately scores it from his knees; hence, his deception was very nearly ruined and it could easily all have been for naught, as he lost his balance in the process of realizing his dastardly manoeuver there...!

Other ''gorgeous goals'' hastily (one presumes) collected for this promotional presentation flaunting the merits of the ''bruising game of chess on ice'' that hockey truly is, include a tally from behind by one Tampa Bay Lightning man Martin St-Louis...  A ''score between the legs'' by Nathan Gerbe... Boyd Gordon ''scoring from the floor''... And hated Philadelphia Flyer Claude Giroux somehow being fortunate enough to ''lodge it in the net'' while falling down all over the ice (much to the image of the Flyers' season, verily - but that's another story...)

Is that truly ''impressive'' now, folks?

If a sport can only sell its merits upon one of two things (its physical rudeness or its basic component being deception over fair play, giving way to all sorts of plain lucky sequences like those listed above) then, perhaps, it is not a true ''sport'' at all... hmm?

It unquestionably is the ''coolest thing on ice'' though - as it claims so candidly.
I mean, what are the other options for that blustering title: curling and skate dancing aren't remotely close to being serious contenders, seriously now...! The NHL can tout it high and loud: they own that niche all to themselves. However...