It was impossible to watch Trevor Zegras and Sonny Milano outright embarrass the Buffalo defense and not think "what are the Sabres defenders doing?"
Struggling to figure out what was happening, apparently.
Zegras and Milano, two exciting young forwards for the upstart Anaheim Ducks, connected for a wonder-goal Tuesday night in a win over the Sabres. Zegras, a Boston University product, had the puck behind the net, and Milano urged him to give a "Michigan" a shot.
For those unfamiliar, a "Michigan" is a lacrosse-style shot attempt that an increasing number of NHL players are attempting. It's challenging to pull off, but incredibly exciting to watch.
Zegras heeded his teammate's advice, flipped the puck on the blade of his stick, and floated it over the goal. Milano was there to swat it home past Sabres netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
When you watch the replay, you see a lot of Sabres standing around. As Buffalo third-line right winger Rasmus Asplund later noted, they didn't know what was happening.
"I didn't even see him pick the puck up," Asplund told reporters after the game, via The Athletic. "It's a high-skill play from a skilled player. You don't see that very often, so it's not easy to be ready for it, either. That's a high-skilled play."
Perhaps the biggest controversy around these types of attempts is that they teeter on the line of high-sticking. The goal was reviewed for just that, but ultimately cleared as Zegras and Milano laughed on the bench.
While it's easy to lay some blame on the Sabres, you have to admit that their confusion led to one of the coolest goals of the season, so at least they gave us that.
