Best NHL Moments Of 2022
Hockey is Canada’s official national sport – during the winter. Lacrosse takes over in the summertime, as per the 1994 National Sports of Canada Act, but as soon as the weather starts getting a little nippy, we fire up the Zambonis.
This means we’re always knee-deep in hockey at the end of the calendar year. It’s a time for reflection, and a time to look back at the best NHL moments of 2022, as decided by our staff of hockey nuts here at Bodog Sportsbook.
We’ll be looking at the top five moments of the year, listed in chronological order, which means we have to go way back in time for our first highlight of 2022:
1. 2022 NHL Winter Classic (January 1)
What better place to start our best NHL moments of 2022 than the very first day of the year? This sport was meant to be played outdoors. The NHL struck gold in 2003 when they held the first “Heritage Classic” game at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium; the league now schedules at least one outdoor game every year, including the annual Winter Classic on New Year’s Day – unless January 1 falls on a Sunday, in which case they move it to January 2.
The 2021 Winter Classic, scheduled for Target Field in Minneapolis, also had to be postponed to 2022 thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. So it was extra-special when the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild finally took the ice in front of almost 40,000 people.
It was also extra-cold. This was the first Winter Classic scheduled for prime time, and the temperature at Target Field dropped below minus-20 Celsius, the lowest ever for an outdoor NHL game. Sadly for the home crowd, the Blues won the Winter Classic 6-4, but the Wild did make a game of it after falling behind 5-1 late in the second period.
2. The Hangover Goal (February 4)
All-Star Games used to be a lot more popular than they are today, no matter what sport you follow, but the NHL was smart to expand their format in 1990 to include a skills competition. Then they added the Breakaway Challenge to this competition in 2008, giving the NHL their answer to the NBA’s Slam-Dunk Contest.
This was a pivotal moment for the league’s mid-season showcase. Players these days have more dangle than ever before, and we saw that in spades this past February in Las Vegas, where the five competitors scored some insane goals – none crazier than Alex DeBrincat (then with Chicago, now with Ottawa) dressing up as “Alan” from The Hangover movies, catching a pass from Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, then scoring a goal with the football.
DeBrincat only took fourth place for that effort; the judges preferred Alex Pietrangelo’s goal, which was assisted by the Vegas Golden Knights drumline, aka the Drumbots. We’ll chalk that one up to home-ice advantage for Pietrangelo, who signed with Vegas in 2020 after leading the Blues to their first-ever Cup.
3. Auston Matthews Scores No. 60 (April 26)
It’s only been done 40 times (by 21 different players) in the history of the NHL, and only three times since 1996, so when Toronto Maple Leafs centre Auston Matthews scored his 60th goal of the 2021-22 regular season, it was a memorable moment on multiple levels. Matthews scored No. 59 and 60 against the Detroit Red Wings in front of a rabid crowd at Scotiabank Arena, becaming the first Leaf to reach 60 goals in a season, and went on to win the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player.
Even scoring 50 goals is a remarkable achievement in the “modern” post-lockout NHL. No Toronto player had ever scored 50 until Rick Vaive did it three times in the early ‘80s, when goals were cheap; Gary Leeman (51 in 1989-90) and Dave Andreychuk (53 in 1993-94) were the only other Leafs to hit the half-century mark until Matthews blew them all away.
4. Avs Win Stanley Cup (June 26)
There’s nothing bigger in sports than winning the Stanley Cup. It’s the trophy to end all trophies, and the NHL postseason is the king of all playoff formats. Canadians still grow up dreaming about lifting the Cup overhead while they skate around the arena as newly-crowned champions.
That dream came true last June for Cale Makar. The Calgary-born defenseman won his first Cup, and the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, leading the Colorado Avalanche to a six-game series win over the reigning and defending champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning. This was after spending virtually the entire season on top of the league standings, and on top of the Stanley Cup odds board at Bodog.
5. Phil Kessel Hits 1,000 (November 17)
It’s always a special moment when someone plays his 1,000th game in the NHL. But Kessel took it one step further by becoming the first person ever to play 1,000 consecutive games. Kessel broke the league’s ironman record on October 25 when he suited up for the Golden Knights and played in Game No. 990, surpassing Keith Yandle, then Kessel reached 1,000 the following month.
As we go to press, Kessel has extended his ironman streak to 1,012, having appeared in each of the first 30 games of the 2022-23 campaign for Vegas. The only other player with an active streak of more than 500 is Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns at 706 games, and Burns will turn 38 years old in March, so Kessel’s record will probably be safe for a while.
There’s a bit less than two weeks left to go before we turn the page to 2023 here at Bodog Sportsbook, so there’s still plenty of time for others to gatecrash the best NHL moments of 2022, but we think these five are the best of the bunch for now. In the meantime, all of us here at Bodog wish you the best of the holiday season, and a very prosperous New Year.