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Last night was Milan Lucic's first NHL Overtime Goal. He has come a long way. When he first arrived in Boston, all we knew about him was when we got a tip to search "Milan Lucic The Shift" on youtube. We got this footage:
Which is pretty impressive, sure, but laying a few hits and getting in a fight is not Lucic's whole game, by a long shot. We found that out over time, but it started with his first NHL goal, a week into his first NHL season. A slick outlet pass springs - who else? - David Krejci and Milan Lucic. Krejci passes it juuuuust around the defender, and Lucic buries it like a hab in the corner. The Kings got a bench minor for Abuse of Officials immediately after the goal, as well. That was the third piece of his first-ever NHL Gordie Howe Hat Trick - he'd registered his first assist earlier in the night on an Aaron Ward goal, after fighting Raitis Ivanans to kick off the festivities. It was quite a night for the man they call Looch.
As the years have moved on, Lucic has been tilting his goal/fight ratio in the "goals" direction, and it's been incredible. Lucic could always bang bodies, but now he uses the sheer physical force he's got to drive the net. Or score nice wristers top shelf. It's why he's the most recent Bruin to score 30 goals in a season. Not that he's been staying away from pugilistic extra-curriculars - just check out this top-10 to see that he's still quite good at that:
But there's something more to his game and his being than just a couple fights and a bunch of goals. He's got a presence that goes beyond that. He's got an aura, a mythical quality. Crazy shit happens around him, way more than it does for other players. Let's take a look. Just off the top of my head, you've got the Goal he scored off Olli Jokinen's chest, from above the circles:
This sort of thing doesn't just happen. Nor do things like when Milan Lucic ate Mike Komisarek's soul. Komisarek was a servicable defender who looked like he might have a future. Enter Lucic. We all know the fight I'm talking about from 2008. It's the one that led Jack Edwards to say "They have beaten them, and they have beaten them up!" He let out a primal scream post-fight, and a couple of his usual rallying cries: "Let's go!"
Next up on the people who can vouch for Lucic's mythic qualities is Mike Van Ryn. And whoever was in the front row for this:
So can Dan Hamhuis (injured executing a perfect hip-check on Lucic) and Alexei Emelin (injured hitting Milan Lucic in open ice). He's a monster in every facet of the game. And I don't want to go off and call anyone "clutch" per se, but he does seem to have a knack for scoring clutch goals. It's probably biased or whatever but fuck it, I don't care. When It Was 4-2, Lucic scored to bring them within one. In fact, in the 2013 playoff run he was second on the team in points, tying playoff MVP Patrick Kane. The man's a beast. Which is why his first Overtime goal looks so nice:
What's your favorite Milan Lucic moment? Please post a gif or video below.