Thousands of goals are scored against goalies in the NHL every year, so it’s a special occasion if a netminder even earns an assist. Yet with the influx of puck handling goalies, the threat of a goalie scoring a goal has increased substantially.
(Click here to read the full list of goalies who have been credited with a goal, although some of them can be attributed to own goals.)
Although hothead goalie/New York Islanders dynasty linchpin Billy Smith is the first goalie credited with a goal, Philadelphia Flyers star Ron Hextall was the first to score a goal by shooting into a net. It probably shouldn’t be a surprise that many goalies were inspired by Hextall’s ability to play the puck, even beyond those two goals he scored in his entertaining career.
Martin Brodeur is one of the best puckhandlers in the history of the game, with two goals to his credit. So whenever a team empties its net against the New Jersey Devils, there’s that expectation that Brodeur might send a puck toward the net.
He tried it out during the Devils’ surprising 6-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning today but instead of scoring another empty net goal, Brodeur assisted on Nick Palmieri’s first career NHL goal. (Yup, that means Marty has one more career goal than Palmieri at this point.)
Take a look at the video below.
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