Milan Lucic isn't planning on executing the "Michigan" move anytime soon

Feb 9 2022, 10:09 pm

Yes, Milan Lucic saw the incredible move Trevor Zegras pulled off in the breakaway competition at the NHL All-Star skills competition last Friday.Ā 

No, the hulking 33-year-old Calgary Flames forward doesn’t anticipate mimicking the silky soft mitts that Zegras, a budding star with the Anaheim Ducks, put on display last weekend, namely an eye-opening, jaw-dropping, blindfolded effort that will undoubtedly go down as one of the most impressive efforts — exhibition or otherwise — for the foreseeable future.Ā 

“In a stage like that, an all-star game stage, especially in a breakaway challenge, it’s pretty cool to see,” Lucic said. “He puts a blindfold on and pulls it off. I was very, very impressed by it.”Ā 

But…?

“But in a game…for me, even if a guy on your team pulls it off, it can get the emotions going on the other side, if you get what I’m saying,” the old-school Lucic said.

Sounds like Lucic will stick with the “power five.”

Zegras made waves earlier this year with a modified Michigan, a lacrosse-style goal where a player scoops the puck up on his blade from behind the net and stuffs it in the top corner.Ā 

Instead, Zegras scooped up the puck and lobbed a pass over the top of the net to teammate Sonny Milano in the slot, who batted it out of mid-air and behind Buffalo Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in December.Ā 

Zegras, of course, pulled off the pure Michigan — named after University of Michigan forward Mike Legg, who first executed the move in 1996 — in January at the expense of Sam Montembeault of the Montreal Canadiens.Ā 

Impressive. And uncommon.

At least in some demographics.

“It’s very hard to do some of that stuff,” Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk said. “I’m sure if you go to a rink here in Calgary, a bunch of 10-year-olds are doing that stuff. Most of us that have played for five years or 10 years or longer, nobody was really doing that stuff. Through the legs was as creative as we were getting.Ā 

“Now all this stuff behind the net, picking it up…I bet if you go to youth hockey games you’re seeing a lot of it.”

The 24-year-old Tkachuk added he might not be so inclined to give it a go if Lucic was on the other side.

“I wouldn’t be trying it,” Tkachuk said. “I wonder if they’ll be thinking about it if they’re playing us.”

Andrei Svechnikov of the Carolina Hurricanes was the first to successfully pull off the move at the NHL level, and against Calgary no less. He bestedĀ then-Flames goaltender David Rittich with the scoop-and-swoop over-the-shoulder move back in 2019.Ā 

Will Lucic be the latest?

“I haven’t tried it. I’ve yet to try it,” he said.Ā 

“Don’t expect me to try any Michigan moves behind the net.”

Aaron VickersAaron Vickers

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