Whenever people start calling someone anything pertaining to “magic’, you know that that dude is a special human being. In hockey, that man is Pavel Datsyuk, whose trove of sick highlight reel moves made him one of the most electrifying players to ever play in the National Hockey League.
And with him reported done playing in the NHL, it’s just right for us to look back at some of the most memorable plays from the one of greatest Detroit Red Wings.
More top 10 list? Check out our list of Alex Ovechkin’s greatest goals here.
Datsyuk was one of the nicest guys to ever play the game of hockey, as reflected by the four Lady Byng Memorial trophies in his shelf. But when it comes to disrespecting defensemen with his skills, few people can top the Russian wizard. Go ask Logan Couture about that. Couture was once a victim of Datsyuk’s nasty puck handling.
9. First career NHL goal
It didn’t take long for Datsyuk to let NHL goalies know that he’s big time. His first NHL score prefaced the many sexy-looking goals he’ll score in the future.
8. Datsyuk engages in a….fight!
Here’s something surprising Datsyuk did without the use of his stick. In a rare display of violence, Datsyuk dropped his gloves to fight Corey Perry. We mentioned Datsyuk has quite a collection of Lady Byng Trophies—given to players who exude sportsmanship—but if Jesus could go batsh*t at one point in his life, then we should probably give Datsyuk a pass for losing his cool here.
7. Datsyuk shows how to embarrass an entire team
What Datsyuk lack in size and power, he makes up for ridiculous skills. Datsyuk’s elusiveness is borderline mythical. I mean just take a look at how he sliced and diced four Nashville defensemen on his way to scoring a goal.
6. Datsyuk freezes Antti Niemi
You can never say you’ve seen everything from Pavel Datsyuk, especially during shootouts. In one of the most stunning shootout goals in the history of the NHL, Datsyuk hit Blackhawks goalie Antti Niemi with a totally nifty goal that completely caused everyone’s jaw in Joe Louis Arena to drop.
5. Bruins get a dose of magic
You never know when the Magic Man will pull a rabbit from his hat. In this case, the rabbit was this sensational between-the-legs drag that ended with a score off a wicked wrist shot.
4. Datsyuk steals a candy from Dan Ellis and turns it into gold
As good and skilled as he was on the attack, Datsyuk was also one of the best defensive forwards to ever lace up a pair of skates. Ellis should’ve done better securing the puck in this play.
3. Datsyuk makes Dallas see stars
There’s no concrete way to stop a Datsyukian Deke. Defensemen can be lured into thinking that they have Datsyuk all bottled and then a second later, the Red Wings forward eviscerates them on the ice.
2. Datsyuk make Marty Turco question his existence
There’s no way any goaltender could’ve stopped Datsyuk from completing this beautiful score. Unfortunately for Turco, he was the one who got molested hard in this memorable play from Datsyuk.
1. Datsyuk momentarily separates Tomas Vokoun’s body and soul
Turco had it bad but Tomas Vokoun arguably had an even worse experience of facing Datsyuk. I wouldn’t be surprised if Vokoun suffers a nervous breakdown every time someone asks him to recount the time he tried to block Datsyuk on a breakaway.
