Hockey Guy Moment Of The Year? Mats Zuccarello Reportedly Scored A Shootout Goal With A Broken Arm

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I thought for sure that Barclay Goodrow of the New York Rangers had the Hockey Guy Moment of the Year award locked up after he got hit in the face with a puck and spit out a piece of his jaw onto the ice. I wasn't ready to hand it over to him just yet though, and I'm glad I didn't because Minnesota Wild forward Mats Zuccarello may give him a run for his money.

Zuccarello missed 9 games following a Wild win at home against the Vancouver Canucks. Coincidentally, the Norwegian was the guy who sealed the win with a stellar display of patience and quick release against Vancouver netminder Casey DeSmith.

However, Minnesota's next game was in Pittsburgh, but Zuccarello was ruled out of it with an injury.

Zuccarello was activated from IR on Saturday after missing 9 games. The team posted a 4-5-0 record without him.

Wild reporter Michael Russo shed some light on how this all went down. He also revealed that Zuccarello's arm was likely already broken when he scored that shootout winner.

Russo said that Zuccarello was likely injured when he was hit by a shot from teammate Daemon Hunt. However, the reporter believes this happened early in the second period, which meant that Zuccarello dealt with the broken bone for around 40 minutes of game time through regulation and overtime.

And then, of course, the shootout.

Is Mats Zuccarello Playing With A Broken Arm The Leader In The Hockey Guy Moment Of The Year Clubhouse?

I don't know if you've ever had a broken arm, but they hurt. Sure, there are varying degrees of brokenness but they're almost all enough to let you know that something ain't right.

And this wasn't Game 7 of a playoff series. This was a regular season game in the middle of December, and Zuccarello still gutted it out to finish — and even win — the game.

Then he still thought he might be able to give it a go in the next game in Pittsburgh.

That's a Hockey Guy Moment of the Year-worthy performance.

I don't know if Zuccarello, Goodrow, or another contender will reign supreme at the end of the season. What I do know is that there's no shortage of worthy candidates.

Follow on X: @Matt_Reigle

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Matt is a University of Central Florida graduate and a long-suffering Philadelphia Flyers fan living in Orlando, Florida. He can usually be heard playing guitar, shoe-horning obscure quotes from The Simpsons into conversations, or giving dissertations to captive audiences on why Iron Maiden is the greatest band of all time.