NHL Weekly Awards: Diving Saves, Quick Touchdowns, And Sick Hands

I feel like all too often we focus on goals here in the NHL Weekly Awards. So, this week I figured we'd change things up and place more focus on netminders stealing the show.

This week especially, it was easy to do this because there were some unbelievable saves.

Seriously. I don't know if there's some kind of astrological phenomenon going on or what. Goalies across the NHL had themselves a week.

That said, we'll still touch on plenty of offense to look at. We all know that's what puts butts in seats and attracts all the ladies.

But lets get right to it with a doozy of on Broadway.

Full-Scorpion Of The Week: Igor Shesterkin

If you're a fan of videos where people fall as much as I am then you are no doubt familiar with the "full scorpion.

It's tough to explain, so to save time and make things easy on you visual learners, here's something that should help it all click.

See? Now does it all make sense?

With full scorpions in mind take a gander at what Igor Shesterkin did to the Penguins' Mikael Granlund.

After muffing on the poke check, Shesterkin opened the door for Granlund to roof one on him. However, the reigning Vezina Trophy winner has that on his resume for a reason. He kicked his right foot back and made that stunning, scorpion-esque save.

That save kept Shesterkin's shutout alive and helped the Rangers to a 6-0 victory. That was one of two wins the Blue Shirts head over the Penguins last week and caused the Penguins to drop out of a Wild Card spot for the time being.

Diving Save Of The Week (Paddle): Ilya Sorokin

Let's keep things in New York, and check in on the New York Islanders.

They played host to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night as they fight to make the playoffs. The Isles need any help they can get in keeping their postseason plans alive. and help like this from netminder Ilya Sorokin will go a long way.

Erik Gustafsson should go file a police report after that robbery.

Just an unreal save, and one that came relatively early in the Islanders' 7-2 win over the Leafs. Maybe Sorokin just broke their spirits. That was one of those saves that can make a team say, "Well, I guess we won't be scoring a whole lot tonight."

But it wasn't the only diving save to protect a yawning cage we had this week.

Diving Save Of The Week (Glove): James Reimer

Let's stick with the dudes who wear the masks for a bit longer, shall we?

I'm not sure what you just answered, but I'm the sheriff 'round these parts, and I say we stick with 'tenders.

*Hocks a loog into a spitoon with a satisfying ding*

James Reimer was in the news week because he did the unthinkable and stood by his beliefs and convictions. Good for him.

Clearly, that extra attention didn't get to him, because he busted out this gem against the Edmonton Oilers — more specifically, their notorious NHL-topping powerplay unit — a few days later.

If you give Leon Draisaitl that shot on a power play 10 times, how many times is he scoring? If we were betting on it, the line would probably be somewhere in the neighborhood of about 8.5. Even then, taking the over would be a reasonable way to go.

Tough to say which one was the better save between Reimer's and Sorokin, but considering the former's save was on a weapon like Draisatl, I'm inclined to give him the nod.

Russian Moment Of The Week: KHL Referee

Let's check in on the Bizarro NHL, more commonly known as the KHL.

Never mind the ads written in Cyrillic, the fact that it says "KHL.ru," or the announcer screaming in Russia; you could tell this was Russia immediately. KHL clips always have something off about them for some reason.

In this clip, we've got a Russian ref who went to great lengths to make sure he could spot the puck.

Oddly enough, I feel like his laying on the net like that would only obscure the view for the overhead cameras. I'm not if they have those in the KHL though, It seems like they would, but again, nothing surprises me with that league.

Anyway, he gets an A for effort, and I wouldn't mind seeing a bit of this hustle out of the NHL's officials.

Disgusting Hands Of The Week: Rhett Pitlick

I wrote about this goal in the Big Ten Championship at length over the weekend but it was so disgusting I had to throw it in here.

The sheer number of moves Minnesota Golden Gopher Rhett Pitlick pulled en route to hitting the back of the net was just absurd.

Watch that gem as many times as you need to. I know I've watched it at least a dozen times.

Unfotunately, that wasn't enough to help Minnesoate win the Big Ten Championship, as they lost for the second straight year to the Michigan Wolverines.

The Gophers still made the NCAA tournament as an at-large bid and will open their tournament in Fargo, North Dakota against Canisius College.

The Frozen Four will take place in Tampa April 6-8.

Fastest Touchdown (Plus PAT) Of The Week: Florida Panthers

The Panthers had a date with the Montreal Canadians last week and these two did not waste any time filling up the scoring column. They combined for a jaw-dropping10 goals in the first stanza.

Florida put up a touchdown plus an extra-point on their own.

The Panthers became the sixth team in NHL history to pot 7 goals in an opening period.

Eventually, scoring slowed down after that insane first period, but it didn't stop. Both teams managed to pot two more, with the Panthers taking a 9-5 victory.

...

And with that, we've got another week of NHL Weekly Awards interred in the annals of hockey history. Come on back next weekend for another round of awards I made up, and if you see anything awardworthy, be sure to send it to me on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle