Auston Matthews and Jack Eichel are two of the most promising young stars in the game. The two Americans came into the league just one year apart with Matthews representing the number one overall draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2016, a draft placing Eichel would have surely had a year early had it not been for some other guy named McDavid.
The two country men have developed a friendship through the years as competitors, and they have also competed in international play together, most recently at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey as line mates for Team North America. When they got paired up once again as Atlantic Division representatives at the All-Star Game this year, their ridiculous skill level wasn’t going to be the only entertaining element of seeing the two suited up together.
Sure enough, the line mates didn’t disappoint. The third member of their line, Aleksander Barkov, made a nice pass to a wide open Eichel in front of the net and the Buffalo Sabres captain put it home. The goal would prove to be a game-winner, as it broke the 4-4 tie in an eventual 7-4 Atlantic Division win over the Metropolitan Division, but instead of the usual hands in the air celebration, Eichel decided to poke a little fun at his friend Matthews.
The celebration is mimicing an Auston Matthews’ celebration that happened on Monday against the Colorado Avalanche. After having a goal waved off, Matthews scored and impulsively turned to imitate a “good goal” call alongside the referees actual good goal call.
As it turns out, Matthews and Eichel had planned the shenanigans. Matthews, who was directly in front of Eichel during the celebration, even further confirmed his teammates’ goal with some good goal signaling of his own.
(H/T NHL on NBC)
