Celebration: they may not hang from the rim like Vince Carter, jump into the stands like Antonio Freeman, or point to the sky like Barry Bonds, but Steve Yzerman and NHL players have developed their own unique style of rejoicing

Hockey Digest, April, 2002 by Chuck O'Donnell

VINCE CARTER DUNKS THE ball, hangs from the rim for a few moments, comes down, waves his arms, pounds his chest, points to the crowd, finds a camera, and starts declaring to the viewing audience, "I'm the man! I'm the man!"

Antonio Freeman catches a touchdown pass, spikes the ball, spreads his arms like he's an airplane, leaps into the first row of the stands, celebrates with fans, and then exchanges high fives with teammates over and over again as they make their way back to the sidelines.

Barry Bonds connects, stops, stares, waits, takes a few steps, does a pirouette, then begins a slow home run trot, pumps his arms, rounds third base, emphatically stomps on home, points the to sky, and puts his arms in the air.

Steve Yzerman scores, raises his stick and arms in the air for a moment, gets a pat on the head from a few teammates, and skates to the bench. That's it

Compared to their pro sports brethren, hockey players aren't prone to overblown, wildly exuberant displays of pretentious jock machismo, flailing spasms and body contortions meant to show up their opponents, and specially choreographed aerobic routines aimed at stirring the crowd. You might get a couple of arm pumps or something. And if it's something like, say, a Stanley Cup-clinching goal, you'll see them pile onto each other. But your garden variety goal isn't met with wild gyrations and braggadocio. It's just not part of the hockey culture.

"We just kind of raise our sticks and go back to the bench and don't make too much of a big deal about it," says Tampa Bay forward Brad Richards.

"Hockey players are more modest," says New Jersey's play-by-play announcer Mike Emrick. "Here's some amateur sociology. The heritage of our game is Canadian, and still over half the players in the league are Canadian. Canadians--and this is an American speaking--are marvelous people and one the things that has increased my affection for the sport is the: A.) work ethic of the Canadians and B.) the humility. It's not across the board, but the seeds of the game were largely rural Canadian with those values."

So even when a player, such as Brian Propp, the Philadelphia Flyers announcer and former four-time All-Star, comes up with a small, harmless trademark move to celebrate the moments after a goal, his coach frowns on it. Propp, the second leading scorer in Flyers history, began his "Guffaw" somewhere around 1988.

"I had been in the league for eight years and thought that it might be different to add a little excitement to the game after I scored goals," Propp says. "The `Guffaw' came from [comedian] Howie Mandel. My best friend, Scott McKay, saw a Howie Mandel show in Atlantic City in the summer of 1987 and in this show Howie told all the people that if they wanted to mess up the next comedienne, they should do a "Guffaw" instead of clapping, cheering or whistling. `Guffaw' in the dictionary means a hearty laughter. He used his right hand and did a small wave, shoulder height, and then continued the arm movement all the way straight up. Scott and I howled when we saw that and every time we met that summer we `Guffawed' each other as a hello. I told Scott that I was going to do that after I scored goals the next year. He didn't believe me.

"When the season started I remembered the `Guffaw' and when I scored my first goal of the season I did the obligatory "way to go to" to my teammates and then skated towards center ice and did the `Guffaw.' My coach, Paul Holmgren, saw it and when I got to the bench he said, `What was that? Don't ever do that again.' I scored another goal later in the game and skated to center ice and did the `Guffaw' again and the rest is history."

Since the league began requiring the player who scored to raise his stick in the air to receive due credit several decades ago, players such as Propp have taken it to another level. At a very young age, Wayne Gretzky began picking up one foot and pumping one arm. Fans of the fledgling Minnesota North Stars used to love to watch Bill Goldsworthy do his little cha-cha-cha--which became affectionately known as "the Goldy Shuffle." Famed pugilist Tiger Williams used to ride his stick like a broom down the ice after a goal, and his move was copied by Toronto winger Tie Domi when he played with the Rangers. Tomas Sandstrom, who played most of his 15-season career with the Rangers and Kings, would often pretend his stick was a sword and put it back in his hip holster after a goal. Mike Foligno, Who played mostly with the Red Wings and Sabres from 1979-94, leaped about with such enthusiasm after each goal, one observer said, "One of these days, he's going to jump out of his skates."

Of today's stars, the Rangers' Theo Fleury and the Islanders' Michael Peca are two of the most exuberant goal-scorers, with Fleury once sliding halfway down the ice after scoring an overtime goal in the playoffs.

But today's king of trademark moves is Jaromir Jagr. The four-time reigning scoring champ certainly gets a lot of practice. A few years back he saw Denver Broncos running back Terrell Davis doing "the Mile High Salute" after scoring a touchdown and decided he was going follow.