We’ve made it to 2018 and that means one final look back at the year that was. Previously, we took a look at the Top 3 hits and saves and the Top 5 fights from the last calendar year. For the last segment of the series, I’m going to count down the top 5 goals from the last 12 months.

This goal isn’t so pretty as much as it is awe inspiring. It’s one of those goals that you can show to any hockey fan, no matter what team they cheer for, and watch their jaw drop. In it, McDavid hits Mach 6 and just makes the Flames look ordinary.

This is a twofer and with good reason. In the span of a week, the Oilers went into the houses of our former exes and put on a 3-on-3 OT clinic. Is there honestly a more terrifying duo that can play together than Neon Leon and the one we call Connor? On the Island (also known as Brooklyn), the boys were a whiff of a shot from Barzal away from walking away with nothing, but Connor’ speed, and Leon’s strength saw the puck moving down the ice and McDavid with a perfect setup for the top shelf snipe. A few nights later, Connor and Leon get back to work and beat Cory Schneider with another OT beauty for the ages.

Who said my list had to be just 5 goals long (don’t DM Baggedmilk, please)? This highlight pack is not so much for the goal, as it is for the moment. Getting clutch goals is perhaps the most beautiful thing in the world, and the fact that DD has a part in both is just special. In the first goal, David Desharnais skates around the Sharks D and sets up that patented Klefbom clapper… and man you just have to listen to the PING of that shot going in off the bar, over and over. In the second, be honest, you have watched it too many times to count. I’m not sure what the Sharks three players at the top of the zone were doing. They all just kind of go for a skate. Meanwhile, everyone’s favourite diminutive forward slides down and shelves a beauty feed from Leon.

Patrick Maroon’s time with the Edmonton Oilers may best be summed up in this play right here. This next summer he may just take his paycheck from the man who made it all possible for him (Connor), and sign with another team. Connor just makes what is likely the best pairing of D we have seen in years (Seabrook and Keith) and makes them look average.

Every Oilers fan had to live through it. We’ve all seen the lowest of the lows. But as the 2017 season wound down, and our playoff chances dwindle with each loss, Kris Russell had himself a doozy of a night. Known pretty much for his shot blocking ability, and his father’s bull taming wrestling riding ability, no one expected two absolute snipes from the young man. First he unloads an absolute laser to tie the game for the Oilers. Then.. well Russell perfects his ability to be everything and nothing to fans all at the same time, but ripping one past LB. So quick even he wasn’t expecting it. If you can’t laugh as an Oilers fan, I feel for you.

On a team with the offensive dynamos of Connor and Leon, I am likely going to get slain in the comments for this, but bear with me as I admire this beauty of a goal from Zack Kassian. The Ducks, the Pacific division winning team last year, that’s the team that Kassian just dangled. So there’s that. Then on top of it, that backhand. He gets Gibson going to his right and then he uncorks a thing of beauty off the back of his stick. Then to cap it off, one of the best Kassian celebrations of his career. Those crazy eyes.

So there it is. The top 5 goals of the year for YOUR Edmonton Oilers. Let me know in the comments below if you think there is one I missed, or go wrong.

Thanks for reading.