When he was in middle school, Trevor Zegras played lacrosse in his hometown of Bedford, New York. It was the spring and summer yin to hockey’s wintertime yang, a way to stay active, maintain friendships with school friends and run around in the warm sun after the chill had passed.
His lacrosse career came to an end soon enough, though, when he left Fox Lane High School in Bedford for Avon Old Farms School in nearby Avon, Connecticut, for his sophomore year. Lacrosse’s loss was hockey’s gain, and an NHL career soon followed after one year at Boston University.
Then again, Zegras showed for the second time this season that he’s never really abandoned lacrosse, converting on a lacrosse-style goal in the Ducks’ 5-4 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday, only the fourth in NHL history, after a lacrosse-style pass set up a goal last month.
Sacré bleu, @tzegras11!#FlyTogether | #VolonsEnsemble pic.twitter.com/cAEeL1cPbV
— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) January 28, 2022
Clearly, the skills he learned from lacrosse have carried over to hockey. He is the Ducks’ second-leading scorer with 12 goals and 32 points. Only right wing Troy Terry, with 24 goals and 40 points, has more goals and points than Zegras this season. No one has been more adventurous.
“It was just always something I loved to do, to kind of be with your school buddies and kind of mix it up a little bit,” Zegras said via Zoom from Montreal. “I played attack (position). I didn’t really like to run around. I kind of just hung out by the net and tried some fun stuff. It was definitely some good times.”
Zegras’ creativity on the ice also could be traced to the backyard rink he and his friends skated upon as middle-schoolers. It was too small to practice a 200-foot game on a standard rink, but big enough to push the net to the center of the ice to work on lacrosse-style attempts.
“Me and my buddies would kind of practice that kind of stuff,” Zegras said of his work on non-traditional skills. “We would never really take it too seriously, which is probably why it stuck for so long. It was always something I tried to do. I was little. Middle school-age maybe. I was pretty young.”
Zegras, a 20-year-old rookie center, hasn’t been shy about using his lacrosse skills to great effect. After all, he air-mailed a lacrosse-style pass over the opposing net to teammate Sonny Milano for a tap-in goal during a 2-0 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Dec. 7, a play that lit up social media.
Last season, in only his fourth NHL game, a 19-year-old Zegras tried a lacrosse-style play in a game against St. Louis at Honda Center, but Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington moved swiftly from post to post and used his blocker to knock away the puck at the moment of truth.
Zegras also tried and failed to convert an attempt while playing for the United States against Finland in the semifinals of the World Junior Championships last year. He lost control of the puck at the last moment and it bounced out of harm’s way. But he earned widespread praise for his audacious attempt.
“That’s his play,” said Ducks left wing Adam Henrique, who was on the ice for Zegras’ goal Thursday and marveled at his ability to pull it off. “His skill level is next to none. The way it developed, too, it kind of set it up perfectly for him. I’m coming on the back side, just trying to make a read. He feels it’s there and he has that skill to make that play, and it’s huge for us. It’s great to see.
“There’s going to be times when it works. There’s going to be times when it doesn’t work. And there’s going to be times when maybe that’s not the right play in that situation, but to see him pull it off was awesome.”
TREVOR. ZEGRAS. HE JUST DID THAT! 🤯
📺: @ESPNPlus ➡️ https://t.co/CLqyKVUD2q pic.twitter.com/IhTDI7gRtc
— NHL (@NHL) December 8, 2021