Individualized goal songs could be the way of the future in the NHL

The San Jose Sharks have joined the Washington Capitals in introducing player-specific goal songs this season. Is this individualized celebration the future of the NHL?

Given how popular the individualized walk-up songs in baseball are, it’s almost a crime that a similar idea is just starting to find its way to the NHL. About a month into the 2019-20 NHL season, the Washington Post first reported that the Capitals were set to bring about player-specific goal songs during home games, sparking a potential trend across the league.

The idea isn’t new. The Vancouver Canucks had individual goal songs during the 2016-17 season, and the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League introduced the idea in the minor leagues in 2018. However, with the San Jose Sharks’ recent announcement — via forward Tomas Hertl — that they too will be partaking in the idea, there may be a movement happening in the NHL.

The Capitals’ list is quite inspired, all things considered. Alex Ovechkin going with Joe Turner’s classic “Shake, Rattle and Roll” is a neat departure from the expected, while T.J. Oshie‘s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver is low-key and Evgeny Kuznetsov going with “Get Low” by Lil Jon is perfection.

It’s still too early to tell what the Sharks’ goal songs will be, as they will be implementing them at home games after the upcoming All-Star break, but given the personality of Brent Burns, some of them are sure to be gems.

With two of the NHL’s current teams ushering in the idea, and with the league only getting younger and more modern, it’s not a stretch to wonder if player-specific goal songs are set to become the newest trend in hockey. Given how the NHL has yet to snuff out the idea the few times that it has popped up before, it’s clear that as long as the team approves the song selections by the players, the idea is here to stay.

Of course, some teams already have memorable goal songs, such as the Chicago Blackhawks’ “Chelsea Dagger” or the Buffalo Sabres’ “Let Me Clear My Throat” that have stuck over the years. It’s hard to see the teams with established goal songs that have become tradition deviating from the songs that make up their identity.

For other teams, however, that swap goal songs every few years, the idea of a personalized goal song for each individual player on the team may be more appealing. When the Checkers brought the idea to the AHL, the Vegas Golden Knights were vocal supporters of the movement and even had suggestions for their own songs.

It would not be a surprise to see more NHL teams adopt this policy in the future, considering just how fun the concept is. “Baby Shark” of all things became the walk-up song of the last MLB season for the World Series-winning Washington Nationals for a reason. Bringing about player-specific goal songs to the NHL injects a much needed jolt of personality to the game. Though it wouldn’t be heard every game, making a player synonymous with a song is a fun idea, especially for teams that do not have a traditional goal song.

Plus, it’s a great topic for conversation. Music is a major part of the human experience, and assigning a song to ourselves for a hypothetical scenario is a personality test, of sorts. Letting hockey players showcase their personalities adds more fun to the sport, and gives hockey fans a chance to talk about the songs they’d pick if given the chance to score a goal at the NHL level.

(And yes, for those asking, I’d pick “I Hate Myself for Loving You” by Joan Jett. It’s groovy, it’s catchy and it feels like it could be an actual goal song in the NHL one day.)

For most teams this NHL season, it’s probably too late to make a change to player-specific goal songs, but it’s more than just a possibility now for teams in the seasons to come.

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