Hot Shots: The Top 15 NHL Goals at the Winter Break

With the winter break over and the stretch run for Lord Stanley's Cup moving into high gear, it’s a good time to look back at the best goals from the first half of the season.

There have been plenty of dekes, fakeouts, spin-o-ramas and plain old rippers to choose from. While it's no easy task to choose which goals are the best of the best, I have done my best to put together what I consider to be the top 15.

You may not find your favorite in this list, but you’re sure to see some truly awesome individual and team performances.

The best thing about this list is that after you've looked at all these beauties, you know there are still more unbelievable goals to come with the season not even half over yet.

Take your time looking at these goals; beauty is not something that can be rushed.

No. 15 Tyler Seguin

Tyler Seguin's first NHL goal.

This is a nice goal from Tyler Seguin, which also happened to be his first NHL goal. The rookie puts a nifty little move on Phoenix goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov. What a great way to open up your NHL goal account.

No. 14 Martin Havlat

Martin Havlat

Martin Havlat fakes out defenseman Mark Giordano then leaves goaltender Henrik Karlsson flat on his back for this wonderful goal.

No. 13 Pavel Datsyuk

Pavel Datsyuk

Pavel Datsyuk makes a mockery of defensive pair Justin Braun and Marc-Edouard Vlasic before dangling around Antero Niittymaki for this super goal.

No. 12 Bryan Little

Bryan Little

Bryan Little scores right from the faceoff. Look at the stunned face of New York Islander goalie Rick DiPietro. Scoring like that is so good, it's unfair.

No. 11 Dave Bolland

Dave Bolland

Dave Bolland scores on a nice move after Kevin Klein (from my hometown) thinks he's playing soccer and sends a back pass to goalie Anders Lindback, who panics and passes right to Fernando Pisani. Pisani then feeds Bolland, who makes Lindback and Klein pay for their lapses in judgement.

No. 10 Jussi Jokinen from Eric Staal

Jussi Jokinen from Eric Staal

Jussi Jokinen gets the goal, but Eric Staal somehow makes a Bobby Orr style behind-the-back pass while falling backwards to set up Jokinen for a great goal against the Bruins.

No. 9 Mikhail Grabovski

Mikhail Grabovski

Mikhail Grabovski pulls off the old spin-o-rama during a shootout against the Capitals.

No. 8 David Perron

David Perron

David Perron beats Chicago defenseman Nick Boynton, then makes goalie Marty Turco look silly.

No. 7 Loui Eriksson

Loui Eriksson

Loui Eriksson is awarded a penalty shot after Alex Goligoski pulls him down. Eriksson then dazzles the crowd and completely undresses Brent Johnson with a beautiful deke and finish.

No. 6 Justin Williams

Justin Williams

Justin Williams takes a great feed from Ryan Smyth and does an even better version of the spin-o-rama (than Grabovski's) to beat Tampa goaltender Mike Smith for a very pretty goal.

No. 5 Dustin Byfuglien

Dustin Byfuglien

Dustin Byfuglien goes end to end, beating the entire Sabres team and goalie Ryan Miller. Not only is this a fantastic goal, but it came with 29 seconds left in OT. This may be the best single performance of the year so far. Simply outstanding.

No. 4 Jamie Benn

Jamie Benn

Jamie Benn gets a breakaway and scores a shorthanded goal, beating Blues goalie Jaroslav Halak with an unbelievable one-handed deke.

No. 3 Evgeni Malkin

Evgeni Malkin

Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby play the one-two to perfection and Malkin finishes, making Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist wish he'd stayed home that day.

No. 2 Jordan Eberle

Jordan Eberle

Jordan Eberle gets his first career NHL goal in dramatic fashion. Showing the poise of a veteran, he waits out Calgary's Ian White, then drags the puck before beating Miikka Kiprusoff high on the stick side. A short-handed goal no less, and possibly the best "first goal" ever.

No. 1 Alexander Burmistrov

Alexander Burmistrov

Alexander Burmistrov performs magic by making Washington defender Jeff Schultz completely disappear. He then follows up by using the puck to play a little now you see it, now you don't on goaltender Michal Neuvirth. With both players dumbfounded, Burmistrov lays the puck in the net from behind the goal.

Wow! What a performance and your number one goal from the first half of the season.

I hope you enjoyed looking at these gems as much as I had putting them together.