NHL Version of the Butt Fumble: The Butt Goal

Football and hockey have their own versions of getting up close and personal.

The former, they say, is a collision sport. It's the latter that is the contact sport.

Perhaps the logic of this difference has even more traction, now that Phoenix Coyotes goalie Mike Smith has done his best on-ice impression of the New York Jets' Mark Sanchez.

Introducing the butt goal:

Smith has single-handedly accomplished what it took the Chicago White Sox infield to do last season. which was to lose track of what's supposed to be the main object of his attention:

Of course, unlike the Sox, Smith made the catch. Unfortunately. With the puck in the back of his pants, the Coyote goalie slid across the goal line, lighting the lamp in one of the most imaginative manners ever seen in the NHL.

The butt goal came in overtime. Sabres win. This still doesn't atone for the league's premature ruling of a goal against Buffalo in the 1999 Stanley Cup's deciding game, but perhaps it's a start.

In the interest of equal time, baseball also paid tribute to Sanchez with the infamous butt slide, executed to perfection by Houston's Jonathan Villar and Cincinnati's Brandon Phillips:

While sports fans are bemused by such feats, it's the grammar fans who should be thankful. These fine athletes have stepped up to join Sanchez by taking the redundancy out of the term end result.