It appears as though Edmonton Oilers forward Nail Yakupov can't win. At least when it comes to goal celebrations.
Receiving criticism from a segment of the hockey world for his exuberant reaction to his game-tying goal with less than 10 seconds left in regulation against the Los Angeles Kings last week, the No. 1 overall pick finds another of his celebrations causing controversy.
With less than 90 seconds remaining in overtime in the Oilers' game against the Phoenix Coyotes Wednesday, Yakupov once again batted a puck into the net to record a key goal for the Oilers.
Whether it was due to the attention given to his last celebration or not, Yakupov tamely went behind the Phoenix goal and appeared to motion to his teammates to come join him for the celebration.
However, Phoenix defender Derek Morris wasn't happy about something and tried to make sure nobody else was happy either.
First motioning for a hand pass, Morris tried to fight Ryan Whitney and then appeared to move his hands similar to how Yakupov had after scoring the goal. After the game, the Coyotes remained on the ice hoping the play would be reviewed but the audio from the clip also picks up someone on ice-level saying something about a celebration.
During postgame interviews, Whitney was confused about what Morris' issue was, Edmonton head coach Ralph Krueger said Yakupov's celebration had nothing to do with what happened and Phoenix head coach Dave Tippet believed the refs missed a hand pass.
Nobody seems to know exactly what Morris was thinking or why he was upset.