Last Updated on Thursday, 31 October 2013 14:55
By Kevin Hartzell
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist
At practice, we did something I have wanted to do for some time. I took some pictures from the puck’s perspective to show shooters what it is the puck actually sees. With today’s great camera technology, we took one of these new-fangled cameras and taped it to a stick. The results were even more dramatic than I anticipated.
I want you to first take a good look at the three pictures. What you see is a goalie in net and the open spaces the puck can see in the net. The camera is taped to the stick so it sees just what the puck would see. If you can see net, the puck can see net. If the puck can see net, and the player has enough skill to propel the puck to where we see net, without goalie reaction, we can score a goal. Simple.
As you look at these pictures you will see the following. In the first picture (above), you will see plenty of net to shoot to. In the second picture and to an even greater degree in the third picture, the net disappears. What you need to know is that the goalie doesn’t move in any of these pictures. The goalie remains stationed at the top of his crease. The only thing that moves is the position of the puck/shooter.
The first picture is taken from the top of the circle. I have always said that this is the best shot in the game. Of course the goalie has some reaction time from this spot on the ice, but if one shoots it with world class speed, the goalie doesn’t have much time to react.
The contrast between the second two pictures is most interesting. Picture number two is taken from right at the top hash-mark. Just six feet later, the third picture is taken from the bottom hash-mark. How many times have we seen players in a shootout or breakaway take the puck inside the hashes and then shoot? The answer really is “too often.” One can see that a shot from the top hash has a lot more net to find than that of the shot from the bottom hash. Going over the shoulder of the goalie from inside the hash is geometrically very hard if one doesn’t get the goalie to drop low. The five-hole looks increasingly attractive in tight which should not come as a surprise. Bottom line is that inside the hashes, there just isn’t much net left to find.
As much as I expected to see just what we see in the results of these pictures, it is more dramatic than I thought it would be. I mean, the net almost entirely disappears once inside the hashes. We can see why elite goalies spend a lot of training time on movement in which they quickly close holes. We can also see why scoring a goal has a lot to do with getting a goalie to move laterally to create holes!
Closer is not always better. Closer most often means the art of opening up holes on the goaltender with lateral movement via a pass or creative puck movement. Maybe the most important lesson in these photos for shooters everywhere is that a shot from just outside the hashes has a lot more net to find than one from inside the hashes. Maybe we have known this for a long time but this puck with eyes has shown it to us like never before.
Movie night in Lillehammer brings out feelings of patriotism
We had a very interesting experience here in Lillehammer this past week. For the first time, MaryBeth and I went to a movie at the local Lillehammer movie theater to see “Captain Phillips,” the story of a U.S. cargo ship that is attacked and taken control of by Somali pirates. Good movie.
Right as the movie was to begin, a group of six college-aged young adults entered the theater and took up their seats right behind ours. The six were not your typical looking blonde-haired Norwegians. The six looked as if they might be of Somali decent. Two in the group were females and dressed in what I would assume was traditional Somali dress with head scarves. The males were dressed in what I would say was college casual. They certainly had no idea the couple in front of them was American.
As the movie began and the Somali pirates began to take over the ship, this group of Somalian-looking student-aged adults behind us cheered. When the movie’s Somali pirates would physically or verbally abuse an American crew member, they would cheer. Each yard gained by the pirates was a cause for celebration. When the actors spoke in the Somali language, one Marybeth and I couldn’t understand, it was pretty apparent the group behind us did understand the dialogue and the Somali students would laugh and cheer along with the Pirates.
I have to say it was quite the experience. My red, white and blue blood was boiling. Maybe our reaction was stronger as being in a foreign country seems at least to me to enhance our feelings of patriotism. For all the political bickering that takes place back at home, we are Americans and proud of it.
That this group behind us was so enthusiastically cheering at the pain and anguish being inflicted in the movie on Americans, which is a representation of a very real happening not too long ago, well it was enough to get one’s red, white and blue blood heated up real good. At one point I actually became more worried that my most-times sweet but sometimes aggressive wife was actually going to turn around and “drop the mitts.” She was not happy. Funny but we actually had to both tell each other to calm down. In the end I am happy that we both got to experience that bit of patriotism. It reminds one of how strongly we feel about this grand experiment that is the United States and all the great things we have going for us.
