It has become a lethal weapon and changed the way the game is played, forcing goaltenders to don masks and compelling teams to adopt strategies to keep big shooters from getting the chance to blast away. Players are bigger and stronger now, and composite sticks have all but replaced the "twigs" of old, making it difficult to compare shooters of different generations. Today's shooters can be clocked on speed guns in a way that those of previous generations could not be.
But the anticipation in the stands when a player tees up a slapper -- the knowledge that the game could change in an instant -- is every bit as prevalent today as it was decades ago. Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion. By current standards, the Hall of Famer's slap shot may have been nothing to brag about. But Geoffrion, a key member of the Canadiens' dynasty in the late s, is generally credited with inventing or at least popularizing the big wind-up shot and adding a layer of accuracy to it.
Geoffrion actually got his nickname from a newspaper reporter in the late s when he was playing lacrosse. But it was a perfect fit for the man who became known as "The Boomer," because of the noise the shot made when he took it.
Opponents who doubted the potency of his big shot sometimes paid with broken feet -- Gordie Howe was among them. Geoffrion's heavy shot also had the habit of hitting a goaltender toward the side of the pads and trickling into the net; the Canadiens helped out by popularizing the use of screening goaltenders when Geoffrion teed one up from the point.
The slapper helped Geoffrion become only the second player in NHL history to score 50 goals in a season. He finished his career with goals in regular-season games on the way to the Hall of Fame. Lemaire is remembered today as the coach who turned the New Jersey Devils into Stanley Cup champs and was behind the bench for the first seasons of the Minnesota Wild.
But Lemaire was also a Hall of Fame player, a member of the Montreal dynasties of the late '60s and late '70s -- and the owner of one of the biggest slap shots in NHL history, one that he developed as a boy by playing with a heavy steel puck. His most famous goal was a slapper -- a rocket from the red line that beat Chicago goaltender Tony Esposito late in the second period of Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Final.
That goal triggered a Montreal rally as the Canadiens overcame a deficit for a win and the first of six championships in eight years. Lemaire was a terrific two-way center, but his slap shot gave him a weapon that not many players owned. Imagine being a goal scorer but only the third-best player in your own family. Such was the fate of Dennis Hull , who was overshadowed during his playing career by big brother Bobby and later on by nephew Brett.
But while Dennis didn't put up the kind of offensive numbers the other Hulls did, he was no slouch -- and when it came to booming slap shots, there were those who said his was better than Bobby's.
Dennis' shot usually was considered the heavier of the two, and though he didn't have Bobby's speed or scoring ability, he did put up 40 goals in , reached the goal mark on three other occasions and played in five All-Star Games.
It would have been fascinating to have Dennis and Bobby square off in a Hardest Shot competition during their primes. Instead, the question of which Hull had the bigger shot will have to remain unanswered. Souray's accuracy with his slap shot has never quite matched his velocity, but he's one of those players who makes shot-blocking one of the NHL's most dangerous assignments.
But it wasn't until the season that his offensive skills came to the fore -- he tied Adrian Aucoin for first place in the Hardest Shot competition at Harder to believe still there was an era where the slap shot was considered too high risk a maneuver to perform in a game. Players developed the ability to get the shot off.
In the no-mask goalie era it became a terror weapon among the league scorers. There has always been status to be had in possessing the hardest shot in the game which means having the fastest slap shot. Those players who have had that shot are celebrated for it. The advent of the hardest shot competition at the NHL All-Star Game has provided an opportunity to accurately measure the speed of a slap shot as players compete side by side in the same rink at the same time while being measured with the same radar gun.
There are still problems with accurately determining how fast a particular shot may be and why. There are even more problems when you try to compare players who have been timed with different guns at different timers. Players from the wooden stick era quite possibly would have had much faster slap shots if they'd played in the era of the composite stick.
There's no way to accurately compare slap shot speed from an era where they didn't measure the speed of the shot to players in the modern era. Despite all these problems, I've tried to put together a list including all those players and how I feel they would have ranked on a level playing field.
It involves a lot of speculation and not a little imagination to try to make it work. There a variety of players accredited with first attempting the slap shot in an NHL game. There is a case made for Howie Morenz developing the shot when he swung at a puck in anger in a practice. Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion certainly popularized the slap shot in the '50s. Even the most poke check shy, controlling coach couldn't argue with a goal scorer who used the shot as his primary weapon. My favourite candidate for the player who first used what today would be called a slap shot is former New York Ranger forward of the s and '40s Alex Shibicky.
Shibicky is said to have watched teammate Fred "Bun" Cook play around with the shot in practice, but it was Shibicky who first used it in games. Shibicky scored 20 or more goals in a season twice for the Rangers. He returned to the NHL for only one season after that. The NHL is a league full of stories.
They grow in the telling and it's always difficult to sort out the gold from the dross. The stories of legendary slap shots taken by unlikely players are more prevalent than most other.
I've picked out a few of those stories to address here. Chad Kilger had a great slap shot. He was not the kind of NHL player who could create an opportunity to use that shot often in a game, and his career offensive statistics reflect that. During one skills competition with the Leafs, he had a slap shot recorded at what would be an NHL record It could be true.
Unfortunately any other competition I've seen him at he hits the puck between 95 and MPH; very good, but not an all-time great number. I'm inclined to believe the number was the result of a poorly calibrated radar gun. It would be interesting to know what kind of speed numbers the other Leafs put up at that particular skills competition. Likewise, I've got to be sceptical about defenseman Denis Kulyash and his reported Put him and Chara in the same rink with the same radar gun and I'm happy to believe the results; otherwise you're comparing apples and oranges.
Popular Mechanics did a story on the science of sports back in February of In the story Bobby Hull was reported to have a slap shot recorded at For years that was accepted as scientific fact. Unfortunately I have yet to be able to find the original article to see what their methodology was, what they were actually measuring and how they did measure it. I would guess they were measuring something much different than what gets measured at today's hardest shot competition.
If true, he would have possessed in the '60s a wrist shot harder than any modern slap shot but Chara's. That's an obvious absurdity. My solution to this problem would be that however Popular Mechanics measured the shots they were picking them up at the maximum speed of the shot the instant it left the stick. The modern fastest shot competition is recording the puck after it decelerates for 15 feet.
Or a guess a simpler answer is that they just did a very inaccurate measurement. Bobby Hull had one of the great slap shots of all time. I don't believe the Yes, Bobby Orr was the greatest offensive defenseman in the history of the game. He was perhaps the greatest player ever to lace up skates. Still, among the list of players with great slap shots, he didn't quite crack my top His game was based on explosive skating and a strength and skill that made him almost impossible to catch on the ice.
Often forgotten in that mix of superlative talents is the fact that he had one of the great point shots in hockey. Unassuming, average sized, Stephane Richer had a slap shot from the point that resembled one from a man three inches taller and 40 pounds heavier.
Chad Kilger's mile per hour slap shot was probably the result of a poorly calibrated radar gun but he still had an incredibly hard slap shot that was the hardest on two teams the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs when he played with them.
Dave Manson couldn't often get his shot off in game situations, but it still was very nearly an MPH shot. It made him useful on the point of the power play. These guys for one reason or another didn't quite make my final list but they all had amazing slap shots. Chris Pronger is a big man 6'6", lbs.
It's been a central part of his arsenal since he joined the NHL with the Hartford Whalers back in The year-old Pronger still consistently gets off a slap shot that approaches MPH. Also read Why is Portland called Rip City? Also read What free agents did the Raiders sign? Read more. Read on Read later. Answred by. Ivette Reihe October 17, Add Comment. Who were the original 8 MLB teams? Encyclopedia and sports reference site, we share sports news and information on a daily basis.
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