The Slap Shot

May not be exactly as shown

Local ice hockey team the Black Aces staved off an official losing streak this past week, as they held tough against rivals the Warriors in a game that featured more than the usual amount of good-natured body contact. The game was close, in fact the score stayed 1-1 until Aces sniper Ralph bagged the winner with just over a minute to go in the third. Ralph's goal bookended the game nicely, as Mark opened the scoring very early in the first. In between those 2 markers, sometime defenseman and Popular Music Drummer Pete T held off the Warriors with some great play between the pipes.

The game was in doubt for a while - a controversial penalty call late in the third gave the Warriors a power play and a chance to go ahead. Only some excellent pk and some timely saves by Pete kept things tied at one.

In the spirit of public education and clarification of league rules, let's examine the definition of 'slap shot', a shot that is verboten in the COTHL.

Google the term and you get this:

slap shot

noun

ICE HOCKEY

1. a hard shot made by raising the stick about waist-high before striking the puck with a sharp slapping motion.

So, 'waist high'. Remember that.

Dictionary.com says:

slapshot  /ˈslæpˌʃɒt/  noun
1. (hockey:Ice) a hard, fast, often wild, shot executed with a powerful downward swing, and with the blade of the stick brushing firmly against the ice prior to striking the puck

True enough, but what about that backswing? What does Wikipedia say?

A slapshot (also spelled as slap shot) in ice hockey is the hardest shot one can perform. It has four stages which are executed in one fluid motion to make the puck fly into the net:

1. The player winds up his hockey stick to shoulder height or higher.
2. et cetera, et cetera.

ok, so a wind up to shoulder height or higher. Really? 

Hmm. Over to you,  Merriam-Webster.

slap shot

 noun

ice hockey : a shot that is made by swinging your stick with a lot of force

What they really mean is "we have no clue, we've never seen an ice hockey game, we are useless."

Moving on,  let's consult everyone's favourite, the Urban Dictionary...

... er, ok. Read it for yourself. Maybe NSFW, unless you work on a construction site or in the porn industry.

So a slap shot then is when you (a hockey player, hopefully) bring your stick back to waist/shoulder/head/ height or even higher, somehow, and then strike the puck with 'a lot of force' but not before 'brushing' the ice 'firmly'. This may or may not also include any number of acts we can't talk about in this blog involving alcohol, slapping with hands or other appendages, and (optional) bodily fluids.

Also, this is video is pretty cool.



But not as cool as this one: