Confirmed: MacInnis in HHOF!!!!

[BF44]

I remember a game (it was aired on tv here in Sweden) where Chopper broke the arm of a goalie with a wicked slapshot. I can't remember who the goalie was, though... Thibault? Anyone know?

Jocelyn Thibault's finger....

[Portland Blues]

[img:305:450]http://sportsspecifictraining.com/newsl ... innis1.jpg[/img]

I love the eyes closed while he tee's off.

[Jack T Adams]

I hate Scott Hannan.

[Portland Blues]

I hate Scott Hannan.

The name on his jersey should read:

"Eye pokin' out mother franker"

[Ruutu15]

I remember a game (it was aired on tv here in Sweden) where Chopper broke the arm of a goalie with a wicked slapshot. I can't remember who the goalie was, though... Thibault? Anyone know?

Jocelyn Thibault's finger....

I was at that game...flew in from Michigan. Marc Lamonthe came in and you guys scored 7 or 8 on him.

[Ehijo]

I remember a game (it was aired on tv here in Sweden) where Chopper broke the arm of a goalie with a wicked slapshot. I can't remember who the goalie was, though... Thibault? Anyone know?

Jocelyn Thibault's finger....

Oh... well, at least I got the goalie right...

[OS]

He broke a hand or finder or another goaltender that year too...

[gaijin]

Marty Turco (I think) on Al MacInnis: " I stuck my toe out on a MacInnis slapshot once."

Reporter: "And?"

Turco: "I don't stick my toe out anymore."

[gaijin]

He broke a hand or finder or another goaltender that year too...

That was Osgood, wasn't it?

[OS]

He broke a hand or finder or another goaltender that year too...

That was Osgood, wasn't it?

Hmm... that sounds right.

[gaijin]

He broke a hand or finder or another goaltender that year too...

That was Osgood, wasn't it?

Hmm... that sounds right.

I think I remember watching it on TV- it was a Blues PP, Osgood (with the Wings) caught the shot in his glove, but the force of it knocked the glove right off his hand. The rest of the time until the whistle blew, he was holding his arm behind his back. After that, he went to the locker room, and the announcers said he had a broken hand.

Crap memory, perhaps, but that's how it plays out in my mind now.

[Jeffro]

<embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed>

Goddamn that team was good.

[Ehijo]

He broke a hand or finder or another goaltender that year too...

That was Osgood, wasn't it?

Hmm... that sounds right.

I think I remember watching it on TV- it was a Blues PP, Osgood (with the Wings) caught the shot in his glove, but the force of it knocked the glove right off his hand. The rest of the time until the whistle blew, he was holding his arm behind his back. After that, he went to the locker room, and the announcers said he had a broken hand.

Crap memory, perhaps, but that's how it plays out in my mind now.

Yea. That's the one I meant. Video... video... we need a video!

[gaijin]

Yea. That's the one I meant. Video... video... we need a video!

I think it would have been the 2002-2003 season. Again, the 30-year-old memory caveat applies.

[cprice12]

From Hockey Digest... Feb. 2003

Firepower: starting with Al MacInnis, we pick the NHL players with the best slapshots
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... i_96194014
Hockey Digest, Feb, 2003 by Chuck O'Donnell

GOALTENDING GREAT GRANT Fuhr once observed: "There's no safe place when Al MacInnis is shooting."

Just ask goalies Jocelyn Thibault (broken finger), Chris Osgood (broken hand), and teammate Rich Parent (bruised testicle), who were all hurt over the course of the same season trying to stop MacInnis slapshots.

Or Dallas Drake and Mike Sullivan, who both suffered fractured toes in the same game when their feet got in the path of MacInnis slappers.

Or Andrew Cassels, who had the big toe on his right foot broken in three places by a MacInnis slapshot.

Or you can ask Alexander Karpovtsev, who spent an entire hellish night in his bathroom after being hit in the stomach with a MacInnis bullet last season.

"I kept throwing up," Karpovtsev told reporters. "I couldn't stop. If it would have hit my ribs, it would have broken them for sure. Usually in the stomach here isn't any pain, not a big deal. I wasn't ready for this shot."

When MacInnis winds up for a slapshot, forwards flee, defensemen duck, and goalies pray the puck hits them in a well-padded place.

Not only has MacInnis won the league's hardest slapshot competition six times--sometimes at speeds topping 100 miles per hour--he is also in the top five all time in goals scored by defensemen. That means he brings the heat a la a Randy Johnson fastball, but does it with Greg Maddux-like pinpoint control. That unusual combination is why MacInnis is almost universally regarded as the possessor of the best slapshot in the NHL today.

But who else is up there in MacInnis' company?

Just as baseball fans like to debate who hits the most prodigious home runs and basketball fans like to debate about who has the smoothest jumper, hockey aficionados can go on for hours about who has the most wicked slapshot.

Are Brett Hull's laser beams tougher on a goalie than Rob Blake's brute blasts? Which of the past two winners of the hardest shot competition, Sergei Fedorov or Fredrik Modin, makes goalies tremble more? Who would you rather have winding up back on the point: Mathieu Schneider or Adrian Aucoin?

It wasn't easy, and we know we left out a few guys who can really crank it up, but we've come up with our list of the 10 best slapshooters in the game today.

1. Al MacInnis, St. Louis Blues

The St. Louis defenseman won the hardest shot competition every year from 1997 to 2000. And he usually can get it on net during a game. As if that doesn't make him lethal enough, consider the fact that MacInnis' shot sometimes has some movement to it.

"It's not a shot that keeps in a direct line," says Washington Capitals goalie Olaf Kolzig. "It has a gradual rise. It's from the unusual curve in his stick. You think you have it pinpointed, and it comes so fast and it rises so quickly, you can't adjust to it. It's so deceptive."

MacInnis has been asked hundreds of times for his secret to shooting. Funny thing is, it's as much a mystery to him as it is to everyone else. He admits he isn't the strongest or biggest guy on the ice, so it isn't like it's sheer muscle that makes the puck go so fast.

"It's just something I've always had since I was a kid, and I've kept working on it," he says. "It's almost like on the PGA tour. It's not always the biggest guys that hit the longest."

2. Pavel Bure, New York Rangers

3. Brett Hull, Detroit Red Wings

4. Fredrik Modin, Tampa Bay Lightning

5. Mathieu Schneider, Los Angeles Kings

6. Shawn Heins, San Jose Sharks

7. Sergei Fedorov, Detroit Red Wings

8. Rob Blake, Colorado Avalanche

9. Adrian Aucoin, New York Islanders

10. Peter Bondra, Washington Capitals

If you want to read the comments about the other guys, follow the link (I cut them out).

[ksbluesfan]

Al Iafrate had a wicked slapshot too.

[Jack T Adams]

From Hockey Digest... Feb. 2003

Firepower: starting with Al MacInnis, we pick the NHL players with the best slapshots
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... i_96194014
Hockey Digest, Feb, 2003 by Chuck O'Donnell

GOALTENDING GREAT GRANT Fuhr once observed: "There's no safe place when Al MacInnis is shooting."

Just ask goalies Jocelyn Thibault (broken finger), Chris Osgood (broken hand), and teammate Rich Parent (bruised testicle), who were all hurt over the course of the same season trying to stop MacInnis slapshots.

Or Dallas Drake and Mike Sullivan, who both suffered fractured toes in the same game when their feet got in the path of MacInnis slappers.

Or Andrew Cassels, who had the big toe on his right foot broken in three places by a MacInnis slapshot.

Or you can ask Alexander Karpovtsev, who spent an entire hellish night in his bathroom after being hit in the stomach with a MacInnis bullet last season.

"I kept throwing up," Karpovtsev told reporters. "I couldn't stop. If it would have hit my ribs, it would have broken them for sure. Usually in the stomach here isn't any pain, not a big deal. I wasn't ready for this shot."

When MacInnis winds up for a slapshot, forwards flee, defensemen duck, and goalies pray the puck hits them in a well-padded place.

Not only has MacInnis won the league's hardest slapshot competition six times--sometimes at speeds topping 100 miles per hour--he is also in the top five all time in goals scored by defensemen. That means he brings the heat a la a Randy Johnson fastball, but does it with Greg Maddux-like pinpoint control. That unusual combination is why MacInnis is almost universally regarded as the possessor of the best slapshot in the NHL today.

But who else is up there in MacInnis' company?

Just as baseball fans like to debate who hits the most prodigious home runs and basketball fans like to debate about who has the smoothest jumper, hockey aficionados can go on for hours about who has the most wicked slapshot.

Are Brett Hull's laser beams tougher on a goalie than Rob Blake's brute blasts? Which of the past two winners of the hardest shot competition, Sergei Fedorov or Fredrik Modin, makes goalies tremble more? Who would you rather have winding up back on the point: Mathieu Schneider or Adrian Aucoin?

It wasn't easy, and we know we left out a few guys who can really crank it up, but we've come up with our list of the 10 best slapshooters in the game today.

1. Al MacInnis, St. Louis Blues

The St. Louis defenseman won the hardest shot competition every year from 1997 to 2000. And he usually can get it on net during a game. As if that doesn't make him lethal enough, consider the fact that MacInnis' shot sometimes has some movement to it.

"It's not a shot that keeps in a direct line," says Washington Capitals goalie Olaf Kolzig. "It has a gradual rise. It's from the unusual curve in his stick. You think you have it pinpointed, and it comes so fast and it rises so quickly, you can't adjust to it. It's so deceptive."

MacInnis has been asked hundreds of times for his secret to shooting. Funny thing is, it's as much a mystery to him as it is to everyone else. He admits he isn't the strongest or biggest guy on the ice, so it isn't like it's sheer muscle that makes the puck go so fast.

"It's just something I've always had since I was a kid, and I've kept working on it," he says. "It's almost like on the PGA tour. It's not always the biggest guys that hit the longest."

2. Pavel Bure, New York Rangers

3. Brett Hull, Detroit Red Wings

4. Fredrik Modin, Tampa Bay Lightning

5. Mathieu Schneider, Los Angeles Kings

6. Shawn Heins, San Jose Sharks

7. Sergei Fedorov, Detroit Red Wings

8. Rob Blake, Colorado Avalanche

9. Adrian Aucoin, New York Islanders

10. Peter Bondra, Washington Capitals

If you want to read the comments about the other guys, follow the link (I cut them out).

Was Al MacInnis the one that busted Parent's left nut? I thought it was someone else.

[cprice12]

Al Iafrate had a wicked slapshot too.

105.2 mph slapshot in the skills competition.
Still the record I believe.

Iafrate's career would have been so much better had he not had chronic knee problems.

[WestCoastWingsFan]

During the '04 playoffs I met a bitter Flames fan who actually said Mac wouldn't get into the Hall bc of his drunk driving arrest.

[cprice12]

During the '04 playoffs I met a bitter Flames fan who actually said Mac wouldn't get into the Hall bc of his drunk driving arrest.