Saturday, January 15, 2011

Yes, the spinorama is bullshit

Two good posts: One from Fanhouse and another from Jewels From The Crown , both talking about goalies growing a pair and ending the awesome, very successful, and essentially unfair spinorama move in the shootout.

For those of you unacquainted with this move, see the video below (Facebook readers, you'll need to visit my actual blog by clicking on "View Original Post" to see it:

I chose Gerbe of BC over the NHL because college hockey rocks. BC still sucks though.

Cool, right?

The problem is that, as far as I'm concerned, it's a borderline play that is usually poorly executed and thus illegal. The puck needs to be moving forward at all times during a shootout. Often, when executing a spinorama, the puck stops.

Meanwhile, the save percentage on this move is low. Take a typical .500-.750 save percentage for most goalies and cut it in half. This is a virtually indefensible move-unless, of course, goalies start throwing their weight around.

Back at Northeastern, I was playing my second to last game on ice. At this point, I still wasn't very good, but I was feeling a lot more confident than I had during my first game, so when this guy skated into my crease to screen me [Dude. It's INTRAMURAL hockey and you're waving your stick in my face and bumping me?], I shoved my glove into his back. He didn't move. I provided some additional motivation with a forceful application of my stick to the back of his knees.

This was more effective.

After falling down and watching my teammates skate away with the puck, the guy pushed me hard enough to skate me back into the net and knock it off its moorings. Regardless, the message was received. He stayed away from the crease the rest of the game.

All it's going to take to end the spinorama and force players to think of more innovative techniques during the shootout is a modern day Hextall* (Carey Price, anyone?) dropping the hammer on a shooter. And I can't wait.

*If you've never watched Hextall flip a shit on Chris Chelios, this is a video you need to watch.

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