Chopping the Goalie's Shaft
The ‘shaft’ of a goalie’s stick begins where the broad part of the bottom ends. Practically speaking, the shaft is above where the goalie’s blocker hand grips. The ‘knob’ of the stick, meanwhile, is the very top part of the shaft where goalies will take great liberties in wrapping a donut of tape. Colloquially, people will often say “he saved it with the knob of his stick” when they mean the shaft, and vis versa.
In my opinion, all parts of the stick above a goalie’s blocker should be deleted. Why? Because it functions as an incredibly lucky way to prevent a goal, and everyone (except goalies) wants more goals. It's one thing for a goalie to make a save intentionally; it's quite another for it to be an accident. Given that hockey is already the most random of the four major sports, and given that goals drive viewer engagement, it seems like a no-brainer to chop the goalie’s shaft after the blocker.
Why am I thinking about this now? Because, sadly, this tragic scene resurfaced earlier this week, this time on MVP-candidate Erik Karlson, who donned an appropriately-disgusted look afterwards:
Karlson isn’t the only one to suffer, though…not by a long shot. Indeed, most of the following examples are from half of last season, proving that these game-changing plays are all too common. Let's begin with Duchene:
No, it’s not off the blocker, Mr. Announcer. That’s the sound of rubber on wood. Nylander is our next victim:
Funny how the announcers don’t even have language for this kind of save. Instead of teaching them, let’s just remove it altogether. Onto Backlund:
The stick almost falls out of Lehner’s hand, lol. Sheary on deck:
Literally breaks Shesterkin’s stick! You have to imagine Shesty would rather let that in than endure the embarrassment. Sadly, not even "the man known as 'Stammer'" is immune to this kind of treatment:
Finally, our titular example:
(I'm kinda fine with that one, actually.)
The above clips should have convinced you that shaft-saves are unjust. (Note that this save on Ceci, where the puck hits the broad part of the stick, is not what we’re talking about.) The shooter beat the goalie fair-and-square on each of them, and only blind luck prevented the biscuit from reaching the basket. Plus, many of these “saves” changed the outcome of the game. At the very least, they prevented fans from getting out of their seats and slapping each other high-five. Celebratory beers weren’t opened; overs withered in the sun. Babies cried and hope in a sustainable future was lost.
The bottom line is that shaft-saves are low-class, and you shouldn’t let anyone, especially goalies, convince you otherwise. No doubt they’ll trot out that ragged line that it’s “part of the equipment,” just like posts. Being goalies, you know they’re a little off, and can’t blame them much for what they say. But really, what a dumb sentiment. In the first place, let’s just remove it from their equipment so they can’t make that excuse anymore. And in the second, what goalie in their right mind wants to rely on posts or shafts to make their saves? That’s a dog that not only chases cars, but lays down in front of them. Let’s all agree to agree that when a player hits a post or shaft, both he and the goalie lose. Only the post/shaft wins.
Now let's get into why this change is unlikely to happen. The major reason might not be obvious if you’ve never held a goalie stick. If you have, you’ve probably noticed that your ability to keep it firm along the ice is aided and abetted by the counter-weight of the top part. If we removed the shaft above the blocker, goalies would need to be MUCH stronger to prevent low, hard shots. It may actually be too much to ask.
Indeed, in this video, some rando discusses the benefits of having a large, taped knob at the end of your goalie stick. These are:
a) your stick won’t get caught in the netting (okay)
b) you can more easily corral a poke-check (fair)
c) you can more easily pick your stick up if you drop it (I guess)
He fails to mention the more subtle benefit of a large knob acting as a better counterweight, or the more obvious one of, uh, enlarging your equipment. I mean, it's really no different than adding tape to the outside of your pads, am I right?
There will be other concerns with chopping the upper part of a goalie’s shaft. What about the poke-check, for example? It would pretty much vanish from the game. This might honestly be better for goalies on the whole, as a poke-check is often a great opportunity for them to look stupid; but it's also a fun moment for the fans and players, and might be dearly missed. Playing the puck, too, would become much more difficult, though the league clearly wanted to curtail this when they implemented the restricted area back in 2005-2006. Perhaps we could unrestrict this area in conjunction with chopping the shaft, and thereby achieve a similar balance to what we have now. (In some instances, having a smaller stick might actually become a benefit, but overall, I’d guess it would make moving the puck harder.)
By all indications, the slow-to-change NHL isn’t going to make this adjustment, and maybe they’re right not to. The major impediment is how it would change goalies’ ability to stop hard and low shots. I can think of a few workarounds to this—like weighting the bottom of goalie sticks—but until awareness increases of the highway robbery that occurs on a near-nightly basis across the NHL, there will be little impetus to change.
As a final note, we can think of a goalie’s shaft as yet another tax on the straight-up shooter. Even if you beat the goalie clean, as in the above clips, you still have to contend with the heart-breaking reality that the goalie might get lucky. Yet another reason to reimagine the shot (article forthcoming).
Stay safe out there,
Josh
P.S. The beats keep coming:
P.P.S. Wait! The shaft finally giveth back:
P.P.P.S. Alas, the beats keep coming:
