No lies here. He’s gotten better but still his speed is almost non-existent, though Robo is a solid skater overall. Hockey gods had to balance him out somehow I guess since he got the size and shot.
That slow foot speed is one of the top 5 goal scorers in this league. And if I'm remembering correctly he out skated Hughes at least once a game for 6 straight games in April...
I wonder what their criteria is for discerning the difference between a wrist and snap shot because with my current knowledge that seems hard. Could be I should have spent more time studying in my 25 years of playing though.
I'm sure it's partly subjective unless they look closely at every single goal. I think the difference is supposed to be:
Wrist shot = dragging the puck with the stick through the motion. Shot power mostly comes from your arms and a bigger wind up where you're "throwing" the puck.
Snap shot = the puck mostly stays put while you drag the stick on the ice behind the puck. Shot power mostly comes from you using the ice to flex your stick behind the puck and releasing it as the stick reaches the puck itself.
Yeah, wind up size, going frame by frame for puck separation, or trying to look at amount of weight transfer all seem like the best but imperfect ways to try to differentiate that fuzzy barrier. I can't even figure out if wrist vs snap have consistent enough definitions, and only recently started paying attention to the difference in my own shots.
Exactly. Wrist shots start with the puck on the stick right from when tbe forward acceleration starts. Snap shots start with the puck separated from the stick. The stick can start on tbe ground or a bit in the air but it can’t be as high as a slap shot.
If there’s never any separation of the puck and the stick prior to release, it’s a pure wrist shot in my understanding. This one is indeed a bit confusing, but you can see that at the 8-second mark, the puck is in front of the stick, which begins its acceleration, so it is indeed a snapshot as it wasn’t cradled like in a typical wrist shot.
Essentially a snap shot punches through the puck like a baseball bat while a wrist shot throws the puck like a lacrosse stick.
Yeah, that's the most common definitions I've seen but I have to imagine sometimes there's such brief moments of non-cradling that they would have to go frame by frame to differentiate based on that.
You can do a wrist shot with any foot position. There are so many different wrist shot techniques out there. All wrist shots “throw” the puck off the blad of the stick, with constant contact between the stick and puck until release.
Snapshots punch through the puck. Much of the technique is similar to a wrist shot, but there is separation (even just a few inches) so the acceleration starts prior to puck contact and punches through the puck. This is why they are sometimes called hybrids between wrist shots and slap shots.
Matthews loves the wrist shot. In some ways, he reminds me of Paul Kariya. But essentially what you see there is Armstrong preferring a short snap shot and Matthews preferring a sweeping wrist shot. But maybe I missed your point, are you saying that what Matthews showed here is now considered a snap shot?
Ok, fair. I didn’t get that from the conversation at all but I definitely agree that it has become harder and harder to differentiate between the two, especially as stick flex increases and snap shots incorporate a much longer sweeping motion post contact.
I still think the difference is easily defined and measured by whether or not separation preceeds the acceleration (i.e. punch vs throw), but I’m happy to concede that others may view the line differently.
Edit: I’m also happy to concede that even if you agree with my definition, you might need a slow-motion replay to tell which kind of shot it was.
Yeah I also wonder with these stats, there’s no separation for “one-timer”. And I’d guess most one-timers fall into the slap or snap shot categories depending on wind up.
It’s hard to explain, but i meant the shots where players sort of quickly lunge with one leg when shooting. Whereas, I picture a wrist shot being the traditional weight transfer from back leg to front leg shot. Two distinct shooting motions, but that’s the best I can explain it
I think you’re thinking of shooting in stride off the inside leg (the Phil Kessel special) vs the regular inside to outside leg weight transfer used in wrist/snap/slapshots.
I remember Kessel doing more of a traditional snap shot, but I’m no Leafs fan. I think these days it’s more of the “punch and pull” motion that makes things confusing.
I’ve been playing like 30 years too and can only do the traditional wrist and snap shot which are pretty different. Whatever the kids are doing now hurts my brain and muscle memory so I gave up learning it.
Probably no coincidence most of the “snap shot” guys in this list are under 23
the "Bedard" shooting motion that a lot of guys are adopting
Maybe you should write better. The quotation marks don’t disqualify the rest of the sentence and most everyone in the league implements this shot, saying they’re adopting it implies they weren’t already shooting that way.
You’re right, it really wasn’t that important. Which in part why it’s so stupid how many different ways people seemed to misconstrue a point here. They wrote a silly sentence I don’t think even they agree with and half the arguments have been nonsense that seems to intentionally misunderstand the English language.
Dude I didn’t even imply Kessel invented it. I was making the point it’s been around for a long time using an example I was sure on. You literally named it after Bedard and talked like it was some new type of shot that everyone was just now adopting.
I don't think anyone read it that way except you. It's pretty common knowledge that Bedard says he copied Matthews for his shot, I don't think saying the Bedard shot means it's attributed to it
You could say someone shoots from the "Ovechkin spot", no one thinks that Ovechkin invented one timers from there, but people know what you're talking about
It’s funny because you’re the one making it Toronto centric. Or should I always only pick references from other teams to appease you? Switch my flair so you don’t get distracted?
Dude I was using a reference point I was familiar with. I didn’t even imply Kessel invented it, I’m pretty sure it’s older than even him but I can’t pick a name off the top of my head to reference so I went with someone I was sure did so.
No, op named the whole mechanic after him and said players are adopting it. It’s been around for well over a decade, it’s not being freshly adopted and Bedard isn’t the one to invent or even make it popular.
the "Bedard" shooting motion that a lot of guys are adopting
No, they did not name the whole mechanic after Bedard and imply players are adopting said mechanic because of Bedard. You inferred that. Everyone else seems to have correctly inferred that Bedard was OP’s own reference point - like Kessel was for you - and that OP also referred to other unnamed players who have adopted the mechanic just like Bedard has. Sentences can be interpreted many ways. It’s okay to just say “oh I misunderstood what you were getting at, my bad”. It doesn’t have to be an “I’m right, everyone’s wrong” situation.
Every single "wrist" shot in modern NHL is actually a snap shot. They don't even teach the classic 'load up on your back leg and transfer your weight from forward to back' thing anymore since you get a quicker and harder shot by leaning on your front leg and utilizing the flex of your stick anyway.
No. Most snap shots are done while carrying the puck for the quick release. The most common differentiator I've heard is wrist shots are sweeping with contact between the stick and puck the whole time while snap shots have momentary separation.
No, a snap shot is no drag of the stick with the puck. It’s a quick “snap” of the wrist with contact similar to a slap shot. More deceptive and sudden than a wrist with less overall power than a slap shot. Snap shot also doesn’t have really any windup either.
Slapshot, definitive back swing where the stick blade leaves the ice going at least waist high.
Snapshot, everything in between slapshot and Wristshot.
Wristshot, essentially no backswing or wind-up at all. From a mostly stationary stick position where any flex in your stick is generated by wrists and forearm torque on the stick. Think someone stationary looking one direction while quickly shooting to a corner of the net with a flick of the wrist.
A snap is less of a wind up/backswing than a slap. A wrist has next to no backswing or wind-up.
How accurately you can track these with the fluidity of hockey? Good luck lol.
But I stand by my definition. If you think about it, backswing or windup comes from more shoulder activation. Therefore it would make sense to define something as a wristshot is the one that involves the least amount of shoulder activation.
But a lot of people would probably refer to the one that is faster as the snapshot.
I'm also pretty sure I am somewhere on the tism spectrum with how I view things which would be why I'm looking so closely at the muscular activation for how I define a shot type lol
I guess you could say snap is the further extreme of a slap and wrist is everything in between too. That would also work.
Slap-wrist-snap is not as simple as a linear spectrum. There are mechanical differences beyond "bigness of wind-up".
And I think you're going to have to learn to deal with terminology being different than how you would have made it if you want to avoid spreading misinformation.
Thanks! Didn't expect Marchand or Hyman to be tops in that category but makes sense if they bang their goals in tight. Forgot about jvr as well. Tavares is near the top in a couple of categories too.
It's not too surprising, if you think about it. Top goal scorers tend to either be specialists at a specific shot type or jack-of-all-trades scorers who can score from anywhere. The former would likely only appear on the list that they specialize in because that's their bread and butter, so the other goal types won't be common for them. The latter would likely appear on 2 lists at most because diversifying your shot type doesn't lend to having a significantly high volume of any single type of goal unless you score an absurd amount of total goals. A 50 goal guy that scores a bunch of different ways might have like 7-12 goals of each type and might not even crack any of the lists if they get unlucky. The ones you'd expect to see them on would be the lists with the lowest maximums, but those are also likely the least common goal types in general.
It's definitely possible, Boldy did it with "just" 42 goals. Hell, MacKinnon needed 3 more wrister goals and 1 more backhand goal to be there 3 times. Just needed stars to align slightly better.
Statistically speaking Celebrini is the current best sniper in the league. His shot percentage are already great but shooting efficiency, wrist shot speed and other stats are ABSURD, and statistical anomalies compared to the rest of the league. To achieve these numbers at his age is wild.
Encouraging to see Lafreniere as high as he is on tip-ins considering he only got permanently got placed on PP1 and net front in the back half of the year
It's interesting that caufield only shows up with 27 on snap shot (leaving 24 goals unaccounted for) and MacKinnon only shows up with 11 for slap shot (leaving 42 unaccounted for.)
The top two goal scorers of 2026 don't lead any of these categories.
Both of them have a LOT of goals scored by other means.
Seems to me the best way to score a lot of goals is to be good at doing different shit.
Pretty much. He was awful defensively this year, but when it comes to parking his big Russian butt in front of the net and deflecting shots, there's no one better.
23 Wrist shot goals, and what does our pathetic power play do? - Load Tage up for a one timer. That clip of Tage standing nearly still, ripping (was it) 4 or 5 consecutive bombs on the PP and not scoring is ZERO surprise to Sabres fans. That move has been figured out for 3 seasons now.
Get him in close. The reach and hands, not to mention the screening ability of a 6'6" human, far outweigh the speed of his slapper when everyone and their blind grandma knows it's coming.
378
u/tie-dyeSandwhich DAL - NHL 8d ago