The beauty of a shot like Kovalchuk/Sakic is that it's hard for defensemen/goalies to tell when it's coming.
The beauty of a shot like Semin/Hull is that more often than not the goalie/defenseman knows its coming - they just can't do anything about it.
For me it's Semin for the best release all time.
Very well said.
About Semin, not only do opponents or fans (who watch him on regular base) mostly know when he shoots but where his aiming to (high, Glove-side) as well. He oftenly does the same little forward-backward stickhandling until he got the right bodytension for the release. You can read those pre-shot moves pretty well. But the release itself is so utterly dirty, you hardly can react. Not only is his wrister one of the hardest all-time, but is technically so out of this world, that it seems that he doesn't have to destroy his body for generating the force. ( like Federer's forehand swing for example, a guy like Ovi is more like Nadal, has to use his superior strengh to generate the force)
And this release is one of the most fascinating and beautiful moves I have ever seen in all-sports.
If we're talking purely about the release, Kessel's got to be up there. He probably has the quickest release of all-time on his patented wrist/snap shot. That doesn't necessarily mean he has the best release as guys like Kovalchuck, Semin, Hull, and Sakic all have very very quick releases with more power.
Im saying Brett Hull on this one. Though I never seen Bossy play, Im willing to bet he had an ugly wind up and no swag on his release like all the old mans from back in the day, with all due respect ;P
Very well said.
About Semin, not only do opponents or fans (who watch him on regular base) mostly know when he shoots but where his aiming to (high, Glove-side) as well. He oftenly does the same little forward-backward stickhandling until he got the right bodytension for the release. You can read those pre-shot moves pretty well. But the release itself is so utterly dirty, you hardly can react. Not only is his wrister one of the hardest all-time, but is technically so out of this world, that it seems that he doesn't have to destroy his body for generating the force. ( like Federer's forehand swing for example, a guy like Ovi is more like Nadal, has to use his superior strengh to generate the force)
And this release is one of the most fascinating and beautiful moves I have ever seen in all-sports.
Just curious, since I agree with him having an incredibly deadly shot... how come this guy isn't competing for the Rocket every year? Is his overall offensive awareness and ability to go in the dirty areas the reason he's not consistently putting up goals? I'm not talking about his supposed "lazy defensive play" but how come every time he's in the o-zone, the puck's not being passed to him to let it blow by the goalie?
Or maybe this might change on Carolina as opposed to Washington where Ovy is "the guy."
Outside of the obvious names like Sakic, Hull, and Bossy, Kariya was another guy I thought of right away. Suprised he's only been mentioned once so far, his wrister was DEADLY. A perfect combination of speed, accuracy, and deceptiveness.
Im saying Brett Hull on this one. Though I never seen Bossy play, Im willing to bet he had an ugly wind up and no swag on his release like all the old mans from back in the day, with all due respect ;P
Just curious, since I agree with him having an incredibly deadly shot... how come this guy isn't competing for the Rocket every year? Is his overall offensive awareness and ability to go in the dirty areas the reason he's not consistently putting up goals? I'm not talking about his supposed "lazy defensive play" but how come every time he's in the o-zone, the puck's not being passed to him to let it blow by the goalie?
Or maybe this might change on Carolina as opposed to Washington where Ovy is "the guy."
He tries to make the "pretty" plays too oftem imo. The highlights are amazing when he's on his game but sometimes you just need to get the puck on net.
