Browsing SI.com earlier today, I happened across a Daren Eliot blog post, "Who is the Next Joe Sakic?", asking which player in the NHL has the best wrist shot now that Sakic is retired.
Fair enough, Burnaby Joe had one of the best wrist shots in the game, quick and deadly accurate. So I skimmed the article for Eliot's thoughts. Jeff Carter, okay. Ryan Getzlaf, maybe. Jonathan Toews? I can see that. But where's Alexander Semin? Heresy!
Then I actually read the article, and saw he was talking about centers only. That got me thinking though, who has the best wrist shot in the league? When we think of big-time scorers we tend to gravitate towards the hard shooters (Ovechkin, Jarome Iginla), razzle-dazzle pucksmiths (Rick Nash) or garbage-goal opportunists (Carter, Johan Franzen).
Practitioners of the wrist shot like Thomas Vanek, Marian Hossa and yes, Semin, garner attention for the puck in the net rather than the way they put it there, unlike the way the action itself of taking a slapshot is heroized in hockey.
Which, of course, is an excuse for the District Puckhouse to celebrate the wrist shot with a collection of Alexander Semin clips. Long live the wrister!
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