To watch Sami Salo walk through the Canucks dressing room without his equipment is like meeting the mild-mannered Clark Kent before he leaps out of a phone booth as the invincible Superman.
At 6 foot 3 and 215 pounds, the self-effacing Salo strolls through the room with both hands in the pockets of inconspicuous garb. All that’s missing are a pair of thick-rimmed glasses and a copy of the Daily Planet under his arm.
But when duty calls on the Canucks blueline - Salo strips his unassuming attitude and steps into his alter ego as one of the hardest shooting players in the NHL. At the Super-Skills competition in October, Salo tilted the radar gun at 100 MPH.
“It’s tough to say when I developed my shot,” says Salo. “I’ve always been a guy who tries to shoot the puck a lot but nobody really made a big deal about it until I made it to the NHL. I wish I had some words of wisdom for what makes a powerful shot, but I guess it just comes down to technique.”
To possess a superhero slapshot, Ted Rhodes, a Professor at the School of Human Kinetics at the University of British Columbia says it takes a combination of physics and sheer power.
“The slap shot is a very complicated and complex action,” says Rhodes. “At best it is a multi-factorial movement, combining rotational forces with strength and timing. The key is to generate maximal torque with the blade of the stick and strike the puck cleanly with maximum force.”
Here’s how Slammin’ Sami makes it happen.
FULL STORY
At 6 foot 3 and 215 pounds, the self-effacing Salo strolls through the room with both hands in the pockets of inconspicuous garb. All that’s missing are a pair of thick-rimmed glasses and a copy of the Daily Planet under his arm.
But when duty calls on the Canucks blueline - Salo strips his unassuming attitude and steps into his alter ego as one of the hardest shooting players in the NHL. At the Super-Skills competition in October, Salo tilted the radar gun at 100 MPH.
“It’s tough to say when I developed my shot,” says Salo. “I’ve always been a guy who tries to shoot the puck a lot but nobody really made a big deal about it until I made it to the NHL. I wish I had some words of wisdom for what makes a powerful shot, but I guess it just comes down to technique.”
To possess a superhero slapshot, Ted Rhodes, a Professor at the School of Human Kinetics at the University of British Columbia says it takes a combination of physics and sheer power.
“The slap shot is a very complicated and complex action,” says Rhodes. “At best it is a multi-factorial movement, combining rotational forces with strength and timing. The key is to generate maximal torque with the blade of the stick and strike the puck cleanly with maximum force.”
Here’s how Slammin’ Sami makes it happen.
FULL STORY
