'A DIFFERENT KIND OF SHOT'

As a player, you know it's coming.
Everyone does.
You can feel it, sense it, even watch it play out with your own eyes at ice level - but are seemingly powerless to stop it.
Of the 793 career goals Alex Ovechkin has powered past the goalie, the vast majority have come with that patented slapper off the left circle.
"Yeah, it's weird," laughed MacKenzie Weegar, who's faced Ovi already 10 times in his young career. "It's so impressive that he can score so many goals from that spot. I brought it up to somebody the other day that it's absolutely wild how he can do it against literally every team. 'Why don't we just put a guy on him?' Well, they have other threats, too, and you've got to watch them or they'll make you pay.
"I think you just have to defend it as best you can and try to block that shot. I know it's a hard shot, but you have to get into that lane and Marky and Vladdy have to make the save, too. It's just a collective thing."

The NHL officially tracks goals 'by type,' but the stats only go as far back as the 2009-10 campaign, when the Great 8 had already taken 300 spins in The Show. Nevertheless, the figures from the past 13 years paint one heck of a picture.
Two hundred and seventy-five (47.9%) of his league-leading 574 goals in that span have come on either a snap or slapshot.
While the debate about who is the game's greatest goal-scorer will rage on until Ovi officially breaks The Great One's all-time record, no one can argue that the Washington captain is the best pure sniper.
And from that spot, in particular, he isn't slowing down anytime soon.
"It's different kind of shot," Weegar said. "It's a quick release that you just don't see from a lot of guys. Sometimes it's a knuckle puck, sometimes it's that clean, hard slapshot. It comes at you in so many different ways.
"At the end of the day, you just try to bear down on him and try your best to make it difficult for him."
Of course, when it comes to shot quality, it's not just the player on the other side the Flames have to worry about tonight.
The locals are looking to get back in the win column after falling to the Montreal Canadiens 2-1 on Thursday - a game the Flames outshot the Habs 46-19 and put up a season-high 83 attempts in all situations.
In many ways, it was the template for what a typical Flames victory should look like. But just like Ovechkin, the Flames need to pick their spots better and bear down on the chances they do get.
The numbers, themselves, were overwhelming - but if you find the crest with a point-blank chance between the hashmarks, the discrepancy can be a bit misleading.
"Absolutely," Weegar said when asked if they can make life harder on the goalie. "When pucks aren't going in on those clear shots and you're a little snake-bit scoring goals, I think you really have to work harder in the greasier areas around the crease.
"Maybe it's a tip, maybe it just goes off your shinpad or your skate. If you get a bounce like that, you'll start to get the confidence and things will start to open up more.
"With myself, I haven't scored too much … Well, I haven't scored at all this year. But you can't get too frustrated and you can't think too much about it.
"That goes for everyone. We know they're going to fall eventually and when they do, the rest will take care of itself."
There's a lot to like about their game this year, while acknowledging the 'finish' needs a considerable kick in the rear. Many of the hallmarks that made the Flames a first-place club last year remain in place, and we know that several of the team's top snipers are underperforming relative to career averages.
Weegar, too, feels the pressure, after putting up eight, six and seven goals - respectively - in each of the past three years.
But it's bound to come around, eventually.
"The thing is, I'm really happy with my game," Weegar explained. "That said, I don't want to be too satisfied or get too happy if you're not getting the results as a team. I think Tanny (Chris Tanev) and I are playing great defensively, and we're also giving the forwards opportunities. That's what we want. And then when we get an opportunity, sure, I've got to bear down and find a way to put the puck in the net. Maybe I jump up into the play a little more, or I see an opening down low and try to make that jump.
"But right now, where our overall game's at? It's good. I'm not too worried about it.
"It'd be nice to score a goal - my first goal as a Flame - but right now, I'm just focusing on giving the forwards chances first and taking my opportunities second.
"If, as a team, we approach every game with that same mindset, we're going to have a lot of success."