Short Shifts
Capitals practice for future, play against robot
A puck handling machine was the opponent for a pair of Washington players
NHL.com @NHL
Is this the NHL's version of Westworld?
A video surfaced on Sunday of Washington Capitals Kevin Shattenkirk and Evgeny Kuznetsov appearing to practice with a stickhandling robot.
Unlike the popular sci-fi TV series though, this robot looked nothing like a human being. It actually looked more like the old video game character Q-bert.
The robot was a small square on a on a stand that featured an arm holding a hockey stick that made a sweeping motion. The object, it appears, is to handle the puck around the robot without hitting the stick.
At one point, after Kuznetsov was handling around the robot with ease, Shattenkirk appeared to increase the machine's speed.
So much for cones.