Sports journalism has never been easy. It's fun sometimes but it's never easy. Coming up with a game reports usually don't take a long time to do but coming up with ideas for columns such as this one do take awhile sometimes.
It's one of those things that can come up at any given moment of any given day. It's sometimes triggered by something someone says to me and then it sticks like glue.That's pretty much what happened to me at York Lake golf course Friday afternoon, give or take 3-3:30 p.m., Saskatchewan time of course!
Then I got the idea to try and put it into words while at a lacrosse game later that night out in Bredenbury.
In the time span of a few short hours, I found myself talking about hockey, golf and lacrosse.
During an unscheduled interview at the golf course that day and talking about the technicalities and whatnot of the game of golf, new club manager James Hodgson and I somehow got talking about the technique involved in the slap shot and comparing it to teeing off at the golf course.
Myself being more of a hockey nut then anything thought it might be an interesting side subject considering the two 'shots' are somewhat similar.
What I used to think was that if you happened to be skilled enough to beat a goaltender with a slap shot and make it look good, you can likely blast a golf ball flying 200 yards or so.
Not so, apparently.
It reminded me of a golf tournament back home when I was working a celebrity golf tournament in which several pro hockey players made the trip out to play in it.Anaheim Ducks and Team Canada Olympian Corey Perry. He had just teed off on the hole and his shot looked pretty good.
Having turned into quite the nosy type, I proceeded to inquire about the relation of his slap shot when he's playing hockey to the 'art' or technique of the golfer on the driving range/hole during golf action. He replied a very simple 'no' to my observation. Basically what I took from it were two things. A) he is not the talkative type-or at least not to me-but looking back on it for a second and B) he's probably dead on right about it.
Taking a slap shot and teeing off on the golf course are two pretty different things.Since moving to Yorkton, I started to get a really good feel for lacrosse. The playing style is very much like hockey and sometimes it's even more dangerous then hockey.
Players can hit each other as hard as they want, much like in hockey except lacrosse players cross-check each to to end. It's similar to hockey considering the pace of the game. In lacrosse, it's a hard rubber ball flying at speeds of 90-100 mph, while bodies crash into each other all over the place, lacrosse adds some rocket fuel with a shot clock, meaning the offensive team has a 45-second time frame in which to run the ball to the other end and score.
Rick Dudley, a general manager of the NHL's Florida Panthers, is both a former hockey player and pro lacrosse player, says lacrosse probably takes even more guts to play."As crazy as you needed to be to play goalie in hockey, you need to be equally or moreso in lacrosse because there was another element added to it. Not only was that thing (the ball) hard and fast coming at you, but in lacrosse, it could originate from a place other than off the ground so it could take all kinds of hops."
If there's anything you'd like to see covered by Game 7, please forward your suggestions to the Yorkton This Week sportsdesk by phone, fax or email. All ideas are welcome and can be submitted by calling (306) 782-2465.
