At this point, it’s well established that Auston Matthews has one of the best shots in the NHL, but that phrase is a little misleading. Generally when we talk about “best shot,” we’re talking about guys like Alex Ovechkin or Steven Stamkos, or even Zdeno Chara, the type of guys who hammer one-timers so hard goaltenders should lobby for something like the NFL’s fair catch rule, where they see the pain coming and can simply opt out of accepting it, maybe for a half-goal or something. A surrender button, something.



But with Matthews, we’re talking about what’s basically a modified hockey school wrist shot, where the puck stays on the blade through wind up and release, only to be whipped past the goaltender’s ear before he realizes it’s left his blade. The comparable that quickly comes to mind would be peak-Ilya Kovalchuk and Alex Semin, both of whom knew how to use today’s stick technology to create maximum torque and...