Basic instincts

Sporting News, The, Jan 24, 1994 by Mike Tully

Unless you know your hockey history, you've probably never heard of Frank McGee. He played years before the advent of the NHL, and, one day in 1905, while competing in the Stanley Cup finals, he scored 14 goals in a single game. And he did it with sight in only one eye.

Today, no player converts that often. But one thing has endured since McGee's day: Some players score more goals than others. They have the mysterious knack for putting the puck in the net while all is confusion around them.

St. Louis right wing Brett Hull can do it. He has averaged 64 goals over the last five seasons and could reach 50 again. Mike Gartner of the Rangers can do it, too. He has never scored fewer than 33 in a season since entering the NHL in 1979.

Wayne Gretzky of the Kings holds the NHL's single-season record with 92 goals in 1981-82 and will overtake Gordie Howe's record of 801 this season. And Pittsburgh's Mario Lemieux, currently injured, came into the season with the highest scoring frequency in NHL history -.827 goals per game.

"Goal-scoring is not a thing you can really work on. You either have a knack for it or you don't," says Philadelphia's Mark Recchi, himself a 53-goal scorer in 1992-93.

"Anybody in the league can score a goal," says Buffalo center Pat LaFontaine, a two-time 50-goal scorer. "It's the guys who can do it night after night on a consistent basis. At a critical point, when the focus is on, sure enough, it's one of those guys who's going to put the puck in the net."

Sergei Fedorov of Detroit has established a pace to reach 65 goals, even in a season when checkers are swarming. Toronto's Dave Andreychuk and Wendel Clark and Florida's Bob Kudelski could top 50. So could Mike Modano of Dallas, the Rangers' Adam Graves, Geoff Sanderson of Hartford, Brendan Shanahan of St. Louis, Joe Nieuwendyk of Calgary and Cam Neely of Boston. And let's not forget Winnipeg's Teemu Selanne, Buffalo's Alexander Mogilny, the Kings' Luc Robitaille or Vancouver's Pavel Bure, all of whom reached 60 last season.

But, even looking at all the stars at the All-Star Game at Madison this Saturday, there as many pure: goal-scorers as you might think. When a team needs a goal, not everyone can step forward. A hard shot is no guarantee of scoring skill, nor is skating speed alone.

In fact, goal-scorers carry mystery with them on the ice: How exactly do they do it?

"Why does someone hit home runs and someone doesn't?" says Gartner, who recently became, the sixth NHL player to score 600 goals. "I think you can explain it, but I don't know if you can teach it."

LaFontaine says, "You get in a groove, you just do it, then you say |How did I do that?' It's reaction. It's something that just happens."

Players can't fully communicate their gift, but they mention several factors in goal-scoring: Release. Accuracy. Skating speed. Screening a goaltender. Good linemates. Shooting the puck. And taking punishment.

Those are the physical components, the part you can measure and sometimes even teach. But there's another side, the mental side, where the mystery resides. Getting in the open. Timing. A sense of the situation. Instinct. Hunger. These You can't teach.

In the split-second when the puck arrives, the mental and physical aspects merge to turn on the red light. Think of it as a goal-scoring symphony. We can see the notes and the instruments, but only the players can hear the music.

"I always come to the conclusion that it's timing and anticipation, a sixth sense," LaFontaine says. "It's rare you see a guy score a whole lot of different ways. Pure goal-scorers seem to score from an area. That's their knack. They have a feel for that part of the ice.

"So much is timing. A lot of the time you'll hear people say that with goal-scorers, the puck seems to follow them."

Take a goal that Hull scored recently against the Rangers in St. Louis. With the Blues' goalie pulled for an extra attacker in the waning moments of the game, Hull passed the puck while at the left boards some 10 feet inside the zone. He then glided to the net as his teammates worked for a shot. Sure enough, Hull reached the crease just as a rebound landed at his skates. He swept it in; all the work had been done by his teammates and his innate sense.

"I didn't know I had those instincts when I was growing up in the game," Hull says. "I just played. I used to be a shooter because I couldn't skate that well.

"I could shoot so well that I would overpower goalies and score. But I found out that wasn't enough when I got to the NHL. I had to skate better, lose some weight, and get myself in better shape. That allowed me to get to the holes to get my shot off.

"That,s when I learned I had the instincts to be a goal-scorer in the NHL. All of a sudden, the things that I probably always could do came into play because I had a quicker step, I had more jump and I was playing with quicker and smarter players."

High or low, deke or slap shot, deflection or wrist shot, nothing matters except the result. Andreychuk showed it at the Meadowlands Arena, when he scored his 30th goal of the season. Arriving in the right circle for his own rebound, Andreychuk whacked at the puck just as the Devils' Bobby Brodeur Carpenter did. Suddenly the puck was fluttering over goalie Martin Brodeur into the net.