In the history of the National Hockey League (founded in 1917), there have been 16 goals scored by goalies.
Of those 16 goals, goalies were credited for 7 of them simply because they happened to be the last opposing player to touch the puck. In other words, the goalie sent the puck out of his zone, it was intercepted by an opposing player who somehow or another managed to get the puck into his own goal.
The other 9 were actual shots taken by the goalie that went into the net.
In the history of the Boston Bruins (founded in 1924), only one goalie has ever scored a goal and that happened last night when Linus Ullmark stopped a shot to the right of his goal, turned towards the opposing goal, lined up and lifted the puck about 25 feet in the air, over the heads of every player on the ice and into the Canucks empty net.
Just so you understand how difficult that is, the distance between goal lines on a standard ice hockey rink is 178 feet. The distance between the posts on a standard ice hockey net is 6 feet by 4 feet.
That means Ullmark had to first stop the puck, turn his body so he was in a position to shoot the puck, line up the shot, flick his wrist just right so the puck would rise into the air over everyones head, have the puck land flat enough so it didn't careen off to one side or the other and have it hit a target 6 feet across. He did all of that using a stick that was
not designed to make shots and while wearing approximately 50 pounds of equipment.
Pretty damned impressive.
Oh, and the Bruins won 3-1. They are now at .819 on the season.
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The Red Sox beat the Rays 7-6 this afternoon but that's not what I wanted to talk about. I want to talk about the new rules in place.
Pitch Clock
The pitcher now has 20 seconds to make his pitch. This is cut back to 15 seconds if the bases are empty. This rule also applies to the batter who "must be in the box and alert to the pitcher by the 8 second mark". Pitchers can also only throw over to a base two times in an attempt to throw out a runner. If they throw a third time and they do not get the runner out, the pitcher will be charged with a balk and the runner will advance.
I can't say I like or dislike the pitch clock. Some pitchers take way to long to throw the ball and other pitchers throw over the first base half a dozen times so I guess the rule will be a good thing.
No More Defensive Shifts
Infielders must have both feet on the dirt and there must be two infielder on each side of second base. Outfielders can still be positioned as the manager sees fit but there can only be three players on the outfield grass.
This one I dislike. Professional hitters should be able to hit a baseball to any spot on the field that is open. I used to scream at David Ortiz to just freakin' bunt the ball to that big open spot at third when they shifted on him but he never listened. He instead hit a fly out to one of the four outfielders positioned in right field. Or even better, he hit into a double-play ground ball to one of the four infielders between second and first.
Bigger Bases
The three bases are now flatter and bigger. Home plate is unchanged. This change is designed to make it safer for the base runners and the base players. It should minimize the chance of a collision between the runner and the baseman.
Again, I neither like or dislike this rule. The extra three inches of base will definitely help prevent collisions but there is an argument that it helps with stealing bases. I'm not sure 3 inches will help a runner make a steal but I guess we'll see what impact this has.
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I found this video on a thumb drive. It's from January, 2022. It is the main reason I don't trust Alexa:
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The Professor made her famous baked stuffed shrimp.
While I enjoy that, you can enjoy these:
