Just read an article by Kevin Maywood of The Columbus Dispatch yesterday--perhaps inspired by Alex Ovechkin's impending visit that night?--on the mechanics of the hockey slapshot.

"They compress the stick into the ice 6 to 10 inches behind the puck; that bows the stick, storing energy," said Terry Walker, a physics professor at Ohio State University.

"The key . . . is the speed they push the stick into the ice."

Try that with a golf club.

The telltale sign of the slap shot is its sound -- a "click-click" just before most of us see the puck flying into the net or gobbled up by a goaltender's glove.