This may seem more than a little insensitive or callous because yesterday was Memorial Day and I'm not writing about that. My view is that it's been better covered than I could ever hope to do from my relatively sheltered place in the world. I did spend time thinking of my Uncle Peter who died in the Pacific in WWII. My grandmother grieved for him three times because twice the Navy department sent a condolence telegram when he was still alive - they just didn't know it. Sadly, the third time was the evil charm and Peter had been killed. I offer my thoughts and prayers for everyone who has lost family members or who is suffering the after-effects of war.
On the flip side, Monday was a great day in my little sports world. The Giants pulled out a miracle, and the Chicago Blackhawks almost did the same.
In the Giants' game against the Milwaukee Brewers, they were down 4 to 0 early on. It was depressing because it looked like the last two games in Colorado all over again in which they lost 3 to 5 and 2 to 11. Then, in the sixth inning, their bats came to life. They scored seven runs in the one inning, and held the Brewers to their four runs through the end of the game - really great after getting their collective clock cleaned Sunday in Denver.
In hockey the Stanley Cup playoffs are looming and it's really exciting. I highly recommend that you take a look - for just one period - even if you're not a sports fan. Ice hockey is easily the fastest most exciting sport on two feet. Even when they fight, which isn't as often as I used to think, it's rare for anyone to get hurt because they all have helmets, padding and heavy sweaters (that's what hockey jerseys are called) and thick gloves.
Anyway, in their game against the Anaheim Ducks, the Blackhawks almost pulled a miracle similar to the Giants.
At the end of the first period they were down two goals to zip with only three, just three shots on goal. It was embarrassing. In the second period they came back and tied it, then Anaheim went ahead four to two. We thought the 'hawks were dead, but in the last two minutes they pulled out two goals to tie the game 4 to 4, forcing it into overtime. Man! It was exciting.
The one thing that I came to realize in watching the game, is the criticality of geometry in the sport. Yep, believe it or not, math is a crucial element in ice hockey.
Now this is gonna get real boring but I find it interesting because it's a matter of different approaches and how they can affect the outcome of a game - even one as important as a playoff game.
Because I noticed the different methods the two goalies have for defending their nets, I checked the NHL regulations online and learned stuff I didn't know, which I'll share in a minute. First, though, the goalies.
Andersen, the goalie for Anaheim, is like a trapdoor spider - he almost always lurks inside the frame of the net, minimizing the clear area for the puck to pass through.
Crawford, the Blackhawks' goalie, almost always comes out into the blue area in front of the net (called the crease which is six feet wide by six feet deep).
So there's the difference and here's the problem: A regulation hockey net is six-feet wide by four-feet high. The opening, then, is twenty-four square feet.
If Andersen stays inside the frame of the net opening, and he is squatting down to a height of four feet with a width of his shoulders plus sweater, plus pads, etc. of two feet, he is filling - without his stick, arms, gloves and legs - eight square feet or one-third of the area of the net opening. Moving back and forth, he has a much smaller area to defend, and a much greater chance of defending successfully.
When Crawford comes out into the crease (and frequently to the front of it), he leaves the net wide open for the opposing team to score. Each foot he moves away from the frame of the net is the equivalent of twenty-four cubic feet. If he's all the way at the front edge of the blue area - six-feet in front of the net, there is 144 cubic feet of space that he has to defend. Now, allowing his height (which, for the sake of the exercise here we'll say is 6'-6" [I think he's 6'-7" but the math is too hard with that]) and equivalent width (two feet), we're looking at a coverage space of fifteen square feet. But even with rounding that is 1/10th of defensible area - much, much less than Andersen's 1/3 coverage.
So credit where credit is due: with all that potential space, Crawford is incredible. He's a highly effective defense-man and quite possibly, because of his effectiveness, the best in the biz. I mean, if he can defend 144-cubic feet of space well enough that they've gotten this far through their season and the playoffs, he's nothing less than amazing!
Now, though, does anyone have the e-mail address for the Blackhawks? This is huge in terms of potential for winning the series and going onto the final round. With his incredible abilities in front of the net, what if Crawford stayed home - within two-feet of the opening? Could anyone get around him to score?
Stay tuned - next game between these two teams is Wednesday...
Best~
Philippa
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