NHL Wants To Emulate Golf Equipment Advances

Hockey is looking enviously at the advances in golf equipment technology. NHL dot Com reports that:

On the golf course, players can hit it further, straighter and more consistently than ever before. What’s happening on the ice isn’t much different.

“Look at how far golf has come using the composite technology,” Ned Goldsmith, Easton’s vice president of hockey told NHL.com. “And they’re 15 years ahead of us. I think there is still more that can be done. It’s funny, when the composite sticks came out, hockey is a pretty traditional sport, and the old school said, ‘What the heck are these things?’ and, ‘Why do we need them? Guys are going to be shooting 300 miles an hour,’ and I think they missed the point. It’s not that guys are shooting harder, it’s that guys can get great shots off without having to take a full slap shot, in less time, sometimes with one hand on the stick. It’s helped them create these highlight reels.

“Same as golf,” Goldsmith says. “Yes, there were some distance improvements, but now a lot of what you get is optimizing so that you don’t have to hit it absolutely perfectly and still get that distance. So I think that’s really what the opportunity is with sticks, which is very much in line, certainly with what we think the NHL wants to do, and that’s put the puck in the net. It’s in its infancy if you think about it. Wood has been around for so long, but composite sticks are really relatively young.”

They should be careful what they wish for.