Word: slap
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...crouches before the goal, ready to strike out in any direction with glove, skates or oversized stick. But behind his ghostly synthetic face, he is still vulnerable. No padding or mask that leaves him free to move can fully shield him from the potentially lethal blow of a slap shot or misguided stick. Danger is his way of life...
...Bernard Marcel Parent, six weeks short of 30, hardly looks like the kind of man around whom such an up heaval could swirl, let alone the kind who would voluntarily face up to a smashing slap shot. He sports a closely trimmed mustache, graying hair and just the hint of a paunch on his 5-ft. 10-in., 195-lb. frame. He has a smooth, unscarred face despite his 18 warring years in the net. (The masks he has worn for the past 14 years have absorbed 30 direct hits.) And he has none of the swagger that might...
...puck over the blue line to home in on Parent, he is lucky if he sees some shots as they leave a stick from behind a blur of battling skaters. Worse, many shots carom off players or their sticks in front of the goal; coming off curved sticks, slap shots spin so hard that they often drop like sinkers crossing home plate. None of these difficulties seem to trouble Parent: "If I see the puck leave the stick, I know exactly where it is going...
...unable to place his entire body in the way of a shot, his glove or stick will flick out like a lizard's tongue. He works hard at keeping all his puck-stopping tools well honed to assure quicker, more precise movements. Recently when he missed two high slap shots, Parent dissected his mistake and remembered that during pregame practices, Coach Shero had asked shooters to concentrate on low shots at the goal. The next day Parent asked them to fire 50 high blasts to help him get his rhythm back...
...into the net. When Bobby Clarke skated by the Flyer goalie to encourage him, he heard Parent laughing and saying behind his mask, "Gee that kid can shoot." Another time when reporters in the dressing room spotted an ugly bruise on Parent's thigh and asked if a slap shot had caused it, he replied: "Nah, my wife bit me in a wild fit of passion...