On bended knee
It has become Michael Cammalleri's signature shot...the one-timer from one knee that seems to generate good speed and accuracy on the shot. He's been doing it, to some extent, throughout his career with the Kings, but it seems as though it's becoming an increasingly bigger part of his game. I asked him about it, and he said it was something that initially developed during his final season at Michigan.
``I think I really developed it during the lockout year in the American league,'' Cammalleri said. ``I scored 46 goals that year and I'd say 30 of them were one-timers. It kind of became something that I just started going to. Brett Hull was kind of the first guy to really go down on one knee like that. He was the best one-timer of the puck, ever, and he was the first to really go down on one knee like that. So I guess I was just trying to mimic that. I'm not saying I shoot like Brett Hull, trust me. I'm just trying to do what I can. From there, it was just a matter of working on it.
``The one-knee thing, I don't even mean to do it. It just kind of helps me get leverage on the puck and make sure that I get full contact and really bear down on my shot. I kind of just do it. I don't really think about doing it. Most of the time I do it now. Sometimes I still don't but it starts to become a habit. Sometimes I'll even take a wrist shot and I feel my knee hit the ice and I think, `What am I doing?'''
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J.P. Hoornstra writes about NHL and IHL hockey for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group. He welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey.
E-mail J.P. at jp.hoornstra@inlandnewspapers.com.
Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews
.com.
Vincent Bonsignore is a sports columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News. E-mail Vinny at vincent.bonsignore
@dailynews.com.
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I'll be really honest, I can't stand it when he does that.
as long as he keeps scoring, i don't care how he does it. thanks for the background rich.
I thought that it was just me and my buddies that's noticed his one knee shots. And we love it everytime he scores like that.
I have to disagree with Cammi about Brett Hull being the best 1-timer ever.
I'd put Luc Robitaille just a tad ahead of Hull in the 1-timer dept.
Haha, I am with you on that one triplcrown, Lucky deserves some mention :P But honestly I am not a fan of it either. I mean, whatever works for the guy in the end and everything, but he loses momentum and is unable to follow-through with the shot.
It is sort of an all or nothing move unless he is alone and can get back up skate over and recover a rebound. I mean there are times and places where it is fine and called for but like the one against the Blues was sort of a lucky squeaker that got by, it would have probably been better if he held onto it, deeked, or made a normal shot and looked for a rebound in my opinion. But in the end, he got the goal and thats all that counts so that is the end of that rant :P
As for the best one timer EVER, that would have to go to Jari Kurri. Brett Hull is a close second. Lucky had a great short wind up slapper but he wasn't in the same league as those two on the one timer front.
Cammi gets that shot off and a lot of times if the pass is a little to the front that's the best way to catch it square and he does a great job. He's not the one in front of the net grabbing the rebounds anyway so I'd have to say that's not a big concern for him.