Al MacInnis

How many times did Al MacInnis win the Hardest Shot competition?

MacInnis won the Hardest Shot event at the NHL All-Star Skills competition seven times, the standard answer to the question people type first. His best measured effort was 100.4 miles per hour in 1998, and MacInnis was still winning the event in 2003, in his last seasons with St. Louis. The odd detail is the equipment: MacInnis kept shooting with a wooden stick while the rest of the league moved to composite shafts designed to load and release harder. The speed came from a long backswing, a hand-shaped curve and timing, not from technology.

Al MacInnis' slap shot and the goaltenders who flinched

Goaltenders talked about the MacInnis shot the way they talk about injuries, because that is often what it was. Jocelyn Thibault tried to glove one and lost two weeks to it. Chris Pronger, after a puck stopped his heart, woke up convinced MacInnis was God. MacInnis knew what the shot could do, and there is a story of him refusing to shoot rather than hit an opponent in the face. The legend is built out of other players' memories, not out of radar readings alone.

The 1989 Conn Smythe Trophy and Calgary's Stanley Cup

Calgary won the only Stanley Cup in franchise history in 1989, and MacInnis was the best player in the tournament. MacInnis produced 7 goals and 24 assists in 22 games, 31 points in all, which led every scorer in those playoffs, and he was given the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. A defenceman leading postseason scoring outright is close to unheard of. MacInnis ran the Flames power play through a final against Montreal, and he has since named the toughest opponent of those years.

Why did Al MacInnis win the Norris Trophy in 1999?

MacInnis won the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the NHL's best defenceman in 1999, in his fifth season with St. Louis and well into the back half of his career. By then MacInnis was not only a shooter: he logged heavy minutes against the best forwards in the Western Conference while still running the power play. MacInnis had been a finalist several times before finally taking the award. When MacInnis retired, he ranked third among all NHL defencemen in goals, assists and points.

The eye injury that ended Al MacInnis' career

MacInnis played only a handful of games in 2003-04 before an eye injury finished his career. A detached retina in the eye he had already damaged on a high stick two seasons earlier left him unable to see well enough to play, and MacInnis sat out the rest of the season intending to return. The 2004-05 lockout then erased an entire season, and MacInnis announced his retirement on 9 September 2005, after 23 seasons. The injury is regularly raised in the long argument over visors in the NHL.

Al MacInnis in St. Louis and the retired No. 2

MacInnis moved to St. Louis in 1994 and spent his last ten seasons there, long enough that many fans think of him as a Blue first and a Flame second. The Blues retired his No. 2 on 9 April 2006, and MacInnis rejoined the organisation in a hockey operations role in 2006. In St. Louis, MacInnis is remembered as the defenceman beside Chris Pronger who made visiting goaltenders brace on every power play. MacInnis still speaks his mind about the game, as he did when he chirped Sidney Crosby over his 1,600-point milestone.

From Port Hood to the Hockey Hall of Fame

MacInnis was born in Inverness, Nova Scotia, on 11 July 1963, and grew up in Port Hood on Cape Breton Island, a long way from major junior hockey. MacInnis left for the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL in 1980, won the Memorial Cup with them in 1982, and was taken by Calgary with the 15th pick of the 1981 draft. The Hockey Hall of Fame inducted MacInnis on 12 November 2007, two years after he stopped playing, and the Blues and Flames both claim a share of the career.