Mystery Puck

[Dave Gray]

I'll see if I can find a video, BUT...

I was watching PTI the other day and there was a clip from an NHL game of a puck flying into a goal and then deflecting off of nothing, to miss the net.  The angle of deflection is pretty sharp.  Maybe it's just an optical illusion, or maybe something is causing the trajectory to bend, but it really looks like it's hitting a plexiglass wall or something. 

Any thoughts on what might cause this?

Edit: Here's the clip -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id-BoyJdfqI

[fyo]

One of the top comments on the youtube page appears to have a solid theory: The goalie hitting it caused the puck to spin (flip-wise) and the deflection happened right when it hit the ice

The physics would certainly hold, but it's just not possible to tell without some better footage. It does look from the straight-on camera (not the top-view) that the deflection occurs right around when the puck hits the ice, but the video quality and framerate just isn't good enough to say anything for sure.

Does look totally weird, though, no question.

[Dave Gray]

My thought when I first saw it was similar to what you're suggesting -- that there is a flaw on the ice and the spinning puck's edge just caught it in a weird way, causing it to deflect.  From the above view, it's hard to determine where the puck is actually hitting the ice.  The view from center ice is equally weird.

[Brian Fein]

Couple things -
A lot of goalies will come out and rough up the crease area.  That whole area looks really rough, with snow and stuff everywhere.  It could have been a small pile of snow that it bounced off of.  That seems far fetched but I suppose possible.

Secondly, the since the puck came off the goalie as a glancing blow, it probably had a lot of spin on it.  Like those shots in tennis where the ball has so much back spin it bounces funny.  Given the force of the shot and the low friction of the ice, this also seems unlikely.

However, these two theories, when combined, seem plausible.  I could see how a spinning puck could hit a pile of snow and bounce funny.  Its a crazy play, but quite intriguing.

[AZ Fins Fan 55]

I saw this yesterday after a friend sent it to me. I must have watched it 15 times and I still couldn't get a grasp on how this was possible but it is very interesting to say the least.

[TonyB0D]

this happens sometimes, there's a lot of spin on that puck, combined with the rough crease area (the play was the last minute of the period...the crease is a MESS by then).  simple physics!

[wyvernmcd]

A lot of goalies will come out and rough up the crease area. 

You make it sound like its a bad thing 

Actually, a lot of crease areas are not 100% flat and smooth. Many of the ice creases I have been on have one or two big grooves in it and if the puck dipped from Quick (the Kings goalie) getting any part of the puck could cause a plausible situation. There are some weird things that I have seen playing on ice before; nothing as odd as this, but physically is something that I could see happen. I can't remember if the Florida ice had any grooves on it. It has been a while since I was skating on that ice but there are a lot of scratches and snow piles around the crease during games.

One odd thing that happened to me was when I took a shot on the mid-front right shoulder and the puck "crawled" on me. Because there was so much spin on the shot (I think it was a point shot), it traveled up the shoulder and dropped behind me. Luckily it didn't go in but I thought that there was a HELL of a lot of spin on that shot. It was not the first time it happened to me.

[dolphins4life]

You know what that reminded me of:

That kickoff in the 2002 vs. the Patriots that didn't bounce into the endzone.  It seemed like it was going right until the very last second, then seemed to break the laws of physics and caromed back the other way.

I was a kicker in high school.  I kicked hundreds, if not thousands of footballs off tees in practice.  I can't ever recall one bouncing like that kickoff did.

That puck was like the same thing.

Just really strange.   

[Dave Gray]

^ Can you link a video of this play?  I don't remember which one you're talking about.

[Sunstroke]

If you look at the ice at the exact point where the puck veered off, there is an off colored angle line that looks like a small furrow in the ice. At the angle the puck was coming, a glance off that furrow would cause it to change direction exactly like it did.

[dolphins4life]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7jjX0lTgMc

It was right after the Patriots scored to make it 24-21.

I still can't see how the ball didn't bounce into the end zone.