COLD HARD SCIENCE: SLAPSHOT Physics in Slow Motion - SmarterEveryDay

Yes, a hockey player with a missing tooth is frighteningly stereotypical.

The sight of the hockey stick at full flex - in motion at about 2:35 - is outstanding...as is the idea that the player likes his stick 'whippier'.

I'm not a hockey player, but I was a tennis player, and I understand the same idea in a different application. Players can choose how much tension they want in their strings when the tennis racket is strung. Stringing at a lower tension allows the ball to deflect the strings more, creating more of a trampoline effect and generating more power. The cost to that is a decrease in control - worse aim - because of that increased power.

Here's a second video going through the same physics - for the first seven minutes anyway. After the first seven, we get a look at the physics of a wrist shot and a hockey player's workout.

Personally, I prefer Destin's enthusiasm.