Just imagine: Hockey players taking the ice with magnets embedded in their equipment.
It is the stuff of dreams. The theory, according to a cohort of engineering students at Carnegie Mellon University, is that with magnets also fitted into the boards, the similarly magnetized players would be repelled when they approached the walls and avoid injury-causing impacts.
“Think of two magnets being pushed together,’’ explained Diana Haidar, assistant teaching professor in mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon. “It’s the same polarity. They bounce off each other. So if you’re going to slam into a hard wall, when you approach, you bounce off because of the natural force.’’
It was just an idea. Ideas regularly bloom into invention.
Such brainstorming was the impetus behind the Rethink the Rink Make-A-Thon, which took place in March, as a collaboration between Carnegie Mellon, polymers producer Covestro, and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The challenge for the students was to devise boards to make the rink safer while maintaining pace of play. It is not an easy thing to do. No other sport operates at such high velocity and intensity without out-of-bounds territory. When a player crashes into the boards, it does not feel very good.
Rinks at every level use different boards. But most of the systems work on the same premise. They are usually 42 inches high, with plastic slabs sandwiched around metal frames. Some are built into steel dams. Others are tucked into concrete foundations. They are designed to give slightly upon player impact, but to be rigid enough to promote lively bounces of the puck. At professional facilities, the boards must be taken down easily and quickly for changeovers to concerts, basketball games, and other entertainment options.
During their tour of PPG Paints Arena, the Penguins’ home rink, the students recognized that the boards could be improved upon in many ways. But when equipment managers, doctors, and facilities personnel explained their areas of concern — injuries, materials cost, game flow, ease of teardown — the students understood the depth of the problem they were trying to solve.
If the students proposed a protective layer of rubber or foam on the boards to reduce the impact of player collisions, it would compromise the liveliness of the puck’s caroms. If they designed complicated multicomponent panels, they were risking delays if the boards were damaged during a game. If they wanted a system attached to the ceiling via a suspended beam as well as to the floor, they were asking arena owners to invest hefty sums.
One solution could cause several more problems downstream.
“As a lifelong hockey fan, I thought I knew about the boards and the problem of the boards,’’ said Izzy Roscoe, a senior with a double major in mechanical engineering, and engineering and public policy. “But after hearing from the doctors and equipment managers, I can tell you how complex and how many design constraints there are. As a lifelong hockey fan, I don’t want the experience to change. I don’t want puck play to change. So it was about getting our team around those issues.’’
Carnegie Mellon was on spring break during the Make-A-Thon. Approximately 25 of the engineering students didn’t care.
On March 12, they gathered information. The next day, they split into five groups and brainstormed ideas. March 14 and 15 were prototyping days, when the students shaped their designs into reality.
This is a sweet spot for students such as Roscoe. The maker movement is operating at full speed. Manufacturing costs have decreased. Even middle schools have 3-D printers for their students to use. Computer processing power is robust. Earlier generations of engineering students sometimes never progressed beyond concepts because of financial and mechanical boundaries. Today, ideas turn into objects overnight.
“We absolutely require prototyping,’’ Haidar said. “Prototyping is the process where you fabricate different pieces of a design project and test them. It never works the first time. But there’s refabrication, design, and the iterative process of design. Without a facility like our makerspace, we couldn’t do design projects. We’d write it all into a report, and the report would be the end of the project. With all our facilities, laser cutters, an entire machine shop, students have all the equipment — one of just about anything. A 3-D printer in the corner doesn’t cut it anymore.’’
On March 16, the final day of the event, the teams pitched their designs — on the ice at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, the Penguins’ practice rink. Haidar and Roscoe did not disclose the nature of the students’ pitches because they are proprietary. It is possible that Covestro and the Penguins will consider some of the designs for additional study and production.
In general terms, Haidar explained that one of the designs examined the interior of the boards to allow for permissible deformation. In this design, the boards would still have their current liveliness. But the materials within the boards would provide additional give upon player impact. Haidar compared it to a foam bed that contours to a person’s shape and weight.
“The outer material allows the puck to bounce off,’’ Haidar said. “The exterior has to be hard. Redesigning the interior, how do we absorb this energy? All the energy is currently going into joints and breaking bones. Instead of having the player absorb it all, we’re letting the design of the wall absorb it instead.’’
Haidar provided feedback for the students and guided them out of traffic jams. But she noted that the students charged through the week without much imposition of outside assistance.
“We had a somewhat structured Make-A-Thon, but not too structured,’’ Haidar said. “It was structured enough so they had all the tools they needed at the moment they needed them. They did in one week what I’ve seen some students do in an entire semester with a design project. It really tells you about the power of focus, information, and space for creativity.’’
It is unknown whether Roscoe’s pitch will advance to manufacturing. She hopes it does.
“I kept thinking how cool it would be one day to walk into an NHL rink and point to the boards,’’ Roscoe said. “ ‘You see those boards? I made those boards.’ ’’
LETTING IT RIP
Ovechkin the best on one-timers
It is one thing for David Pastrnak to consider Alex Ovechkin as one of his power-play pinups. Every right-shot ripper who is asked to occupy the left elbow would be best served watching Ovechkin work his magic. The Washington captain’s booming one-timer is a piece of art, worthy of placement alongside Monet’s loveliest lily pads.
“It’s incredible,’’ Pastrnak said of Ovechkin’s one-time touch. “It’s quick release and a hard shot at the same time. It’s crazy it’s still going in. Goalies know about it. The PK knows about it. But he still produces.’’
Ovechkin’s numbers are out of orbit. Through 77 games, he had 15 power-play goals, second most after Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine. Ovechkin led all players with 107 man-up shots on net. He had 227 career man-advantage goals, 10th most in NHL history. Ovechkin is hammering power-play pucks into nets amid two unique variables: goalies are armored up against slappers arriving at triple-digit speeds, and everybody knows what No. 8 likes to do.
Ovechkin has two factors in his favor. First, the 32-year-old has mastered the art of getting open, releasing quickly, firing from different angles, and sending all of his 235 pounds of muscle behind his one-timer. Second, he has enjoyed an 11-year relationship with Nicklas Backstrom, one of the most gifted setup men in the league.
Despite his talent, the 21-year-old Pastrnak has room to grow in both areas.
Pastrnak owns the Bruins’ best one-timer. He swings hard and rapidly. This season, he’s scored three of his 10 power-play goals via one-timers from the left elbow. He is on pace to match the four one-timers he buried last season.
But given Pastrnak’s striking abilities, he could do more damage on the power play. It may be an impossible threshold to meet, but Pastrnak has not expressed one-time skills that approach Ovechkin’s standard.
It does not help that Pastrnak no longer has Ryan Spooner, his preferred disher. Nor is it in his favor that the Bruins have adjusted the formation of their top power-play unit.
Last season, as the bumper, Patrice Bergeron was stationed closer to the net. This season, Bergeron is a step or two out, putting him in better position away from defenders to rap his quick one-timer on goal. This one tweak has helped Bergeron score nine power-play goals. The compromise, however, is that it’s narrowed the width of the cross-ice seam, the one Spooner used to thread pucks to Pastrnak.
Now, when Brad Marchand, Spooner’s half-wall successor, considers his options, his best options are Bergeron as the bumper or Torey Krug at the point instead of Pastrnak. Not even Ovechkin would do well if T.J. Oshie got in the way of Backstrom’s feathery feeds.
“Spooner, one of his strengths was finding that seam. He made a lot of those plays,’’ said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. “It was less Torey, more Ryan. It’s an easier one-timer to hit. The more diagonal it is, coming from the top, it’s a tougher one-timer to hit. The easiest one to hit is coming right at you. The one coming down toward you is the most difficult to time and get it on net. Your body’s facing the puck and away from the net. Then you’re turning to get it on net. The other one, you’re more looking at the net. It’s just a tougher shot to hit. Ovechkin seems to have mastered it. But there’s a lot of guys that have taken a while.’’
For Pastrnak, Krug has become his default setup man for the one-timer, either from Marchand on the wall or Bergeron as the bumper. Penalty kills are also shading toward Pastrnak to get in front of his one-timer.
All these variables have prompted Pastrnak to alter his attack. Of late, Pastrnak has been attacking from the left elbow with a high-volume approach — think Phil Kessel approaching off the left half-wall — instead of loading his one-timer.
“The D’s are usually stepping up and blocking the shot for the right offensive players,’’ Pastrnak said. “They pre-scout pretty well for me this time. You need to break up the play. Usually it goes from bumper, up to the top, then over. You have to break up the play or tweak it.’’
ETC.
Stars faded down stretch
Things looked really good for the Stars. On March 11, Ken Hitchcock’s club was in third place in the Central Division, 3 points back of the second-place Wild.
The Stars had no idea their tumble down and out of the playoff race was about to commence.
On March 11, the Stars launched a six-game road swing with a 3-1 loss to Pittsburgh. The plunge continued with four straight losses to Canadian teams, including two gut-punches from the lowly Canadiens and Senators. The NHL did not do the Stars any favors by starting their trip in the East, sending them to Winnipeg for Game 5 of the swing (a 4-2 loss to the high-flying Jets), then having them fly back to Washington for a 4-3 loss to conclude the trip.
But things really went sideways with a 3-2 loss to the Bruins on home ice on March 23. The Bruins were without their No. 1 center (Patrice Bergeron), two second-liners (Jake DeBrusk and Rick Nash), their No. 1 defense pairing (Zdeno Chara and Charlie McAvoy), and their top-scoring defenseman (Torey Krug). None of it mattered, as David Pastrnak swiped at least 1 point from the Stars’ clutches by scoring with 11.1 seconds remaining in regulation.
The Stars’ road trip took place at a bad time. Ben Bishop wrenched his knee against the Jets. But for the most part, the Stars believe the slide was not indicative of their play.
“If we weren’t playing well, there’d be major concerns,’’ Hitchcock said following the 0-4-2 trip. “But we’re playing awful well. We’re on the wrong side of it. I think during the regular season you can have a longer-term view of things because you know you’re going to come out of it. But we’ve got to come out of it quick. We know that. The time of season dictates that. But I really like a lot of things we’re doing. We’re competing like heck. We’re working properly.’’
The Stars would probably like to move Jason Spezza, who has one year remaining at $7.5 million. But other than that, Dallas has no major transactions. Hitchcock is safe. General manager Jim Nill has been on the job since 2013, not enough time to complete his overhaul. The Stars have no choice but to continue building.
Collegians landing immediately
Two seasons ago, Zach Werenski turned pro following his sophomore year at the University of Michigan. Werenski, the No. 8 overall pick in 2015 (squarely within the Bruins’ crosshairs following the Dougie Hamilton blockbuster), reported to Lake Erie, Columbus’s AHL affiliate, instead of landing in the NHL. Now, it sounds downright quaint. As soon as collegians are ditching their textbooks, they are touching down in the NHL. Consider the trajectories of Ryan Donato (Boston via Harvard), Jordan Greenway (Minnesota via Boston University), Troy Terry (Anaheim via Denver), Dylan Sikura (Chicago via Northeastern), and Adam Gaudette (Vancouver via Northeastern). Even the playoff teams did not hesitate to throw their ex-collegians into the deep end. They are more ready than ever to play adult hockey.
Different approach
On July 5, 2013, the Bruins landed Jarome Iginla for a $1.8 million cap hit for the following season. That’s because the Bruins gave Iginla $4.2 million in performance bonuses — $3.7 million for dressing in just 10 games. The contract structure allowed the Bruins to fit Iginla, 36 years old at the time, under their cap ceiling for 2013-14. But the bonuses resulted in significant overages to be applied toward their 2014-15 cap number. The biggest casualty was Johnny Boychuk, wheeled to the Islanders before the start of the regular season. The Bruins took a different approach with Zdeno Chara, committing $5 million in real dough to their captain next season. According to Sportsnet, he will receive a $1.25 million bonus for appearing in 10 games. He could also earn $250,000 if the Bruins make the playoffs and an additional $250,000 if they win the Stanley Cup.
Loose pucks
Quite a night for Scott Foster, the former Western Michigan goalie plunked into game action for the Blackhawks on Thursday. The 36-year-old accountant found himself in the crease when Anton Forsberg was hurt during warm-ups, then backup Collin Delia went down with cramps. Foster turned back all seven Winnipeg shots he saw to help Chicago claim a 6-2 win. Good bet Foster won’t be buying after his next beer league game . . . The offseason transactions that must take place are Daniel Sedin, Daniel Sprong, and Daniel Winnik to the Hurricanes to play on the same line. Nobody would be able to silence the Stormy Daniels.
Stick salute to all youth hockey coaches, who have concluded or are about to end their seasons. If your players are already looking forward to next season, you have done the job right.
Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fshinzawa@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeFluto. Material from interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.
