Rinks just can't contain Foster's blistering slap shot

Lightning defenseman Kurtis Foster remembers the first time he hit a puck harder than the rink could handle.

"I was working at a hockey camp teaching kids how to take slap shots, and I actually put a hole in the boards," he said. "I don't know how it happened, but it was pretty funny.

"And it was kind of the ongoing joke at the hockey school for a couple of years."

Bigger and stronger now, Foster and his howitzer have been gaining fame at the St. Pete Times Forum, where the Lightning return tonight to face the New York Islanders. Four times in home games, Foster has busted one of the Plexiglas panes that shields spectators from play.

It happened again Tuesday night in Atlanta, marking the third time in the past four games Foster has broken the glass.

Foster's shot has been a weapon for the Lightning on the power play, but when the 6-foot-5, 230-pounder goes top shelf and misses - look out.

It's a misconception, Coach Rick Tocchet said, that Foster is inaccurate.

"I've played with guys that have had wild, hard shots," Tocchet said. "He's not a wild shot. When he shot those over the net, there's nobody in front of the net. When people are in front of the net, he won't shoot that high. He's very conscious of that; he's not going to break somebody's jaw."

The Lightning use half-inch-thick Plexiglas rather than tempered glass, which can shatter if it doesn't have a film layer. The acrylic plastic comes in 96-inch by 48-inch sheets that cost more than $300 each, with tax and delivery, and are cut to size on site.

When a pane is broken, longtime ice services manager Tom Miracle and his crew quickly remove it, cut and sand the edges of a new piece and fasten it to the supports.

After Foster broke a pane last week, for the second time in two games, one of Miracle's staffers jokingly suggested the team bill Foster for the expense. Miracle turned the idea into a full-fledged prank, greeting Foster at the next day's practice with a faux invoice for $1,400 and a payroll deduction form.

Foster went along with the joke.

"But I told them no way was I paying for it," he said. "I'm fighting it."

Foster isn't the only player who keeps Miracle and his staff busy. It's not uncommon for a pane to get broken in practice, when players shoot at the camera holes while practicing accuracy or when they're messing around.

"Marty St. Louis is a big one for doing that," Miracle said.

Miracle said Foster has "a (heck) of a shot, apparently," but for sheer velocity, Fredrik Modin, who played for Tampa Bay from 1999-2006, probably had him beat. Modin, now with Columbus, won the hardest shot competition at the NHL All-Star Game SuperSkills competition in 2001 with a 102.2-mph shot.

Lightning captain Vinny Lecavalier has been clocked at near 102 mph at the All-Star Game.

Foster said he hasn't been clocked by a radar gun since 2003, when he set a record at the AHL All-Star Game with a 101.5-mph shot. He said he thinks that with today's improved stick technology, he shoots harder than that.

That would seem to be the case, because the numbers are going up. Boston's Zdeno Chara set a league record at last year's SuperSkills with a 105.4-mph missile.

While Modin used to play around the net on the Lightning's power play, Foster, who enters tonight's game with seven goals and 18 assists, often plays up high on the point. It's an ideal spot from which to launch one of his lasers.

Tocchet wants him to keep shooting.

"My thing about him is, he's very consistent," Tocchet said. "For having such a hard shot, he's very accurate. He knows where it's going."