Stan Mikita: Innovation in the Sport of Hockey

 Stan Mikita was hockey player who was born in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia on May 20, 1940. He was originally born as Stanislav Guoth, but he was adopted by his aunt and uncle, Anna and Joe Mikita, when he was 8 as his parents believed that they would provide him with a better life in Canada as Czechoslovakia was then under a communist regime. Mikita would later go onto dominating the NHL as he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He would amass an impressive resume as a 2 time recipient of the Hart Memorial Trophy for league MVP, a 4 time recipient of the Art Ross Trophy as the league's leading scoring, a 2 time recipient of the Lady Bing Trophy for sportsmanship coupled with elite play, and a 9 time All-Star player. He is also the only player to win the Hart, Art Ross, and Lady Bing doing so in consecutive seasons. 

Stan Mikita's impact on the game of hockey was not only defined by his impressive resume as he also was credited with the invention of the curved blade. He did this at first by accident as his stick blade got caught in the boards and was curved. Instead of retrieving a new stick, he continued to use the broken stick and found it improved shot velocity significantly and allowed him to shoot the puck from different angles. Upon this revelation, Mikita and Bobby Hull, a fellow Hockey Hall of Fame teammate, began experimenting with warping the blades of their wooden sticks. They began by soaking the sticks in warm water and letting them curve by placing them into a door jamb overnight. They continued to improve this process by soaking the sticks in water, using a blow torch to warp the blade, and cooling it in an ice bath. This innovation led the NHL to create a rule that limited the amount of curvature on the blade of a stick.

Stan Mikita can be seen following the Geneplore model. By first breaking his stick on accident, he unknowingly generated a preinventive structure. He and Bobby Hull would go on to explore and interpret the new possibilities created by the curved blade. During this process, they would find constraints in the process of creating the warped blade and would continue to improve the process until they found it satisfactory. The motivation for this innovation was both intrinsic and extrinsic. The intrinsic motivation came from Mikita's love and passion for the sport of hockey, but he also had the extrinsic motivation of increased scoring production due to the competitive edge he now held over other players.

Mikita would forever change the sport of hockey as now all players use a curved stick due to its increased efficiency compared to that of a stick with no curve. Sticks would go on to be constantly improved to help enhance the athlete's performance, and the start of this innovation came from Stan Mikita.

https://www.grunge.com/1183522/the-hockey-stick-rule-that-completely-changed-bobby-hulls-shooting-game/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Mikita