Who has the fastest slap shot on the Islanders at 103 mph?

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Call it the generation slap shot gap. The blasts, once ubiquitous in the NHL, continue their decline as the speed of the game dictates players fire off quicker wrist shots or hybrid one-timers.

And the experiences of Islanders defensemen Ryan Pulock, 31, and rookie Matthew Schaefer, 18, illustrate the changing emphasis.

“Time and space has probably shrunk in our game and the slap shot takes a little bit more time,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said before the Islanders opened a seven-game road trip with a 2-1 shootout loss on Thursday night in Nashville. “So it’s hard to get off and once you don’t get them off a few times, you stop taking them.”

The Islanders are averaging 2.8 slap shots per game according to NHL.com, the fourth straight season that number has declined. That’s in stark comparison to the 7.3 slap shots they averaged in 2011-12.

But Pulock loved taking slap shots as a youth and still caters some of his game around his booming point shot. In fact, he uses a stick with a 112 flex (the higher the flex number, the stiffer the stick) to help his shot strength. He said most players use whippier sticks with a 95 flex or less.

Pulock has taken nine of the Islanders’ 10 hardest shots this season and the only two that have exceeded 100 miles per hour. His hardest was 103.01 mph against the Kraken on Nov. 23 at UBS Arena, the league’s second fastest shot this season behind the Bruins’ Morgan Geekie (103.03 mph), according to statistics kept by NHL.com Edge.

“I spent a lot of time as a kid at the rink with my brothers, open ice, throughout the winter,” said Pulock, who grew up in Dauphin, Manitoba. “At times, you’re just bored. You’re on the ice by yourself, literally just shooting. Skating, shooting slap shots. From a young age, it was always a bit of a strength of mine so I kept using it during that spare time on the ice, just slap shots. Hundreds. Over and over again.

“Now there’s times where I feel I should use it more because it is a strength of mine and it can be a weapon. The game has changed a little bit in terms of speed. It’s a little faster and a slap shot takes an extra second to get off. But I do think there’s a time and a place for it.”

Bo Horvat leads the Islanders with 18 slap shots, which have produced three goals. Pulock is third with 15, though he has yet to score on one. Schaefer is fourth with 13 slap shots that have netted one goal.

Still, Schaefer, whose hardest shot was clocked at 93.91 mph according to NHL.com Edge, admitted to relying on it less now that he’s in the league.

“When I was younger, nobody else really took slap shots,” said Schaefer, who grew up in Hamilton, Ontario. “I would always take slap shots from the blue line. My dad loves a good slap shot. But as you get older, you don’t have as much time, sometimes.”

That extra split second needed to raise the stick into a good shooting position gives goalies and defenders more time to set themselves to block the attempt.

“It’s definitely easier when you know the guy is going to take the shot so you can align yourself where you think the net is, because you can’t really see the net behind you,” said center and top penalty killer Jean-Gabriel Pageau, whose 36 blocked shots are the most among Islanders forwards. “When it becomes annoying is when he fakes the shot and goes around you. But the [slap shot] is probably the easiest to block.”

“If a guy has got his stick teed up, usually he’s, more than not, committing to the shot,” said ESPN and NHL Network analyst Kevin Weekes, a former Islanders goalie whose 11-season playing career ended in 2009. “And with the velocity and power of a slap shot, you can’t cheat that. If he doesn’t have that big wind up, you still have to honor him but, depending on the situation, you may not 100% have to square up because he might have a pass option, too.”

Weekes said he always preferred facing a slap shot as a result.

“As much as you preferred seeing them because they were a little more predictable, they hurt way more,” Weekes said. “But what hurts the most is when they turn the red [goal] light on.”

Pageau confirmed “it’s never fun,” to get in front of a slap shot, though he added part of the Islanders’ success is a commitment to doing so despite the physical toll.

Pulock said he’s seen opponents shy away.

“There’s moments where guys are willing to get there and I think there’s moments guys are a little hesitant to get there,” Pulock said. “Sometimes you take one early and it gets blocked but it opens another lane for you later on when they don’t really want to come back.”

Notes & quotes: The Islanders continue their road trip on Saturday night against the Wild at Grand Casino Arena.