[27-Jan-2016] Tracking the puck... just where did that little devil get off to now?!

It's an interesting conundrum. How does one track a puck, keeping the cost of the puck itself low enough that the puck can still be lost in the stands, given away, or autographed and sold without breaking the bank?

Assuming the lines on the ice are fixed and stationery, I wonder if it would be possible to integrate something into the ice at the goal line and in other critical areas that would be able to, under certain lighting conditions (such as black light) highlight the location of the puck. I'm not explaining this very well... 

Let's start with the basic black puck. It's 3" wide, 1" thick, and weighs 5.5-6 ounces. What if the puck had a fluorescent edge that could be lighted up from the PoV of the camera in the arena? Or heck, what if the whole thing could be made to fluoresce, like those 1970s blacklight paintings? And what if the lines had some fluorescence about them, so that they could also light up? You'd need a camera capable of picking up the spectrum the fluorescent edge and lines lived in... but wouldn't that make it a bit easier to track where the puck went, assuming it's not obscured? 

I mean, suddenly you have this obnoxious, bright green puck running around, and there's this obnoxious bright blue/bright pink line. It'd be really easy to see if the puck crossed the line, under the right lighting (which could be turned on/off in the replay). 

I'm not making a lot of sense, but it's a start... Fluorescent pucks, and post-processing that turns on a blacklight... of course, how to keep the white painted rink from bouncing into obnoxious as well could be tricky... It's a thought.

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Meanwhile, tonight, the Caps face off against the Philadelphia Flyers at 8:00 PM, and I shall be there, in my TJ Oshie shirsey. Say that five times fast! Oshie Shersey! Oshie Shersey! Oshie Shersey! Oshie Shersey! Oshie Shersey! 

#^&*@#!^)@

Let's go, Caps! Let's head into the All Star break with another W in the books. 

Michal Neuvirth once referred to Braden Holtby as his "weakest competition yet," or something of that ilk. I can only say that, like all other Caps fans, I hope this means that the HoltBEAST shellacs the Flyers tonight.