Years ago there was a hockey player in the NHL named Fern Gauthier. He played briefly for the New York Rangers and the Detroit Red Wings. Gauthier’s problem was his shooting. It was so unreliable that someone wisecracked Gauthier couldn’t shoot the puck into the ocean.
Gauthier found out about the remark. He saw a chance to prove the joker wrong. The next time the Red Wings went to New York, he rounded up some photographers and they all took the subway to Coney Island.
As the photographers snapped away, Gauthier took a mighty swipe at the puck. He hit a glancing blow and it missed the water. He shot again, and the same thing happened.
Finally, Gauthier managed to smack the next three shots into the Atlantic Ocean.
From The Giant Book of Strange But True Sports Stories by Howard Liss. Illustrations by Joe Mathieu.
https://www.nhl.com/news/detroit-red-wings-fernand-gauthier-went-along-with-1947-stunt/c-294977308
The NHL link tells the story differently. Oddly enough, even though both stories mention photographers present, I couldn’t find a picture anywhere–not even on NHL.com