Oh my. Never knew the blade had to be a certain thickness. Hmm, wonder if their good buddy Martin Gerber had anything to do with that call? Come on. Spezza was obviously aware of it and it looks like Gerber was too.

Posted by Performance Parts on 03/10/09 at 07:12 AM ET

Within the rules to ask for a measurement. I have no problem with that.

But to assume Spezza is the only player with an illegal stick in the NHL would be dumb.

Posted by BigSensFan on 03/10/09 at 07:19 AM ET

Spezza is a friggin’ clown if he’s going to pull what he pulled (watch the video—he intentionally broke the stick on purpose in the faceoff circle before the puck drop, then went to try and switch to another one before he got caught)… and THEN claim he didn’t know it was illegal.

What an idiot.  As they said on the video:  the camera flat-out caught him.  He has no gripe, he has no complaint.

“Nobody here knows the rules. I don’t know what the clarification is. We still never got an answer. (Refereee Dan O’Halloran) just told me it was too skinny. It’s apparently too skinny. Real dangerous, I guess.”

And yet the camera caught you trying to break it and hide it, Jason… admit you got caught, that you knew it, and take your medicine.

But don’t then try to claim ignorance and that “nobody knows the rules”.

What a tool.

Posted by Primis on 03/10/09 at 08:06 AM ET

he intentionally broke the stick on purpose in the faceoff circle before the puck drop, then went to try and switch to another one before he got caught

If you look at the video, you’ll notice that they are measuring one of his sticks, a completely intact stick, so broke or not he wouldn’t be hiding anything, he’d be coming out with the same stick. He actually didn’t break it (unless it’s imperceptible, he’s handing a perfect-looking stick to the bench at 1:46), and he fished it out again. It was illegal in the end, sure enough.

And it’s still quite true that on any team out there, you will find illegal sticks, though it’s the curve that’s usually the culprit.

Posted by SENShobo from Waterloo, ON on 03/10/09 at 08:19 AM ET

I find Wilson’s comments hilarious.

If the stick was so dangerous, why not ask for the measurement in the 1st period. After all you are protecting your players from this ‘evil’ guy brandishing a weapon.

Someone phone GW Bush and let him know we found weapons of mass destruction.

Give me a break Wilson dont get all holier than thou about it

Posted by BigSensFan on 03/10/09 at 09:14 AM ET

Odd this happened last night.  I saw a shot of Ovechkin on the bench on sunday and it was pretty obvious the curve he had going there was illegal.  I started thinking about if coaches actually still considered calling stick checks.  Seems like it would just turn into a big mess because I’m positive quite a few players use illegal curves/blade configurations and it.  I always figured it was sort of an unwritten rule to let that stuff go....apparently, Ronnie wanted to give his team a chance to win, cuz you know the points are so important to them right now.

Posted by Russian Rocket on 03/10/09 at 09:51 AM ET

Ha!  That stick looks like he played too much street hockey with it!  I’ve never seen a professional with a stick like that. Look at all the tape on the end. What would be the benefit?  Digging pucks along the boards maybe?

Posted by dip from philly on 03/10/09 at 12:40 PM ET