>>> "(No Name)" <[log in to unmask]> 02/12/97 11:09am >>>
>>>Craig Lisko/HCS/CSC
>>>02/12/97 12:09 PM
>>>How do you solve this. Each school has a stick gauge. Have the players use
>>>it before the game starts. How often do you see a player suddenly change
>>>sticks when it starts to get late in the game? Gee, I wonder why he is
>>>changing sticks; Could that first one be illegal?
>>>Craig Lisko
>>>Ferris State 1990-1994
 
I saw some stick-changing late in the Lowell-Amherst game last weekend. Two
players from Amherst both had their sticks changed as they came off the ice ...
which was also the beginning of a Lowell powerplay. I assumed that these two
players were the next shift of penalty-killing forwards and that they were
switching to longer shafts (defenseman size) for fore-checking. Actually, there
is a lot of stick-changing throughout the games.
 
Also, when a team makes an illegal-stick appeal, aren't they risking a penalty if
their "target" stick actually turns out to be legal? If so, any coach who tries
this tactic late in a game is savvy and cunning. I'm sure they wouldn't try it
unless the offender has a stick which is obviously illegal. Any team who gripes
when this tactic is attempted, are simply whiners with no sportsmanship.
Otherwise, they'd be playing within the rules and not using sticks that are SO
ILLEGAL that an opposing coach would risk a penalty in challenging it. Any team
who gets caught twice are simply fools.
 
- Paul.
 
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