Phigment

"Flyers and NHL follow me at http://twitter.com/BobHaynesJr"

United States, VA • United States •

Bring back wood sticks

Dear NHL teams, players and fans;

Is anyone else tired of players with broken sticks during key parts of the game? If I were an NHL coach I would combat this problem with one simple solution. Wood sticks for my defensemen at all times and my penalty killing forwards would also always use wood during the PK. I am so sick and tired of these flimsy composite sticks I could spit.

Here is the rule change for the NHL. If a composite stick is broken on a slash (stick to stick) tough. Use a better stick. No penalty. If a wood stick breaks a composite stick, tough. At Game 5 of the Flyers vs Caps, we counted 15 times during play where a defender had to drop the broken stick and play without. That is once every 4 minutes. Most occur when killing a penalty too.

I cannot believe a coach hasn't gone to the use wood to kill penalties idea yet. Even for faceoffs and especially at the end of the game. Two more examples.

Game 1 Eastern Conference Semifinals
32 seconds left, killing a penalty, faceoff in your zone. Stick snaps on the draw, puck goes to Kovalev and game is tied. Does a wood stick break there? No. Does it change the outcome? It couldn't be any worse.

Game 5 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals
10 seconds left, pass from right point to left faceoff dot, Briere wide open, goalie out of the net, puck hit with one-timer ....dribbles to the net for an easy stop. Game over. As the Caps celebrated, Briere dropped the broken stick.

These sticks shoot the puck off snap and wrist shots great, but pretty much suck everywhere else. In my memory Brett Hull, John LeClaire, Al Iafrate, Al MacGinness, Reggie Leach, etc all shot the puck pretty damn hard with wood.

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