Sticks still snapping like twigs, at terrible times
Patrick Kane, whose stickhandling skills are arguably the best in the world, spends time each summer testing out hockey sticks.
The Chicago Blackhawks superstar puts Bauer’s latest creations in his hands to test how the flexibility, weight and shape suit him and his creative game.
“I love when you get a new batch of sticks that just feel right,” Kane said. “I use a new stick every game. So, there’s no better feeling going out for warmups and knowing the stick feels good, shots are going right where you want them, and stickhandling feels smooth and effortless.”
Hockey sticks have come a long, long way over the years.
Brian Logie, a hockey historian, said hornbeam trees were the source of the first sticks in part because they were abundant in Nova Scotia, Canada, and because the roots grew into the ground at an angle like the blade of a stick. They were later made from rock elm and white ash.
As sticks evolved away from wood, laminates were incorporated and so were fiberglass-reinforced blades. Thing is, hockey sticks shatter. It happens. They break despite technological advances that turn carbon fiber into virtual extensions of a hockey players’ hands.
They are custom made for NHL players, crafted and finessed into a single piece.
Sometimes the breaks happen at the worst time.
“It’s just kind of one of those ‘Oh crap,’ moments,” Pittsburgh Penguins forward Bryan Rust said. “Bad things happen, but you’ve got to just take it and move on.”
During Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final, Pittsburg’s Chris Kunitz had to move on and play without a stick in his hands against Nashville. The winger stood in the way of a shot from Predators defenceman Ryan Ellis and the puck sliced through Kunitz’s stick.
A slash usually is what shatters a stick. One hack in the right — or wrong — place can snap a shaft in two.
Shots, too, can do damage as players do anything, especially in the playoffs, to stop or deflect a puck as Kunitz did. A skater without a stick while the other team has the puck is left relatively defenceless, needing to rely on his skates, gloves or body to impede a shot.
The blade of a player’s stick can get in the way of a puck inside the blue line and the stick may seem fine. Seconds later, though, he may find out that blocked shot was the beginning of the end for his critical piece of equipment, with bits and pieces soon all over the ice.
Earlier this post-season, that happened to Washington Capitals defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk. “You get an opportunity to take a one-timer from inside the circle as a defenceman — you don’t really get that opportunity — so you kind of give everything you can, and it’s just an unfortunate break,” Shattenkirk said. “It’s like a bad bounce. I remember when I missed it. I threw my stick down and started skating back because they almost hit a home run for a breakaway.
“It’s one of those things now with the way sticks are made, they break easier. Guys shoot the pucks harder. They’re stronger and it’s something you have to deal with from time to time.”
Penguins defenceman Ian Cole estimates he goes through between 50 and 70 sticks in a season.
Kane almost broke his tradition of using a new stick in every game last year when he had a hat trick to reach the 100-point mark against Boston.
“My stick felt good in warmups and it was my 88th stick of the year,” said Kane, who wears No. 88. “I wanted to keep using that same stick in games, but forced myself to store it away because I was afraid I would break it.”