GDT: Stickpuck Gaem #??

[Finlandia WOAT]

Watching the Stutzle penalty, he not only knocked the stick out of Svech's hands, he then knocked it away. Really dumb penalty to take.

 

[Stickpucker]

Watching the Stutzle penalty, he not only knocked the stick out of Svech's hands, he then knocked it away. Really dumb penalty to take.

Svechian decision making there.

 

[bleedgreen]

That was a brutal call on Stutzle. That’s standard stick jousting that happens all over the ice. That and the slash on Pinto would’ve had me throwing things at the tv going against us.

 

[Ole Gil]

He really wasn’t in position to break up the pass. He was well behind Stutzle. That’s why he held his stick like that, basically trying to extend his “wingspan” as much as possible. And when he did that, his grip on the stick was extremely loose, to the point where it was bouncing around in his glove before Stutzle even touched it. That’s a call you’re going to get 1 out of 1000 times. We got lucky it was called this time.

The fact Svech was so far behind Stutzle is probably what did Stutzle in. If Svech's was in the play, it'd have been a stick battle getting position going to the net, which isn't a penalty. But this was just Stutzle reaching way back to take a swat at svech's stick. There was no other motivation, which I think is the key to the rule.

 

[bleedgreen]

The fact Svech was so far behind Stutzle is probably what did Stutzle in. If Svech's was in the play, it'd have been a stick battle getting position going to the net, which isn't a penalty. But this was just Stutzle reaching way back to take a swat at svech's stick. There was no other motivation, which I think is the key to the rule.

Swatting someone’s stick in any situation or distance isn’t a penalty. It was a penalty because Svech was reaching with one hand on his stick and a weak grip on it. I’m fine with a lot of the rule changes over the years but this one is pretty crap - calling any dropped stick without context is nonsensical. Especially here since it was hardly Stutzle’s intent to knock the stick out of his hand. Hold onto your stick. This wasn’t a hard chop, it was a sideways swipe for maintaining positioning. My social media feeds me hockey training videos all day and there was one this week where the coach was teaching teenagers about stick battles/positioning and was teaching them to smack sticks hard to knock them out of the way. He even was advocating double hits besides everyone knows the first one is coming. This is standard and commonplace. Marchand is applauded for his work on this goal.



If the call last night makes sense then Marchand deserved two, arguably three calls on that play. Letang held onto his stick so it’s no call….if that’s the real rule then that rule is crap. We want baseball and lumberjack swings out. Not these plays. The rule shouldn’t be “but the defender lost his stick so it’s a penalty no matter what.”