Spezza Gets Caught With Illegal Stick, Do You Care?
March 11, 2009 by Jeanne Dupuis
Filed under Fan Fare, NHL, NHL coaches, News, Ottawa Senators, Players, Toronto Maple Leafs, Video
Talk about desperate. Toronto Maple Leafs coach, Ron Wilson, actually asked officials to measure Jason Spezza’s hockey stick (with just over 2 minutes left in the game) knowing that it would give his team a power-play during their loss against the Ottawa Senators on Monday night. "Our players competed like heck," said Wilson. "I wanted at the end to give our guys a chance to win, they tried so hard. The guy is using a stick that’s not only illegal but dangerous. I had an opportunity to call it, so I did… Unfortunately, our power play stunk so what are you going to do?" said Wilson.
I’m not going to lie, though, I laughed out loud when I saw Spezza trying to swap his stick around the 51 second mark. Even better, around 1:40 it showed a replay of the moment when Spezza realized what was happening. He actually drops his blade to the ice and steps on it, in an attempt to break it before the refs catch it. Watch this:
Officials found that the blade on Spezza’s stick was below regulation as it approached the toe. "Real dangerous, I guess," said an annoyed Spezza sarcastically. "They told me (the blade) was too skinny. I shave them down to be skinnier."
It’s rare for a team to draw a penalty based on illegal sticks which brings up the question of whether people even care since almost no coaches call players out for using them. I’d like to know what you think? Was Wilson justified or was this just lame?
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] his Leafs could forge a comeback in a game against the Ottawa Senators by securing a power-play for reporting Jason Spezza’s illegal hockey stick. Tags: game misconduct, ron wilsonRelated StoriesSpezza Gets Caught With Illegal Stick, Do [...]
[...] wants to win (sorry, Leafs fans). Sure, he might have looked like a complete ass when he had the officiators measure Jason Spezza’s (Ottawa) stick in an attempt to get his team a power-play opportunity and maybe he got ejected from a later game [...]