Passing a teammate his stick along the ice is easy. Flipping it up in the air to him? Now that requires skill.
In either case, though, it’s against the rules.
Leafs’ forward Tyler Bozak lost his stick along the boards in the defensive zone. Mitch Marner came to the rescue, masterfully flipping Bozak’s stick up in the air to be caught by the Toronto player.
The sneaky play avoided detection by the on-ice officials, who – had they seen it – would’ve hit Marner with a minor.
From Rule 10.3:
A player who has lost or broken his stick may receive a replacement stick by having on handed to him from his own players bench; by having one handed to him from a teammate on the ice; or, by picking up his own unbroken stick or that of a teammate’s from the ice.
A player will be penalized if he throws, tosses, slides or shoots a stick to a teammate on the ice.
This one was definitely more of a ‘shoots’, just like the equally impressive stick flip Sidney Crosby got away with.
Amazing play. Just not a legal one.
(Stick-tap to r/hockey’s leafs_nation for the clip. Featured image courtesy Bridget Samuels.)
