Curves

Last night the Preds lost at Atlanta. We should have won that game for a number of reasons. We outplayed them. Our goalie played AMAZING. We're a better team.

Like I said. A number of reasons.

The one reason we lost (of the many) that irked me the most...that caused me to write this post...was the stick of Ilya Kovulchuk.

Yes, he leads the league in scoring (33 goals), but his ability with the stick is not my topic. It was the legality of it. Or, better put, the illegality of it.

Shortly after Kovulchuk scored his goal, our team moved to have the official check his stick. See, the NHL prohibits sticks from having too much curve. An extra curve means the puck comes off the stick with more velocity...much more.

But the Thrashers banded together as a team to keep their star's mischief from coming to light. Accounts vary, but between Pete and Terry's broadcast crew and members of the Predators organization...there were enough eye-witness accounts of how the illegal stick was passed down the bench to the trainer, who scuttled off down the hall to the dressing room to hide the stick. Someone also thoughtfully passed a legal stick to Ilya.

By the time the ref was about to check the stick, coach Trotz realized it had been swapped...and called the whole thing off. Pete even said on the broadcast that he was told by his broadcast crew that the stick was handed to a trainer and run back down to the locker room.

We wouldn't have gotten the goal wiped off. But we could have had a power play (and Kovulchuk would have been fined). You never know after that what might have happened.

Ilya's been penalized and fined for illegal sticks three times in his three-year career. His coach denied that he used an illegal stick. But when asked about it, Kovulchuk (who is Russian) said, in English: "They tried calling my stick, but I was using the legal one for the last 10 minutes,''

Sure makes it sound to me like he's admitting having used an illegal stick at some point in the game.

In the picture I posted above...at least in the version of that picture that the Tennessean ran in their print edition today...you can even see the curve of the stick as he follows-through his shot...and it sure looks a hell of a lot curvier (sp?) than it should be.

The whole thing just has be steamed. That a pro hockey player would Sammy Sosa his NHL stick (juice it up for better results) is bad enough. That the entire team from the players to the trainers to the freakin' coach would lie collectively to help cover it up...that's just too much for my feeble little moral compass to take.

It just goes to prove what we already knew: Atlanta isn't ready to compete with the best in the league...at least not by adhering to the rules.