Wranglers stick to the basics, stay on the straight and narrow

Nick Christensen

Thursday, Jan. 8, 2004 | 10:02 a.m.

On the surface, hockey is a very straightforward game.

Don't interfere too much with the guy handling the puck, don't fight, and watch out for those pesky lines, and generally your team won't spend too much time in the penalty box.

Not that the Las Vegas Wranglers were paying attention Wednesday. The Wranglers racked up 16 penalty minutes, mostly for hooking, tripping and the like, but still hung on for a 5-1 win against the reeling Texas Wildcatters. Five Wranglers scored, and Marc Magliarditi logged 29 saves for Las Vegas.

While the tripping and hooking penalties that plagued the Wranglers Wednesday were pretty basic, one of hockey's quirkier and more controversial rules is anything but straightforward.

Hockey's equipment rules dictate that players' sticks can only have a certain curve to them. It's a rule that gives fits to players, headaches to equipment managers, and tactical advantage to coaches. And although it has never been called in a Wranglers game this year, it's something that players and officials had plenty to say about.

Wranglers defenseman Riku Varjamo is in his first season in America after playing in Finland, where curved sticks are legal.

"In my opinion, it's easier to get the puck from the neutral zone to my own zone," Varjamo said. "A forward can use them to hit the roof, they can shoot higher faster. I don't like them, I can't play so well on the backhand."

Varjamo said that when he first started with Las Vegas, he had a tough time adjusting to the flatter stick.

"I had it a little bit illegal," he admitted. "It's more of a mental change. That's the biggest part."

Wranglers forward Eric Schneider agreed with Varjamo.

"I think it's a personal preference," he said. "I think it's a disadvantage in passing. Your passes aren't crisp, but I don't see anything wrong with it except it's against the rules."

It's the responsibility of Wranglers equipment manager Jason Rivera to ensure that no illegal sticks are used during practice or in games.

"Some players don't want to change. They're used to so much curve. It comes down to what they want and what we can allow them to have," Rivera said. "I lock all the illegal sticks in our storage room."

Rivera then locks the sticks away for the rest of the season, like high school principals do with hats and walkmans.

But as frustrating as it can be for equipment managers like Rivera to have to police players' equipment, noticing an illegal stick can be a boon to coaches.

If a referee catches a player with an illegal stick, the player is fined and penalized. If a coach or captain makes an accusation that is not sustained, the accusing team is hit with a delay of game penalty.

The most infamous illegal stick incident was in the 1993 Stanley Cup, and was recounted Wednesday by everyone from the media relations interns to the team's co-owner, Charles Davenport.

The Los Angeles Kings were on the verge of winning their second game in the Montreal Forum, to get a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup final. Montreal coach Jacques Demers asked for a stick check on Los Angeles' Marty McSorley, and McSorley's stick was indeed illegal. Montreal used the ensuing power play and momentum to win the game, and eventually, the championship.

"It can have a huge effect," Wranglers coach Glen Gulutzan said. "You can use it to call penalties when you're down in games, you have to play from those rules... it's a good coaching tactic at certain opportunities."

His greatest memory of a stick incident involved a player breaking a stick so the referee couldn't measure it. The ECHL rulebook now says that a player who breaks the stick will get a 10-minute misconduct penalty.

Gulutzan said he was never a big fan of the greater curve, even after playing in Europe, where the stick is legal.

"It's a matter of personal preference," he said. "I tried using the big curve those guys use. You get used to playing a certain way, and you just stick with it."