Wednesday 29 February 2012

Tomas Kaberle's stick

Interesting analysis from Michel Bergeron last night about the length of Tomas Kaberle’s hockey stick, or lack thereof. A shorter hockey stick promotes puck handling and a quick shot, but a longer one is better for defensive hockey as it increases your reach. Most players will modify an inch or two max in each direction to suit their tastes, but Mr. Kaberle has a significantly shorter stick than usual. The stick is usually meant, when held straight up in front of a player with skates on, to reach between the chin and the nose, but Mr. Kaberle’s stick is well short of his chin.

Michel Bergeron explained yesterday that not only does it handicap him when he’s playing defence, but it also causes him to stoop over when he carries the puck, which brings his head down and doesn’t allow him to see up-ice as easily as if he had a normal-length stick. This might explain the bungling with the puck and the passes to nowhere or icings he causes, especially from a veteran putative puck-carrying quarterback d-man.

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