Perhaps the most fun moment on the ice in the NHL this season occurred in last night’s Ducks-Wild game in Anaheim. After a race to get the puck in the Minnesota end, Wild captain Mikko Koivu lost his stick going for it in the corner . Getting the stick knocked out of your hands isn’t all that rare of an occurrence, but Koivu’s way of quickly getting a new stick to defend with was. His answer to getting a new stick was to “accidentally” grab Ducks star forward Bobby Ryan’s stick out of his hands.
With Koivu’s stick still laying on the ice and Ryan in need of a new piece of timber to help keep the offensive pressure up, he picked up Koivu’s downed stick. Wouldn’t you know it, the Ducks get a shot on a goal and the rebound came right to him to bury the puck in the net to give Anaheim a 5-2 lead. Ryan held up Koivu’s stick as if he was The Highlander to show him just what he had scored with, obviously still peeved, yet entertained, about having his stick literally taken out of his hands.
Making things even more amazing is that Koivu is a left-handed shot while Ryan is a right-handed shot. Ryan scored the goal on what was his forehand, but the stick’s backhand. Wonders never cease. Topping off the entertainment is the Zapruder-film like breakdown of the Ducks play-by-play crew of John Ahlers and Brian Hayward to figure out what just happened. Enjoy.
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