It's playoff season baby! As many of you may have realized by now I am a huge hockey fan. At this time of the year the TV at our place is generally frozen on Versus in the evening in order to watch the back-to-back playoff action. When there isn't a game on, the TV lends its screen to the Xbox where we battle over friendly games of NHL '11. Any of you who follow hockey or perhaps have played the recent EA Sports video games may have noticed that the frequency of broken sticks has risen greatly in the recent decade. The hockey stick has gone through many changes throughout the 150 odd years that organized hockey has been played.
In the early years hockey players generally crafted their own sticks by cutting down a hickory or alder sapling with the branches attached and then filing down the wood to create the desired shape. In the 1880's a Montreal company began fabricating wooden hockey sticks. These preliminary sticks were short with a rounded blade. As the game evolved the blade became longer and straighter to increase control of the puck and the shaft became longer eliminating the need to hunch over. The biggest jump in hockey stick technology came in the 1920's when a company started producing the first two piece hockey sticks. By separating the blade and shaft during manufacturing the company was able to experiment with blade designs making them thinner and longer greatly increasing puck control. The next step was adding the curve in the blade. The tale goes that professional hockey player Stan Mikita, frustrated at a practice, attempted to break his stick in the door of the bench. Instead of shattering the blade, the wood bent and what resulted was an un-before seen increase in shot power and accuracy. In the late 70's to early 80's manufactures investigated using aluminum as a material. The sticks were very heavy and didn't have the "feel" that hockey players wanted. Instead of a one-piece aluminum stick a two-piece stick with an aluminum shaft and a wooden blade was introduced. This stick became very popular in the late 80's and early 90's. In fact my very first hockey stick was an aluminum shafted "Wayne Gretzky" edition. Moving toward the new millennium several companies introduced a one-piece carbon composite stick. The main material involved is graphite but plenty of materials including binders and epoxy are used.
These new one-piece composite sticks have increased velocity as well as accuracy and have taken over the hockey world. The wooden stick is all but an antique these days in the NHL. I can probably count the amount of players that still use a wooden stick on one hand. If anyone caught the San Jose - L.A series they may have noticed that Ryan Smyth of the Kings using a wooden stick. Up until the last year Colorado's own Paul Statsny used a wooden stick. The biggest disadvantage of the composite one-piece stick is that they seem to break more often. A guy like Ryan Smyth, who spends most of his time in front of the opposition's net harassing the goalie, takes a lot of punishment from opposing defenseman. A stick that won't break is vital to this type of player. Although they seem to have been phased out I personally feel that wooden sticks should still have a place in the NHL. There have been countless time where I have seen a defensemen wind up for a shot in the attacking zone only to have his stick shatter all the while sending an opposing player on a breakaway. I think that it would be wise for gritty players like Ryan Smyth and perhaps stay-at-home type defensemen to use wooden sticks. Although they may lose a small amount of velocity and accuracy on their shots these type of players do not rely on the big shot nearly as often and a broken stick can often be detrimental in giving up an important goal.
Sean
