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my kid was playing in a tourney a couple weeks ago and was beating the other teams center man on the draw pretty steady. my son said that the kid made some type of comment about how it wouldnt happen the next time. well the next draw my son said the kid never went for the puck at all just slam the shaft of my sons stick and broke it in half. 200 dollar stick!!!!!!!! i would like to see some sort of rule on this to stop this sort of behavior. if a reff sees a player do that on purpose should be a game misconduct in my opinion. anyway the player in this situation didnt even get a minor. i dont know how the rest of the hockey world feels about this but kids should know we parents pay plenty as it is and crap like that cant be tolerated.

Already is one--Slashing

Do you really think it's necessary to post every missed call a ref makes? He could have called slashing but he didn't, so what? Making a basic minor infraction a game misconduct because you can't afford to shell out 200 bucks for a new stick isn't justification. Try the wood ones, they are a lot cheaper last I had checked.

Straight from the USA Hockey 2009-11 Official Rules and Casebook of Ice Hockey:


Rule 633 SLASHING

(a) A minor or major penalty shall be imposed on any player who slashes or attemps to slash an opponent with his stick.

(b) A major a plus game misconduct penalty shall be imposed on any player who injures an opponent by slashing

(NOTE) Referees should penalize as "slashing" any player who swings his stick at an opposing player (whether in or out of range) without actually striking him or where a player on the pretext of playing the puck makes a wild swing at the puck with the object of intimidating an opponent.

Give any kid $200. Tell them to go buy a stick and they can keep the change. Bet over 50% don't buy a $200 stick.

Watchdog you always bring the best out of people

No chance a center slashed your kid's stick so hard it broke on a face off and didn't get called for slashing.

Now it's been awhile but the rule book used to read that "Stick to Stick contact does not constitue slashing" Maybe I'm old school because I don't see that phrase in the new rule book.


Must have been one beast of a kid to break the stick on the faceoff. One would assume that would take a pretty good wack and even catch the ref

Marty McSorely wrote:Must have been one beast of a kid to break the stick on the faceoff. One would assume that would take a pretty good wack and even catch the ref

Not really, the composite sticks today break pretty easily when struck sharply from the side. What you say would be very true if it was a wood stick.

you guys are missing my point i know its a slash 2 minutes big deal!!!! the point is the equipment we buy these days is alittle more than the 15 dollar koho's. kids need to be taught to respect the fact that this crap is expensive and if the parents are uncapable of doing that and by reading most of these responses id say thats another growing problem than the hockey league itself has to put things in place. first of all what i said did happen and the kid did not get a penalty. now for a ref to see something like this on purpose i say the kid gets the gate and the next game. thats my points no sense for it and the kids have to learn that. another poster wrote dont buy a 200 dollar stick. i try not too. i try to buy the best sticks for my money that will last. now for example i will by all of last years sticks that were two hundred for a hundred now but they run out of stock. anyway gotta go..

watchdog wrote:you guys are missing my point i know its a slash 2 minutes big deal!!!! the point is the equipment we buy these days is alittle more than the 15 dollar koho's. kids need to be taught to respect the fact that this crap is expensive and if the parents are uncapable of doing that and by reading most of these responses id say thats another growing problem than the hockey league itself has to put things in place. first of all what i said did happen and the kid did not get a penalty. now for a ref to see something like this on purpose i say the kid gets the gate and the next game. thats my points no sense for it and the kids have to learn that. another poster wrote dont buy a 200 dollar stick. i try not too. i try to buy the best sticks for my money that will last. now for example i will by all of last years sticks that were two hundred for a hundred now but they run out of stock. anyway gotta go..

so respect for equipment is the issue here? If that is the case, should we start telling goalies to be careful blocking shots as you don't want to mark up those nice pads.........bottom line, let it go dude.

If I were watchdog I'd be pissed off too, but since there's nothing that can be done about it I probably wouldn't have started the thread.

theref wrote:

watchdog wrote:you guys are missing my point i know its a slash 2 minutes big deal!!!! the point is the equipment we buy these days is alittle more than the 15 dollar koho's. kids need to be taught to respect the fact that this crap is expensive and if the parents are uncapable of doing that and by reading most of these responses id say thats another growing problem than the hockey league itself has to put things in place. first of all what i said did happen and the kid did not get a penalty. now for a ref to see something like this on purpose i say the kid gets the gate and the next game. thats my points no sense for it and the kids have to learn that. another poster wrote dont buy a 200 dollar stick. i try not too. i try to buy the best sticks for my money that will last. now for example i will by all of last years sticks that were two hundred for a hundred now but they run out of stock. anyway gotta go..

so respect for equipment is the issue here? If that is the case, should we start telling goalies to be careful blocking shots as you don't want to mark up those nice pads.........bottom line, let it go dude.

I think he was really getting at, most of the refs are incompetent.

I don't think it's the refs job to "teach" common sense? When they see a rules infraction, they call what they determine to be illegal. They can't or shouldn't make up rules, even good ones as they go along.

Many people feel officials don't do a very good job, but don't really have any original thoughts on how to improve the situation. Unless you've been in that environment, which most of us haven't, it would be difficult to have realistic ideas on improvement.

If the kids learned better life lessons at home, we probably wouldn't have issues like the one addressed in this thread? Of course no one really wants to talk about that, since we'd have to share some responsibility for the problem.. It's much easier to point a finger in another direction, than look in the mirror, isn't it.

inthestands wrote:I don't think it's the refs job to "teach" common sense? When they see a rules infraction, they call what they determine to be illegal. They can't or shouldn't make up rules, even good ones as they go along.

Many people feel officials don't do a very good job, but don't really have any original thoughts on how to improve the situation. Unless you've been in that environment, which most of us haven't, it would be difficult to have realistic ideas on improvement.

If the kids learned better life lessons at home, we probably wouldn't have issues like the one addressed in this thread? Of course no one really wants to talk about that, since we'd have to share some responsibility for the problem.. It's much easier to point a finger in another direction, than look in the mirror, isn't it.

Yes because youth players swinging their sticks a little foolishly is a definite sign of kids not learning good life lessons at home.

Sticks break. Get over it.

Unfortunately your sons opponenent is not the first to employ this technique. I had the same thing done to me 35 years ago and have done it myself. Not a two hander but swatting the centers stick away has been around forever. Its the fragile nature of the equipment that is the problem. Pretty tough to break an old woody doing this but if you watch a few nhl games you'll see it happen before too long. If a center is being whipped time after time its only natural that they will eventually try something different. If a kid takes a wicked swing...it should obviously be a penalty but todays sticks once nicked on the shaft snap easily. As a dad buying these outrageously spendy sticks I feel your pain but likely your beef should be with easton or nike bauer..they now how quickly their product fails. Not sure if this is true or not but was once told that eastons marketing strategy is to produce 2 sticks for each sold...they expect to replace everyone. If they don't it just makes the bottom line look better.

Sticks don't last forever, My peewee last year went to 3 at 180.00. You cant take your money with you!

Goldy Gopher wrote:

inthestands wrote:I don't think it's the refs job to "teach" common sense? When they see a rules infraction, they call what they determine to be illegal. They can't or shouldn't make up rules, even good ones as they go along.

Many people feel officials don't do a very good job, but don't really have any original thoughts on how to improve the situation. Unless you've been in that environment, which most of us haven't, it would be difficult to have realistic ideas on improvement.

If the kids learned better life lessons at home, we probably wouldn't have issues like the one addressed in this thread? Of course no one really wants to talk about that, since we'd have to share some responsibility for the problem.. It's much easier to point a finger in another direction, than look in the mirror, isn't it.

Yes because youth players swinging their sticks a little foolishly is a definite sign of kids not learning good life lessons at home.

Guess I was mistaken. If it was swinging sticks a little foolishly, I would agree that just happens. I was under the impression it was done on purpose, and with intent of doing damage...

After the first 4 or so $150 sticks broken at our house, I bought the wood sticks, my kids bought the high dollar ones. They each bought one, then they were on to wood..

If you take a minute and listen to the content of discussion and complaints in the stands, it's clear where most of the problems start. Maybe you are too busy participating in those to notice?

dont spend 200 dollars on a stick. i think if you are still at the stage were you are buying his sticks it should be cheap. by the time he gets to highschool and you are still buying sticks you will be spending over 1000 dollars a year on sticks

This situation is definitely an exception not the rule. I have never seen anybody take a blatant shot like this. If kids are winding up with two handed swings at other kids, they will probably be getting intent to injure penalties. If it is a simple faceoff where the kid knocks your kid's stick out of the way and it breaks, all I have to say to you is stop buying warriors.

How about we just give 5 minutes for fighting, like juniors, and let little johnny kick the crap out of the kid?

OR, give johnny the heaviest wooden club, and have him break some sticks on faceoffs..

It's hockey, gotta either live with it or take up basketball.

watchdog wrote:my kid was playing in a tourney a couple weeks ago and was beating the other teams center man on the draw pretty steady. my son said that the kid made some type of comment about how it wouldnt happen the next time. well the next draw my son said the kid never went for the puck at all just slam the shaft of my sons stick and broke it in half. 200 dollar stick!!!!!!!! i would like to see some sort of rule on this to stop this sort of behavior. if a reff sees a player do that on purpose should be a game misconduct in my opinion. anyway the player in this situation didnt even get a minor. i dont know how the rest of the hockey world feels about this but kids should know we parents pay plenty as it is and crap like that cant be tolerated.

Should've definitely been a slashing. Did you know about stick checking??? There is a line between slashing and stick checking, but stick to stick contact is part of the game. Your son could've very well brokent the stick on a slap shot, in a pile up, or.......doing the same thing. I think that it is ridiculous to spend 200 dollars on a stick, however, my parents did it for me and I assume that I will be putting out this kinda money. After I broke the second or third one, I got some common sense as a young teenager and had them buy the wood one. Guess what??? I didn't score any less or any more goals. I didn't play any poorer or better.
It definitely hurts when it happens, but life goes on and lessons are learned.

keepyourheadup wrote:Unfortunately your sons opponenent is not the first to employ this technique. I had the same thing done to me 35 years ago and have done it myself. Not a two hander but swatting the centers stick away has been around forever. Its the fragile nature of the equipment that is the problem. Pretty tough to break an old woody doing this but if you watch a few nhl games you'll see it happen before too long. If a center is being whipped time after time its only natural that they will eventually try something different. If a kid takes a wicked swing...it should obviously be a penalty but todays sticks once nicked on the shaft snap easily. As a dad buying these outrageously spendy sticks I feel your pain but likely your beef should be with easton or nike bauer..they now how quickly their product fails. Not sure if this is true or not but was once told that eastons marketing strategy is to produce 2 sticks for each sold...they expect to replace everyone. If they don't it just makes the bottom line look better.

Keepyourheadup is correct. Mfg. sticks are designed for shooting performance and not durability. If they make the sticks too durable, that would mean they would sell fewer sticks, correct? Ever notice how the sticks only last just a little longer than what the warrantee is for? It’s called planned obsolesce.

Only advice I would add is to talk with the coach about moving your kid to wing or start budgeting for a new stick every other month.