Gait's Stick Check

[Jarzombek]

Last night was the first time in recent memory that a stick check was called in the NLL. Gary Gait called a check on Dan Dawson and had his stick confiscated. Daws' pinch was very minor, but the ball caught when turned upside down. The league keeps it (permanently by the way), Dawson did not have a back up and had to use Craig Conns. Dawson has a smooth release (5 shooting strings), Conn has a lot of whip. You can imagine that Dawson was ineffective after that.

Anyway, there use to be a gentleman’s agreement not to call stick checks in the NLL. With 80% of box players pinching many are "illegal", so it just doesn't get called.

No one respects GG more than I do, but this check was planned and it worked, and it just ain't right.

[MainLax28]

Ethical or not, he is there to win, and sometimes you have to do what it takes to win. This similair thing happened a long time ago in the Stanley cup finals with a stick check that resulted in a Stanley cup winning season for the team that called it. I forget the two teams though

[BClax17]

Come on Gary, that's not fair.

I noticed it on the score sheet. You have to really try to have an illegal stick in box so much that if it were illegal it usually puts you at more of a disadvantage. It was in the 2nd when it was tied 3-3, after that Colorado scored 4 straight goals and never looked back.

I guess when most of the Mammoth's stars are Americans he can safely call a stick check without the fear of the other team calling one on him.

[Jarzombek]

Actaully Dawson had just scored to make it 4-3. Gait's check disallowed the goal and the Mammoth never looked back.

[ledzepp4858]

stick checks are legal and coachs can ask for them ne time. trust me i kno how bad it hurts when one of were stars gets caught with a pinched stick(steenhuis last season got caught) if u are a player i guess u just take that chance.

[ORBulldogLAX]

Last night was the first time in recent memory that a stick check was called in the NLL.


Actually in last years first round playoff game Between AZ and Portland, Keenan called for a stick check on Dawson after a critical goal in the game. The ball actually hung up the first time the ref turned it over, and just barely came out on the second try. They ruled it legal, and gave Portland the 2:00 min penalty.

The reason was to get the goal waived off, but I think you'll start to see more stick checks being called. It used to be "the un-written rule", but like was said earlier, coaches are there to win.

[3rdPersonPlural]

Lemme get this straight:

Overpinched heads give a player an unfair advantage

Therefore they are illegal

The league is so serious about this that they confiscate the stick if caught.

The only way a stick can be inspected is by a coaches request

Gary Gait requests a check and the stick is indeed illegal

Now we're complaining that because no other coach had the cojones to play, and insist that their players play, by rule, he is somehow a traitor to the code of the game?

In what world do we live in that the rule of law is ignored when the consensus is that said law is inconvenient?

[12345]

I never get why people dislike stick checks... remember it's the players with the illegal sticks who are cheating. If you get whacked on the helmet, you demand a foul. Checking on the helmet is against the laws of the game and hence is punished. Stringing your stick to give you an unfair advantage is likewise against the laws of the game and isn't defendable. Sure, if you can get away with it, more power to you. But I cannot see how if you get caught and your stick thrown out of the game you can defend your decision to cheat. I understand how it is a it of a faux pas to call a stick check but it is surely illogical to cry foul a coach or player who calls one on a player they know has an illegal stick.

[Canadian Lax]

I dont think the sticks get permenantly taken. Didn't Steenhuis get his stick back last year. And i mean you can clearly even now see that his stick is pretty pinched. I say don't call the stick checks, keep the gentleman’s agreement.

[BClax17]

Stick checks in box are different then stick checks in field.

For you see, in box, it takes a lot of effort to make an illegal sick. It's not like having a too deep of pocket, if your stick is illegal then the ball proboly won't even roll out of the pocket. I've never seen or had to preform a stick check, I would measure the length and then be pretty lost because they never even tought me how to juristic an illegal stick at the ref clinic.

For years players have been using quasi-legal sticks that would proboly be deemed illegal but no one has ever bothered to request one because they know that there is a guy on your bench whose using a stick that's worse.

What Gait did was fine, it's in the rules, you're allowed to do it. It's more of a ethics thing kinda like "the box players' code". You don't expect someone like Gait who has been playing box for years to call a stick check especially not in the first game of the year, it just doesn't matter.

[RockStar]

Stick checks in box are different then stick checks in field.

For you see, in box, it takes a lot of effort to make an illegal sick. It's not like having a too deep of pocket, if your stick is illegal then the ball proboly won't even roll out of the pocket..........

NLL stick rules are different than box. They're essentially the same as field except you're allowed tighter sticks with deeper pockets - 4.5" minimum at the scoop, ball has to roll out freely, pocket can't be deeper than 5".

As for Gait calling this check - it's his right by rule and it worked.

I'm just surprised Arizona didn't fire a check request right back on one of Colorado's players.........You'll never get me to believe that all of them had legal gear.

[titans 43]

ya I remember a few years back prout got called for an illegal stick in calgary by coach hall and his stick was taken away so gary def. isnt' the first to do this...

[oldboxtender]

I am not saying all the guys but most of the out players I talk to that complain about stick checks... they are usually the same guys that yell about goalie equipment being illegal.

Same difference. One is trying to keep the ball in the stick and the other is trying to keep the ball out of the net. Both are illegal.

I am amazed that no face off sticks have been called. I have played with face off men, that after the faceoff, had to go to the bench and change sticks because of the web they have woven at the top of the stick. One time a faceoff man continued play and the whip in his stick was so severe the 40 foot pass he attempted to throw only went 6 feet in front of him.

[Stynchface]

Ethical or not, he is there to win, and sometimes you have to do what it takes to win. This similair thing happened a long time ago in the Stanley cup finals with a stick check that resulted in a Stanley cup winning season for the team that called it. I forget the two teams though


1993 Stanley Cup (LA vs. Montreal)... I think, and I am pretty sure it was Marty McSorley who was called for the illegal stick.

[turfburn]

Wait a second here..................didn't some one call and nab Prout on a stick check last year or the seaon before? I am pretty sure this did take place.

[WHEELAX2]

it can be a huge momentum swing in a game to have those sort of penalties on one's team. there is no "unwritten rule"... if another team suspects that someone on the opposing team has an unfair advantage, it is in their interest to point it out to the officials. it's no different than scoring a goal with too many men on the field.. It's simply not fair play.

[WHEELAX2]

Last night was the first time in recent memory that a stick check was called in the NLL. Gary Gait called a check on Dan Dawson and had his stick confiscated. Daws' pinch was very minor, but the ball caught when turned upside down. The league keeps it (permanently by the way), Dawson did not have a back up and had to use Craig Conns. Dawson has a smooth release (5 shooting strings), Conn has a lot of whip. You can imagine that Dawson was ineffective after that.

Anyway, there use to be a gentleman’s agreement not to call stick checks in the NLL. With 80% of box players pinching many are "illegal", so it just doesn't get called.

No one respects GG more than I do, but this check was planned and it worked, and it just ain't right.


i would say that only about 15% of nll sticks are "illegal" they are nearly impossible to catch and throw with if they are indeed illegal under the NLL rules.

[RockStar]

What was actually illegal about Dawson's stick anyway?

[Stonewall35]

it can be a huge momentum swing in a game to have those sort of penalties on one's team. there is no "unwritten rule"... if another team suspects that someone on the opposing team has an unfair advantage, it is in their interest to point it out to the officials. it's no different than scoring a goal with too many men on the field.. It's simply not fair play.

The best example of this situation I can think of happened in the 1993 MILL Championship between the Philadelphia Wings and Buffalo Bandits @ the Aud in Buffalo. Paul Gait (then with Philadelphia) scored the first goal of the game. Before the faceoff, somebody on the Bandits called for a stick check on Gait's stick and it was found that the ball could not come out freely because the head was too narrow. The result of all this is that the Wings had that goal disallowed, Gait gets a 2-minute penalty for an illegal stick and loses that stick for the rest of the game.

However, Buffalo ended up winning that MILL title 13-12. Did the stick check cost Philadelphia the game? Maybe, maybe not. It did change the momentum at that point of the game in Buffalo's favour.

[Jarzombek]

I don't have the NLL rulebook, so i'm just going by experience here - the ball stuck when the ref turned Daws' stick upside down and then caught when placed in. However, the next day I was with Dan and he had his back up w/ what he said was the same pinch. Very minor, the rubber did catch and he knew it was "illegal" - but man!

Wheel - If daws' stick was illegal I stand by my estimation that virtually any decent pinch can be deemed illegal in the NLL. That is why it was such a shocker call.

[gctales]

Here is a link to the 2007 NLL Rule book..... It's an Acrobat file.

http://www.nll.com/uploads/2007rulebook.pdf

From the Rule book:

Rule 16: LACROSSE STICK DIMENSIONS
a) The lacrosse stick shall be an overall fixed length of forty (40”) to forty-six inches (46”) except the goalkeeper’s lacrosse stick.
b) The head of the lacrosse stick shall measure between four and one-half inches (4 1/2”) and seven inches (7”) at its widest point, inside measurement except for the goalkeeper’s lacrosse stick.
c) A maximum of one guard stop at the throat of the stick must be a minimum of 10 inches (10”) from the head to the nearest edge (closest to the handle) of the stop.
d) The depth of the pocket shall not exceed five inches (5”) measured from the outside edge of the head. Nothing may be added to or attached to the outside of the stick except as noted in Rule 17 immediately below.
Rule 17: LACROSSE STICK CONSTRUCTION
a) The lacrosse stick shall be made of a hollow synthetic material, with the head attached directly to the handle. The stick handle (shaft) may not be filled with any substance. Only a lacrosse stick approved by the NLL can be used. All other lacrosse sticks are ILLEGAL.
b) All stick handles (shafts) made of metal must have a plastic or rubber plug on the end or adequately taped to prevent injury.
c )The lacrosse stick shall be white or uniformly conform to the specific team colors specified by the NLL.
d) The color of the pocket shall remain consistent with the color issued by the manufacturer or sponsor of the stick and approved by the NLL. Pockets shall not be painted in an attempt to disguise the ball from the opposing team.
e) Lacrosse sticks shall not be permitted in play when the construction or stringing at the throat is designed to withhold the ball from play. The ball shall travel between the sidewall for the entire length of the head section. When the stick is turned parallel to the floor the ball must exit the stick.