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No McSorley redux: Devils won’t be asking for illegal stick measurement

Stick Measurement

The NHL’s illegal stick penalty holds an infamous place Kings history.

In the 1993 Stanley Cup finals, Los Angeles was 1:45 away from taking a 2-0 series lead on Montreal when Habs head coach Jacques Demers called for a stick measurement on Kings forward Marty McSorley, which led to this:

The Canadiens went on to win the next three games and hoist Lord Stanley’s Mug.

The incident still haunts McSorley to this day.

Thankfully for Kings fans, history likely won’t repeat itself in 2012. During today’s Stanley Cup finals media availability, Devils head coach Peter DeBoer all but ruled out the possibility of calling for a stick measurement.

Q. A little off the beaten path. Can you recall the last time coaching at any level that you called for an illegal stick check?

COACH DeBOER: I actually do remember it. (laughter). Mike Richards would remember it, he was my captain in Kitchener.

We had Corey Perry, who plays in Anaheim. We had all been together with the World Junior team. I had found, probably a little unethically by coaching him, that his stick was illegal at Christmas. We played London in the playoffs. I had Richy call Corey for an illegal stick. We actually got it. Didn’t score in the five-on-three. I think London scored shorthanded and we lost the series. It backfired. Yeah, it’s a funny story.

Q. Have you not called it since because it hasn’t come into play?

COACH DeBOER: Didn’t work. You know what, they changed the rule to make the bigger curves more legal since then. You know, you have to have a boomerang basically now in order to be called for that. So it’s not even an option.

Notes

-- I like how DeBoer told reporters that Corey Perry is the guy that plays for Anaheim. “You know, the reigning league MVP.”

-- Devils forward Ilya Kovalchuk was busted with an illegal stick in 2002 while playing for Atlanta.

-- One of the more recent illegal stick penalties came in Mar. 2009, when Ottawa’s Jason Spezza was busted with one during a game against Toronto. The Leafs failed to score on the PP, however, and the Sens went on to win 2-1.