The row of hockey sticks neatly organized outside the Nashville Predators’ locker room illustrates how individualized this sport can be.
Some sticks are tall, some are short.
Some sticks have plenty of tape at both ends, some have almost none.
Some use black tape, some use white.
Some have a unique contoured butt-end for the top hand, some have no butt-end at all.
And, of course, all of them have curved stick blades with specifications unique to that player’s style.
Not unlike golf clubs or baseball bats, each stick has a unique blade profile that can drastically affect how a puck is handled, passed, or shot. A blade’s size, lie (how it lies on the ice when placed flat), and curve (the outward curve of the blade, either at the heel or toe) all depend on the player’s preferences.
With nearly two dozen sticks outside the locker room at Centennial Sportsplex, there are also two dozen different blade curves.
And perhaps none are more different than Ryan O’Reilly’s.
Ryan O’Reilly’s stick blade is second to none
When asking players about their stick preferences, several mentioned Ryan O’Reilly’s blade as particularly unique. One player described it as “a hook”, another called it a “claw.” One said it was “the craziest blade he’d ever seen.”
And he’s not wrong. Look at this thing:
Here’s another look from a few years ago:
O’Reilly calls it “an aggressive toe curve”, which is an apt description, and says he’s used it for many years in the NHL.
“I’ve been using it for a long time now,” O’Reilly tells me. “I think it helps with a lot one handed stuff. Pull the puck into an area and pull it back. Just gives me some control.”
As often as O’Reilly finds himself in puck battles, either on face-offs or in the corners, the unique end of his blade is a nice tool to help gain an advantage.
“Like pulling pucks out of feet, I feel it gives me like a little area, gives me a little bit more control, having it curved in there. So it does help, just a little bit, I think. Trying to find the puck off of feet and getting into an area and pulling it out.”
The toe of the stick, in addition to being a crucial launching point of a wrist shot, is often used by players to gather a puck in close. When a puck is just slightly out of reach, good toe control can help bring it closer. It can even be used to bring the puck around a defender (a “toe drag”) when making plays on offense.
With O’Reilly’s “aggressive toe curve”, he can “grab onto” the puck from far away, using the edges of the puck, as opposed to the flat surface, to control it and make the next move. For a player like O’Reilly, getting that little edge of control in tight spaces makes a big difference.
“It can help me put the puck exactly where I want it,” he says.
The specific toe curve doesn’t have a name or anything. It’s a custom job made by Warrior specifically for O’Reilly. He’s tried it on sticks with a flatter overall curve, saying that he’s just gotten used to the feel of having it at the end. It’s just something that helps him win crucial battles in tight games.
“Like a secret weapon?”, I ask him.
“Almost, yeah. It does give me a little bit of an advantage, I’d say.”
However, that advantage doesn’t extend to face-offs, he explains.
“I usually go backhand on my face-off. So it never really affects that. Maybe on the second swipe, if the puck’s sitting there, it kind of helps me pull it out. But no, not really on face-offs.”
O’Reilly is a career 55.8% face-off winner in the NHL, so it’s not like he needs much help there.
Picking pucks out of corners, winning close battles, finding loose pucks other players might not find… it’s all part of why Ryan O’Reilly is here in Nashville. His overall skill and workmanship has been all but apparent through the Predators’ first 15 games; he leads all Nashville forwards in average ice time (20:30) and is 2nd in points (14) behind linemate Filip Forsberg.
Based on what I’ve seen, it’s likely O’Reilly could do all those things with any “off the rack” hockey stick. He doesn’t need a special curve to make the plays he’s making most of the time.
But… it certainly doesn’t hurt to have a secret weapon handy.
— Featured image via Danny Murphy/Icon Sportswire —
This article sponsored by Sallis Realty Group
