Edmonton Oilers goaltender Mikko Koskinen has faced a ton of criticism lately as his team has been in a real slump over the last month. Now he's getting more. A sharp-eyed Twitter user pointed out an issue with Koskinen's stick to former NHL goaltender turned analyst Mike McKenna, who confirmed there are actually two things wrong.
According to McKenna, the rules state the knob on a goalie's stick must be at least a half inch big, and must also use white tape. Koskinen is apparently breaking both those rules.
Correct. Koskinen's stick is actually illegal in two ways.
1) the knob isn't 1/2" or larger
2) it's blue...the knob must be white
Yes we're talking knobs again. https://t.co/ZxfTxm33ab— Mike McKenna (@MikeMcKenna56) January 4, 2022
This rule was brought in back when there was only black or white tape. The league mandated white for the goaltender's knob so the goal judge wouldn't confuse black tape for the puck in a scramble.
Someone else pointed out that Malcolm Subban went through this same thing, and when he was forced to change it, went through a bit of a tough time.
The first time I learned of this rule was in 2015. Malcom Subban was making his NHL debut against the Blues. In the first period he had an all black knob. After being told that he had to have a white knob, he made the change and immediately gave up 3 goals on the next 3 shots. pic.twitter.com/PL2OtdwKWa— Tony Eichenlaub (@ike_tony) January 4, 2022
McKenna actually wrote an article on this issue a few months back which said the rules doesn't have much teeth as there is no penalty for it. However, it also showed several cases where goaltenders were told in game that their tape was wrong. That article is below.
https://t.co/BYMjLN8feP— Mike McKenna (@MikeMcKenna56) January 4, 2022
Related: Mikko Koskinen not happy with being thrown under the bus by Dave Tippett
