Today In NHL History - McSorley's Illegal Stick

On June 3rd in 1993, the Los Angeles Kings were two minutes away from taking a 2-0 series lead against the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Finals when coach Jacques Demers called for a measurement of Marty McSorley's stick. Kerry Fraser described it as one of his easiest calls: "For any player to go into the third period in a Stanley Cup final with an illegal stick was, to my mind, absolutely asinine. The stick was so illegal, I mean, I just looked at it and said holy smokes, we won't need the gauge for this one."

With McSorley in the box and Patrick Roy on the bench, Eric Desjardins scored the tying goal on a two man advantage with 1:13 remaining in regulation. Desjardins completed the hat trick in overtime sending the series to the Great Western Forum tied 1-1. Melrose's Kings lost the next two games in overtime, surrendering the series 4-1 six days later at the Montreal Forum and denying the Great One his California crowning.

McSorley revisited the mishap 19 years later (beginning at the 2:45 mark below) prior to the Kings' first return to the Stanley Cup Final, acknowledging the illegality of his stick and accusing the Canadiens of foul play in measuring visiting players' sticks prior to the game. Amazingly, Marty admits to playing subsequent games in the Final with sticks identical to the illegal one that so dearly cost his team in Game 2.

That's today in NHL history.

* See also Today In NHL History - Jason Spezza's Illegal Stick.
* See also Today In NHL History - Willie Mitchell's Long Stick.