Monday Mailbag - 4/9/2012
Here is The Daily Chomp's Monday Mailbag answering your questions sent in by Twitter (tweet @SanJoseSharks using #AskSJS), Facebook, or email.
Recently someone was fined for a "slew foot" on Ryane Clowe. I checked my HOCKEY FOR DUMMIES book and the word "slew" appeared nowhere. What does "slew foot" mean?
TDC: Slew Footing is a term in hockey used to describe a player being taken down essentially by way of a hook or trip. A common example may be when two players are fighting for position, one player uses his own skate to push the back heel of the other player's skate, resulting in the other player losing his balance and falling to the ground. Typically this is done in "sly" fashion as to avoid looking like an obvious penalty.
In the play you referenced, Ryane Clowe was racing for the loose puck along the boards in a game against the Phoenix Coyotes. Coyotes forward Alexandre Bolduc was trailing Clowe in the race. As both players began to extend their stick out to make a play, the referee ruled that Bolduc used his stick to push the back heel of Clowe, thus sending Clowe to the ice in an uncontroled crash into the boards. Bolduc was given an 2:00 minute minor penalty for hooking on the play.
Bolduc was later fined by the NHL for the play. You can read the article here.
Who chooses the "3 Stars of the Game"?
TDC: The "3 Stars of the Game" are chosen differently depending on the home arena throughout the NHL. In San Jose, Sharks radio play-by-play broadcaster Dan Rusanowsky choooses the "3 Stars". It was an honor bestowed upon him when he first arrived with the team. Rusanowsky explained how he was chosen by the late Tim Bryant in a recent blog entry:
Tim really respected the radio and television part of the equation. When I arrived in 1991, he immediately told me that he wanted the radio voice of the Sharks to pick the three stars at home games. “You’re at every game, you call a good game, and you know the game,” he said. “You can handle the professional responsibility. I want someone like that to pick the stars here.” I have always been honored to do so, and it has always been important to me.