If it's ever happened to you at a game, you know there's no feeling quite like when a fan catches a puck that's been shot into the stands. Sometimes this is due to a compound fracture; mostly, it's because of the euphoric combination of luck, accomplishment and additional cost-benefit to your ticket price.
We've never seen a puck tossed back onto the ice, because the NHL burns through more rubber than the Indy 500 and because no one caught a puck in the bleachers at this year's Winter Classic in Wrigley. Then again, we hadn't seen a stick fly into the stands and get tossed back on the ice -- until today.
Witness this bizarre scene posted by YouTuber "Humpzilla21" from a New York Rangers/San Jose Sharks game in the early 2000s, in which bruiser Sandy McCarthy's stick flies in the air after a Scott Thornton hit and ends up in the hands of fan ... before McCarthy asks that it be returned to him.
(These YouTube classics are tricky. If you've already seen this clip, apologies. If you're like us and you haven't, well then it's new for you, isn't it?)
The Sharks fans jeered McCarthy after the exchange, and can you blame them? Catching a stick at the game is a story you tell your children's children. Anyone know if the Rangers or Sharks did the honorable, baseball-like thing and gave the dude a replacement stick for his troubles?
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(An aside: Whatever happened to the hat and glasses that Alexander Ovechkin tossed into the stands at the NHL All-Star Game last weekend? Because they aren't on eBay ... yet.)
The real question: Would you toss the stick back, or use it to slash the ushers as you're running to your car?