The story behind the Kovalev stick heist

I was able to track down a fan that claims to be the man who swiped Alex Kovalev's stick during last night's game. I conducted a brief phone interview about the incident with the fan that identified himself as "Rob". The fan told me that he was sober during the incident and was not arrested for his actions. He said he was escorted to the escalators at TD Banknorth Garden by police but was not questioned or booked. As for the whereabouts of the stick, Rob told me he gave the stick shaft to a young fan sitting in a nearby section when he saw police and Garden security approach him.

Rob said that when he saw Kovalev jump into the scrum after Maxim Lapierre's late hit on Phil Kessel, he noticed Kovalev's stick come part way through the photographer's hole in the glass and he decided to grab hold of the stick. Kovalev became flustered, initially thinking that the stick was being held by a member of the Bruins. Kovalev tried to pull his stick free of Rob's grasp. As Kovalev and the fan were pulling on the stick, the stick snapped due to the pressure from the photographer's opening with the fan gaining possession of the shaft of the stick. Kovalev and the fan started jarring at each other for what the fan described as "about 10 seconds". The fan said that Kovalev yelled obscenities and gave him the finger before skating away. The fan was happy that he was able to take Kovalev's stick but would have preferred to swipe the stick of Mike Komisarek, whose actions on the ice have not been very popular with B's fans lately. Although he is not a fan of Alex Kovalev and even referred to the Habs forward as "a bitch", he did have high praises for Kovalev's slap shot saying "he has got a radar on his cannon". He joked that he will probably have to "put on a fake mustache and beard and a Kovalev jersey" for the next game he goes to.