Photo: Scott Cannon
A few weeks ago, Mike Green started playing with an old Easton Stealth CNT from his 30-goal season. Discontinued almost 10 years ago, Green found one of those sticks in his garage. Green started breaking out the stick in special situations, hoping to regain some of the offensive magic he had in the last decade. The CNT, he said, is the best stick he’s ever used. At the time, he had just one.
After I wrote about it, readers starting emailing RMNB to offer their old game-used Stealths that they had purchased or had been given by Green. Some are even signed. Since then, readers have slowly been resupplying Green with those old CNTs.
On Saturday, Green scored with one of those reader-provided sticks, his second goal since he started using the CNT again.
“Yeah, that was the first one you guys got me!” Green told me after the game. “I definitely feel a little better with that twig. I can control the puck, jumping into plays and just the release the stick has.”
Just 20 seconds into the start of the third period, with the Caps down two, Green fired off a blistering one-timer to make it 4-3. As Marcus Johansson controlled the puck at the far wall, Green snuck past the Predators defense and stopped at near circle. Johansson fed the puck to Matt Niskanen, who found the wide open Green.
“I was just open,” Green said. “Had to make a shot.”
“We pushed the pace,” he added of the team’s comeback, during which Green nearly scored again to tie the game. “We were aggressive. When we play aggressive, whether it’s puck possession or we’re on the forecheck, we’re a pretty dangerous team. We gotta really utilize that night in and night out.”
After meeting with reporters and changing, Green headed out of Verizon Center. But first, he had a meeting with Scott Cannon, an RMNB reader with yet another Stealth CNT.
Green, as usual, didn’t accept the stick as a gift. Instead, there was an equipment trade. Green also signed a photo of him signing that very stick for Scott six years ago. Though Green had to rush to catch Washington’s flight to New York, he made plenty of time for Scott. Turns out he’s a pretty cool guy.
“He was awesome and very nice,” Scott texted me afterwards. “He really appreciated people getting them for him.”
After tonight, Green now has four Stealth CNTs. There are more on the way.
So Mike Green just scored with one of his fans' sticks pic.twitter.com/9hFx9ChQzC
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) March 28, 2015
