MUSICK: Little things nudge Hawks toward history

Without his stick, Quick watched Hawks defenseman Duncan Keith handle the puck near the blue line. Keith fired a pass to teammate Brent Seabrook, who quickly ripped a shot into an open net before Quick could recover.

I tried asking Bollig again about the sequence. He politely spoke as if an invisible attorney were whispering into his ear.

“I think it’s illegal for us to touch that stick,” Bollig said. “It may have touched me. I don’t know. I can’t tell you.”

Here’s what the NHL rulebook can tell me.

“Rule 53.2: When moving a stick that is not broken, no penalty shall be assessed as long as it does not interfere with the play <i> and the player who lost said stick is not attempting to retrieve it, otherwise an interference penalty must be assessed.” <i>

It was enough to upset Kings coach Darryl Sutter after the game.

“Our goaltender should have been allowed to have his stick,” Sutter said. “It got pushed away and it should have been a penalty.

“The shorter referee was standing right there by our bench – the other guy couldn’t see it – but the shorter one had the same view that I did, and he should have made the call. We shoved his stick to him and they shoved it away. It shouldn’t be a goal.”

Exactly how short was this “shorter referee”? I spotted no Oompa Loompas on the ice.

But I digress.

If Quick had his stick on the play, who knows whether the Hawks would have scored? And if the Hawks had not scored early, who knows how the game would have turned out?

“That was a big goal to get us rolling,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said.

It has been like that all season for the Hawks.

Hidden among the highlights are blocked shots and poke checks and the type of extra effort that draws a penalty or keeps a play alive. It’s standing up for a teammate after a big hit. It’s making a heads-up play away from the puck (and if it’s illegal, it’s not getting caught).