Armchair Pools Blog

So why is it called the can opener? Well, hockey players wear jock straps to protect their private parts. A jock strap is also called a jock, a cup, or you guessed it, a can. So if the stick is between the legs, your crotch is the can, what exactly is getting opened?

Ouch.

McCabe claims that he has never hurt anyone with the can-opener, and since I found no evidence to the contrary I tend to believe him. In fact, I believe the strategy he deployed was to use the stick between the legs not as means to injure, but as a way of preventing an opposing player from moving. The NHL is familiar with this concept - they call it obstruction. Consequently, in 2002 the can-opener was officially added to the list of ways you could hold a player and it became illegal.

Unfortunately, this new rule had a profound impact on his game and his performance suffered. When TheStar.com did a survey asking "what was wrong with Brian McCabe, Tim Denommee from Mount Albert, Ont had this to say.

"Nothing. He was wrongly made into a top flight defenceman by the media & the Leafs, when he is really mid range on the defence depth chart all of his career. Once the "can-opener" was banned, he became mostly useless"

Not to be outdone, McCabe came up with a backup move. "The flying ass"

(SLAM) When the NHL outlawed his trademark can-opener move in the fall of 2002, McCabe reverted to a backup signature check, one teammates dubbed "the double cheek" and "the flying ass". McCabe deployed the manoeuvre often, squashing oncoming forwards into the boards with his butt. And it was all legal. But now that the league again is vowing to crack down completely on obstruction, the Maple Leafs defenceman wonders which tactics will sneak under the radar screens of NHL referees. "

So what is a can-opening, flying ass to do once all his cheeky moves have been taken away?

"If you are not cheating, you are not trying," McCabe joked when asked how he would cope in the new-looked NHL.