Kyle Palmieri may not be Banksy, but the New York Islanders’ winger is pretty comfortable with a can spray paint.
Palmieri was spotted spray painting his stick blade on Tuesday morning at Ball Arena, in what’s an almost daily occurrence for the Smithtown native.
“Honestly, I’ve done it for years now,” Palmieri said. “It originated when I was in the AHL. We had to use CCM sticks and they came out with a white stick that I just didn’t like looking down at. Ever since then I’ve just spray painted the bottom of [my stick].”
It should be noted that Palmieri’s current stick blades are black, and while he covers the majority of his blade in white tape, he prefers to cover up the graphics or pattern that may be emblazoned on the visible part of the blade. Anders Lee, who has painted stick blades on occasion, said it’s similar to a golfer standing over a tee shot and not wanting to be distracted by what’s on the driver.
“I have the ability to control exactly what I see when I look down at the puck,” Palmieri said. “I stuck with it and it feels weird to not do it.”
Palmieri paints every stick, but while his teammates aren’t sticklers for it in the same way he is, others have tried it. Mathew Barzal likes the look and while he doesn’t do it religiously, sometimes if he wants to change things up, he’ll grab a can.
“You look down you see the all-black. Some guys like it and I’ve liked in the past,” Barzal said. “Sometimes when you're in a funk, you try to switch something up and maybe spray paint it. I just like to look at presents at times, the all-black kind of takes all the graphic out of it.”
Palmieri has painted every stick he’s had for over a decade now, so it’s firmly apart of his game day routine. Asked whether the process is therapeutic at this point, Palmieri laughed, calling it a pain in the ass, but with 225 career goals off the blades of painted sticks, Palmieri won’t be changing it up anytime soon.
