Author Joe Rossi is a fountain of wonderful hockey tales and many of them appear in his new book, "The Long Island Arena And Other Hockey Stories."

But Jovial Joe just unearthed one from our mutual pal Buzz Deschamps, former Long Island Ducks star and later an executive with the Koho hockey stick company. 

I'll let Joe tell it: 

"While Buzzy was working for the KOHO hockey stick company, Philadelphia Flyers ace forward Bill Barber ordered a dozen sticks from Buzzy. 

"Since the sticks were made on Long Island, rather than driving the sticks down to Philly, Buzzy asked the Rangers equipment manager Frank Paice if he would take the sticks to Barber on the Ranger team bus to Philly for the Blueshirts' upcoming game at The Spectrum. 

"No problem, except that Rangers general manager Phil Esposito – no friend of the Flyers – found out about it and planned an act of hockey sabotage.

"At a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike, Espo took Barber's sticks out of the luggage area underneath the bus and threw them on the side of the road and left them there after the bus took off again.

"When the Rangers arrived and Barber didn't get his sticks, he called Buzzy and Deschamps told him he gave them to Frank Paice. 

"Paice told Barber that Espo threw them off the bus and the sticks are somewhere on the side of the road on the Jersey Turnpike. 

The Blueshirts' Road Show Was A Hit; Can They Do It At Home? The <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-rangers">Rangers</a> are well into a new month and still haven't won a game at home.

"Naturally, Barber was outraged, so while the Rangers-Flyers game was going on, Barber had a Spectrum arena maintenance man enter the Rangers' locker room. 

"This story ends with Barber's maintenance guy taking a few ten-penny nails. He then nailed Espo's shoes to the locker room floor!"

Then a pause, and storyteller Rossi closes with: "Touche to Phil!"