I'm curious, what penalty gets called here? I wasn't aware there was a "your equipment fell apart" penalty.
The penalty here isn't because your equipment fell apart, it is if you keep playing with broken equipment then that is a penalty. If your stick breaks and you drop it on the ice then you are fine.
Broken sticks are sharp so playing with one is a safety hazard.
I have seen maybe a total of 15 minutes of hokey in my life so sorry if the question is dumb, but I would expect that there is a risk to stumble upon the stick?
In volleyball, if a ball rolls within the court, the play is stopped immediately (this happens quite often when you play on several courts side by side)
'Substitutions' being on the fly too (and <1m apart), there's just something kind of raw and basic about it. Obviously there's loads of rules, but the general gist/feel of it just seems a lot more.. I don't know, 'informal', or something, than other games.
I played in Canada, but this ruling seems quite similar to what was in effect for us: https://www.usahockeyrulebook.com/page/show/1084649-rule-605...
I think the worry is a broken stick has a chance of producing something sharp that can injure others. I think it is more of a worry when the break is along the shaft of a wooden stick (as you could stab someone, you're basically wielding a spear) but even a split along the bottom of a wooden stick's blade has the potential to lose splinters.
Basically the rule is there in case the stick is broken in such a way that it becomes sharp and dangerous, which generally would mean it's not functional anyway. In that case you are required to drop the stick on the ice and get a new one mid-play, or get off the ice.
