Mom drops son for Mike Richards’ stick and other fan fails (Video)

This mom had the right idea at first. After the Los Angeles Kings' edged the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 in a shootout, she took her son down to the glass in the off-chance that Mike Richards might toss him a game-used stick. She even held propped her son up against the glass on the lip, giving him a better chance to reach the falling stick first. Very sweet.

But then the lumber went up, and she forgot all about her son, going after the souvenir with both hands. The stick never even hit the ground. Her son, on the other hand, took a spill.

Let this be a lesson to you, kid. Your mom is a hockey fan first.

But let's not be too hard on this mother. Sure, she nearly broke her son in pursuit of a piece of wood, but it's not her fault. Nothing makes fans crazier than a stick in the crowd.

Really, this is just another example of the dangers of stick giveaways. Long before this one turned mother against son, a Scott Niedermayer stick toss sparked a brawl in the Honda Centre:

I don't know what it is about sticks on the other side of the glass. Sometimes, they just turn fans into monsters.

Here are some fans in Halifax fighting over a stick at the Canada/Russia challenge before they both lose it when a sweet little kid, resistant to the stick's evil, asks nicely for it:

Some fans can lose their minds even before they have the stick. Just the thought that they can get a stick is enough for them to go loopy. Consider this insane Bruins fan that tries to steal Alex Kovalev's stick through a camera hole:

And then there's this guy, who catches Igor Korolev's stick when it's knocked out of play, then throws a full-on tantrum and even manages to incite a mini-revolution when Korolev makes him give it back:

That man was a Buddhist.