Watch: NHL Referee Accidentally Deflects Puck into Goal, Leaves Ice in Pain
NHL referee Tim Peel just had a rough night in the course of performing his duties on the ice in a game Tuesday between the St. Louis Blues and the Florida Panthers.
Peel and fellow official Furman South were forced by the rules of hockey to disallow a goal scored in contravention of Rule 78, Section 5, Subsection 3 — but the author of the rule probably didn’t quite have this sort of scenario in mind.
The rule reads, “Apparent goals may be disallowed by the Referee and the appropriate announcement made by the Public Address Announcer … (w)hen the puck has deflected directly into the net off an official.”
Here’s why the puck that went off the incredible Tim Peel and directly into the net didn’t count for the Blues. #WhoKnew pic.twitter.com/jsqEofTw9u
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) December 12, 2018
This is especially true when the referee deflects the puck into the net with a bit of his anatomy that should never, under any circumstances, be repurposed as a hockey stick:
Before we go any further, what on earth was goalie Roberto Luongo doing on that play? That had to be the worst attempt at a save in hockey history. He just lost track of the puck, acting like he was distracted by a squirrel, and completely failed to get a skate or a glove in the open space between himself and the post, so the puck went right past.
The goal would have been credited to Robert Bortuzzo of the Blues, who dumped the puck into the zone, caught Peel in the groin area and scored the non-goal.
“I kind of double-clutched it, so I changed my angle,” Bortuzzo said later. “I caught Peelsy, and I felt bad to be honest. I heard the horn and was shocked it went in — super-bizarre play. I didn’t know the rule obviously, so I put my hands in the air. I don’t think a lot of people knew the rule.”
Analyst Darren Pang heroically reported that Peel had been hit “in the midsection,” demonstrating that sometimes technically correct truly is the best kind of correct.
Meanwhile, play-by-play announcer John Kelly deserves a ton of credit for being the only guy on the broadcast crew who seemed to be familiar with Rule 78.5.3.
Peel went straight to the dressing room, but he returned to the ice for the second period and valiantly concluded his duties for the game.
St. Louis won 4-3, so the Blues didn’t end up needing that extra goal that wasn’t in order to secure the victory.
There is one thing that rankles the observer, however.
Granted, a referee should not be able to deflect a puck into the net the way an English soccer referee once just up and decided to kick a goal to affect an actual game.
But for Luongo to escape karmic punishment for completely losing track of a puck that was headed in his direction?
That’s such a shameful display that the fans had every right to go nuts when the goal was disallowed.
Meanwhile, someone get Tim Peel an ice pack and a recliner.
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