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Watch: NHL Referee Accidentally Deflects Puck into Goal, Leaves Ice in Pain

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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.”

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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:


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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.

Should the rule be changed to make exceptional goals like this count?

“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.

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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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Boston born and raised, Fox has been writing about sports since 2011. He covered ESPN Friday Night Fights shows for The Boxing Tribune before shifting focus and launching Pace and Space, the home of "Smart NBA Talk for Smart NBA Fans", in 2015. He can often be found advocating for various NBA teams to pack up and move to his adopted hometown of Seattle.
Boston born and raised, Fox has been writing about sports since 2011. He covered ESPN Friday Night Fights shows for The Boxing Tribune before shifting focus and launching Pace and Space, the home of "Smart NBA Talk for Smart NBA Fans", in 2015. He can often be found advocating for various NBA teams to pack up and move to his adopted hometown of Seattle.
Birthplace
Boston, Massachusetts
Education
Bachelor of Science in Accounting from University of Nevada-Reno
Location
Seattle, Washington
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Sports




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