A strange situation Thursday night as the Pittsburgh Penguins took on the New Yorks Islanders and Barclay's Centre in Brooklyn. A scuffle broke out with two minutes left in the third period after a hit on Pittsburgh's Brandon Tanev. At the end of it, Pens' centre Jared McCann was told by one of the refs that he'd been ejected from the game, and he headed back to the dressing room to take off his gear. That's when things took an odd turn.
The officials ended up telling Pittsburgh's coaching staff that McCann had not been ejected. In fact, there had not even been a penalty to McCann on the play. There is no access from the team's bench to the locker room at Barclay's Centre, so defenseman Zach Trotman was told to head down the Zamboni tunnel to retrieve McCann. However, McCann had already begun undressing and had all of his upper-body gear removed. He did his best to get dressed as Trotman returned. to the game. The refs waited for some time for McCann, but decided to drop the puck. McCann came to the front of the tunnel and waited at the Zamboni gate for a stoppage in play before returning. The Penguins were left shorthanded until the following whistle.
"The one ref told me to get off the ice. I think they were both kind of confused on what the call was," McCann said after the game. "I had my shoulder pads and everything off. I just had to quickly get dressed and get out there."
He did manage to return in time to see his team tie the game up with just under 30 seconds left to go in regulation. The Islanders would score the game winner in overtime for a 4-3 victory.
According to Josh Yohe of The Athletic, who was covering the game, the Penguins were furious with the confusion over McCann's mistaken ejection, and it's not hard to understand why.
Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan was asked at the end of the game what he thought of the officiating. His response was brief.
“It doesn't matter what I think," he said.
-
