The Nashville Predators picked up a minor penalty for starting the wrong players on Wednesday night against the Seattle Kraken.
The Preds started the game with center Ryan O’Reilly skating alongside Filip Forsberg and Gustav Nyqvist, with Jeremy Lauzon and Alexandre Carrier on the blueline. Unfortunately, that’s not who they said would be opening the game in their official lineup card.
“Nashville has a minor penalty for starting the incorrect lineup,” announced referee T.J. Luxmore. “Number 91 was supposed to start instead of Number 9.”
NHL Rule 7 requires that both teams submit their starting lineups prior to the game. The visiting team submits first, with the home team getting a peek before deciding who to put out there.
Prior to the start of the game, with the submission of the game line-up, the Coach of the visiting team is required to name the starting line-up.
Prior to the start of the game, the Coach of the home team, having been advised of the names of the starting line-up of the visiting team, shall name the starting line-up of the home team.
No change in the starting line-up of either team as indicated in the submitted line-up, or in the playing line-up on the ice, can be made unless reviewed and approved by the Referee prior to the start of the game.
For an infraction of this rule, a bench minor penalty shall be imposed upon the offending team. This is an appeal play and must be brought to the Referee’s attention prior to the second face-off in the game.
As noted, the officials aren’t actively looking for a violation here. It’s up to the opposing team’s bench to catch it. In this case, great pick-up by the Kraken coaching staff to get an early power play opportunity.
“That’s not the way they played the last games. It’s not the way they warmed up,” said Kraken head coach Dan Bylsma. “So when it was submitted, it was noted, and we were double-checking during the anthem, and it gave us an opportunity.”
“The puck needs to drop for [the penalty] to happen, so we were waiting for the puck to drop to alert the referees and the linesmen that that was the case,” Bylsma said. “So at that time, our bench knew that they had started the wrong lineup. We got the whistle and alerted the referees and got the power play.”
Here’s both teams’ submissions, with starters in bold – Stamkos included.
Predators head coach Andrew Brunette said in an on-the-bench interview during the TNT broadcast that a mistake was made by inadvertently adding an extra 1 to to Forsberg’s 9, turning it into the 91 worn by Stamkos.
Nashville winger Philip Tomasino got stuck serving the penalty. Both guys implicated in the mix-up – Filip Forsberg (#9) and Steven Stamkos (#91) – were off the hook.
The Seattle Kraken went on to defeat the Nashville Predators 3-0. Referees for the game were T.J. Luxmore (#21) and Garrett Rank (#7); linesmen were Brandon Gawryletz (#64) and Travis Toomey (#90).
