Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns picked up a minor penalty for playing with a broken stick in Game 2 against the Florida Panthers.
Burns, pursuing Florida’s Brad Marchand on a breakaway, slashed his stick from behind. The Canes’ blueliner’s stick snapped as Marchand continued on, getting a shot on goal. Burns, holding the shaft – now without a blade – attempted to bat the rebound.
In the immortal words of referee Mike Leggo: “You can’t do that.”
The violation happened right in front of referee Eric Furlatt, making this an easy call. Rule 10.3 covers broken sticks:
A broken stick is one which, in the opinion of the Referee, is unfit for normal play.
A player without a stick may participate in the game. A player whose stick is broken may participate in the game provided he drops the broken stick. A minor penalty shall be imposed for an infraction of this rule.
Unfortunately for Carolina, the Panthers took advantage of the resulting power play. Florida’s Aleksander Barkov scored 32 seconds later to give his club a 5-0 lead.
The Florida Panthers held on for the 5-0 win – preserving the a shutout for goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky – to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference Final series. Officials for the game were refs Dan O’Rourke (#9) and Eric Furlatt (#27), with linespersons Ryan Gibbons (#58) and Ryan Daisy (#81).
We discussed this play further on the latest Scouting the Refs Podcast: #RefsPodcast
