An apple a day keeps the ref away?  Not exactly.

Midway through the second period of the Montreal Canadiens’ 4-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena, with Montreal up 2-0 and the Leafs pressing, a green apple came sailing out of the stands and landed on the ice right in front of the rookie goaltender. Fowler banged his stick on the ice to get referee T.J. Luxmore’s attention. Luxmore scooped it up mid-play and tucked it into his pocket.

“I was pretty dialed in, but I saw an apple come on the ice right in front of me,” Fowler added. “I’m used to tracking a black puck, not a green apple… It’s the first time that’s happened to me. It was thrown right at me.”

 

 

At the next stoppage, Luxmore skated over and held it up for Fowler – making it look like the ref was offering the goalie a snack.  Or, maybe not, as it may not have been clear to the official that it was, in fact, an apple, at least according to Fowler. 

“I didn’t know what it was, so then he showed it to me and said, ‘It’s a tennis ball,'” Fowler said after the game. “And I’m like, ‘Uh, that looks like an apple.’ And then he showed it to me, and it was an apple.”

The fun exchange aside, there was a real officiating question buried in it: the apple was on the ice, in front of the goaltender, while Toronto was attacking. What if the Leafs had scored?

“I said, ‘If they would have scored, would you have blown it dead?’ He said, ‘Maybe, we’ll see,'” Fowler said. “Thank God they didn’t score there.”

While Luxmore was non-committal in his reply, Rule 63.5 covers objects thrown on the ice: 

In the event that objects are thrown on the ice that interfere with the progress of the game, the Referee shall blow the whistle and stop the play and the puck shall be faced-off at a face-off spot in the zone nearest to the spot where play is stopped.

When objects are thrown on the ice during a stoppage in play, including after the scoring of a goal, the Referee shall have announced over the public address system that any further occurrences will result in a bench minor penalty being assessed to the home Team.

Articles thrown onto the ice following a special occasion (i.e. hat trick) will not result in a bench minor penalty being assessed. 

Had it kept raining produce, Rule 63.5 could’ve earned the home team a bench minor for delay of game. In Toronto, that would have meant the Maple Leafs – whose fan presumably threw the apple – skating short-handed.

It’s a call officials almost never make: a bench minor has been assessed only three times, all in the spring of 2016. The Florida Panthers took two in one game on March 31, 2016, after fans showered the ice with the toy rats the team itself had handed out to celebrate the 1996 “rat trick” team – once after Jonathan Huberdeau’s go-ahead goal and again after Aleksander Barkov scored late. Eighteen days later, the Philadelphia Flyers were penalized in Game 3 against Washington when fans kept throwing their Ed Snider memorial light-up bracelets onto the ice after announcer Lou Nolan had warned them to “show some class.” Nobody has been called for it since.

The apple, for the record, appeared to be one of those soft, squeezable promotional ones – complete with a leaf and what looks like a logo on the side – rather than anything from the produce section.

Fowler has yet to record an apple in his 27-game NHL career. He almost got one on Saturday – just not the kind he was looking for.

The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 on Saturday night at Scotiabank Arena. Referees Tom Chmielewski (#18) and T.J. Luxmore (#21) worked the game, with Kyle Flemington (#55) and Shandor Alphonso (#52) on the lines.