NHL players are constantly trying to get away with punches and slashes and cross-checks and trips. For the most part, the officials catch wrongdoings and send culprits to the penalty box. Of course, they fail to catch every infraction.
But here is something you don't see every day. In Thursday night's Rangers-Penguins game, Pittsburgh forward Chris Kunitz cross-checked New York defenseman Marc Staal away from the puck. He then knocked the goal off the hinges. Officials blew the whistle and whisked Kunitz away from angry Rangers.
Kunitz thought he was being taken to the penalty box. He even went as far as to try to go into Pittsburgh's sin bin, but the officials insisted he did nothing wrong and told him to stay on the ice.
Chris Kunitz tried to give himself a penalty #Penguins pic.twitter.com/mE9vj3xJ2a
— Mark Garbino (@Garbino42) April 22, 2016
Hyvä naiset ja herrat, Chris Kunitz #NHLfi pic.twitter.com/r02YOpAhnr
— Mikko Hokkanen (@hokimikko86) April 22, 2016
Pierre McGuire sounds like he's going to start crying at this missed call. Madison Square Garden erupted in "A**hole" chants.
Of course, the score was 4-0 Penguins about halfway through the game when this happened, so it's not like the Rangers were chomping at the Pens' webbed feet. However, it is a testament to how the bounces were going in this one.
Pittsburgh won 5-0 and takes a 3-1 series lead back to Western Pennsylvania.
