Kasperi Kapanen is an excellent young player for the Toronto Maple Leafs with a very bright future ahead of him. But this was not one of his finest moments in the NHL.
Late in the third period with his team clinging to a one-goal lead, Kapanen committed a completely ridiculous penalty that helped the Montreal Canadiens complete a wild third period comeback that eventually produced a 6-5 Montreal win.
Here’s what happened: While attempting to block a shot by Montreal’s Jeff Petry, Kapanen’s stick snapped in half after it was struck by the shot. Instead of just dropping the broken end to the ice and continuing on with the play, he instead decided to throw it at Petry while he attempted to make a play with the puck.
This, of course, is an illegal play and Petry was immediately rewarded with a penalty shot. He ended up scoring on his attempt, tying the game at four apiece and completing a third period rally that saw the Canadiens erase what had been a 4-1 deficit.
Here is the entire sequence.
The Canadiens took the lead a few minutes later on a Phillip Danault goal, only to have Auston Matthews answer with his second goal of the game for Toronto to send the game to overtime.
But Montreal was still able to pick up the extra point in the shootout, and it is entirely possible it never would have made it there had it not been for Kapanen’s decision to throw his broken stick at Petry.
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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.