On Tuesday night the Dallas Stars faced off against the Florida Panthers. The Stars won 3-0, but the highlight of the game wasn’t a goal, it was a blooper-reel-worthy accidental hit by one of the referees.
A linesman was perched on the boards in front of the Panthers bench in an attempt to stay out of the way of the action. But when the Stars’ captain Jamie Benn skated past, the referee stretched his arm out to makes a call and hit Benn square in the face.
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If the referee had been trying to take Benn out, it would be hard to imagine it happening any more perfectly than this. Benn was knocked off his feet and slid across the ice.
Luckily, Benn wasn’t seriously injured, and laughed it off afterward on the bench.
Benn isn’t the only player to get slapped by a referee. In 2014, Sidney Crosby also got smacked in the face by a linesman.
Headline photo: Sportsnet
