A feisty referee shoved Ryan O’Reilly to the ice after a faceoff. The Blues scored 24 seconds later.
Hockey is a chaotic sport. Six-foot meaty hockey players, wearing pounds of equipment, skate on a slippery ice sheet while trying to shoot a two-pound disc of vulcanized rubber into the net. Meanwhile, two referees and two linesmen officiate play, skating up and down the ice.
While all of this chaos is happening, there’s bound to be some happy accidents, especially if someone makes a move another person on the ice does not anticipate.
This is the only way to explain why referee Kiel Murchison essentially bodychecked Ryan O’Reilly to the ice in the second period of the Capitals-Blues game.
Read More