Those of you who luckily missed last night’s Hurricanes @ Thrashers game missed one of the stupidest penalties ever taken in a hockey game.
THE SCENARIO: Tie game with 2:50 left in the third. The Hurricanes need every point they can get, but at least one would help. If they tough it out and squeak to overtime they get at least one point.
THE IDIOCY: Hurricanes are in the offensive zone. The puck comes to Gleason’s side of the ice at the half boards. Gleason pinches in and quite clearly slashes Armstrong across the hands, against a team ranked 18th on the powerplay. No really, an offensive zone slashing penalty! From a pinching defenseman!
THE OUTCOME: TWEET! “Number 8 Carolina, 2 minutes for slashing.” Roughly 1 minute later the Thrashers score the go ahead goal. They would score an empty netter as well to add insult to injury. Net result is 0 points toward the playoff race.
Gleason’s a good defensive defenseman. He plays hard and physical and can shut down the best forwards in the game. But I’ll be damned does he take some stupid, costly penalties.
