We have seen some strange, crazy goals and non-goals in the NHL this year, but footage of this goal out of Switzerland has got to be the craziest by far.
Färjestad and Leksand were set to match up, but members of the Färjestad team were lollygagging getting to the face-off circle. According to SHL rules, players have to be lined up for the faceoff within five seconds of the linesman being ready to drop the puck; if they’re not, he’s free to have a faceoff without both teams set, according to Expressen (via Yahoo! Sports).
Well, the latter is exactly what the linesman did. He dropped the puck in front of a lone Leksand player in the face-off circle. The player looked around for a few seconds and then fired the puck from his team’s defensive zone all the way past the Färjestad goalie, who was busy taking a sip of his water.
Färjestad players said they were waiting for a conversation between the referee and their coach to end before they joined the face-off, but on the replay, there was no referee near the team’s bench.
This case wasn’t “you snooze, you lose,” though, as Färjestad won the game 5-1.
Check out video of the bizarre goal below, with a stick tap to Puck Daddy.
