Well there’s something you don’t see every day. In Saturday’s match between the Maple Leafs and the Penguins, Sergei Gonchar stunned the Blue and White faithful into complete and utter silence with a pair of second period goals. The first came after he rifled a shot that appeared to slam off the post and rebound out to the Leafs defenders, who pushed the puck up to Alexai Ponikarovsky, who, on a breakway, was taken down by none other than Gonchar, and was awarded a penalty shot. The play, however, went to review.

Upon further inspection, it was revealed that Gonchar’s initial shot did hit the left post behind Toronto goalie Jonas Gustavsson, but was redirected to the back post – inside the net – before bouncing back out into play. Referee Don Van Massenhoven, calling his 1000th NHL game, ruled Gonchar’s shot a goal, negating the penalty shot for Ponikarovsky, instead issuing a hooking penalty to Gonchar, who served two minutes in the box. Upon his release, Gonchar took the puck again, and sniped another long blast past Gustavsson, this time not needing instant replay.

Part of NHL Rule 78.6 reads “Any penalties signaled during the period of time between the apparent goal and the next stoppage of play shall be assessed in the normal manner, except when a minor penalty is to be assessed to the team scored upon, and is therefore nullified by the scoring of the goal. If an infraction happens after the first stoppage of play following an apparent goal (infraction after the whistle) by either team, it is assessed and served in the normal manner regardless as to the decision rendered by the Video Goal Judge.”

Does this make sense? The league can’t allow Ponikarovsky to take a penalty shot, but they can issue a penalty to Gonchar for the same play? The rule further states that “only one goal can be awarded at any stoppage of play.” If Gonchar can suffer the consequences because Ponikarovsky hadn’t scored, why can’t the Leafs have benefitted if he had? And what if Ponikarovsky had scored? Would the official have been forced to take the goal away but still give Gonchar a penalty? It was a one-in-a-thousand type play (just ask Van Massenhoven), and any number of scenarios could have resulted from it. While the referee called the play correctly, you can bet that the Leafs have raised hell with the Commissioner’s Office as a result.