You can’t do that, Pat Maroon.
The Tampa Bay Lightning forward was assessed a 10-minute misconduct during Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Dallas Stars after he appeared to intentionally shoot the puck into the Stars bench at the end of the second period.
The Lightning were outplayed in the first two periods of Game 1 and were down 3-1 at the time of the incident. As the clock wound down on the second period, a frustrated Maroon decided to take out his anger by shooting the puck at players sitting on the Dallas bench.
The video of the incident shows Stars’ Finnish forward Joel Kiviranta ducking for cover on the bench and either getting clipped with the puck or narrowly avoiding the shot. Maroon was given a 10-minute misconduct on the play.
Pat Maroon was assessed a 10-minute misconduct for shooting the puck into the Stars bench at the end of the second period.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) September 20, 2020
Many hockey fans were confused as to why Maroon only received a misconduct on the play and not a two minute penalty. Maroon was penalized individually for his actions, but the Lightning as a team received no punishment.
Maroon has been an effective physical presence for the Lightning this postseason, but he won’t be winning over any new fans with unsportsmanlike plays such as the one we saw in Game 1 of the 2020 Stanley Cup Final.
UPDATE: Veteran Stars’ forward Joe Pavelski confirmed in a Zoom call prior to Game 2 that the puck did in fact hit Kiviranta in the face
