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Sharks' Mirco Mueller forced from game after lineup card error
San Jose Sharks defenseman Mirco Mueller was all set to be scratched for Wednesday’s game against the Calgary Flames until a late decision had him swapped in for fellow blue liner Paul Martin.
The only problem for the Sharks and head coach Peter DeBoer was that Mueller was listed on the official game sheet as a scratch, so when the puck dropped for the first period, the fact that he was dressed and active and played 69 seconds (listed under Martin’s name) was an issue.
Officials caught the gaffe a few minutes in and Mueller was ruled ineligible for the rest of the game, leaving the Sharks down to five defenseman, one of which, Tim Heed, was making his NHL debut.
Whoops. ????
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) January 12, 2017
Joe Thornton seemed to get a kick out of it.
The Sharks, it turns out, violated NHL Rule 5.2, which reads:
Only players on the list submitted to the Official Scorer before the game may participate in the game. The determining factor when considering whether or not a player is eligible is that the player’s name, and not necessarily the player’s number, must be correctly listed by the Manager or Coach of that team. If a goal is scored when an ineligible player is on the ice (whether he was involved in the scoring or not), the goal will be disallowed. This only applies to the goal scored at the stoppage of play whereby the player was deemed to be ineligible. All other goals scored previously by the ineligible player’s team (with him on the ice or not) shall be allowed. The ineligible player will be removed from the game and the Club shall not be able to substitute another player from its roster. No additional penalties are to be assessed but a report of the incident must be submitted to the Commissioner.
Calgary would score a late goal and win the game 3-2.
The Flames were on the other end of this kind of goof during the 2015 preseason thanks to former head coach Bob Hartley when Blair Riley was forced to leave after playing 16 seconds, which was more than enough time for him to pick up a fighting major.
Afterward, DeBoer talked about the error, via the Mercury News:
“That’s on us, the coaches. We have some checks and balances on our lineup. Went into warm-up and we felt Marty could play and there was some last-minute movement there, obviously. He didn’t play and just got left out.“I feel badly. I apologized to Mirco. It’s not a good spot to put him in, but I thought the other guys did a good job.”
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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy
