In the second period of Game 2 between the Ottawa Senators and New York Rangers, cameras picked up an odd sight: a puck resting on the back of Henrik Lundqvist's net as the teams lined up for a faceoff.
And wouldn't you know it: The puck the teams were actually playing with ended up right where that dead puck rested, leading Jesse Winchester of the Senators and Ryan McDonagh of the Rangers to stand there dumbfounded as to which puck was the "real" one. This is incredibly odd:
To add to the weirdness, the puck Winchester and McDonagh were battling for was in fact, the puck involved in the faceoff. The phantom puck went behind them and then was put in play.
According to Puck Daddy reader The Skating Penguin:
Ottawa shot a puck that Lundqvist deflected over the glass behind him, forcing a D-zone faceoff for the Rangers. Apparently, the puck fell on back of the net, yet nobody else caught its presence.
Oh, if only there had been a goal on that play. Just to see how they would have sussed it out.
Almost 20 years ago, by the way, the Rangers were involved in another second puck situation, as a fan threw a puck from the stands near the net during a Rangers/Canucks game at the Garden.