Hockey can sometimes be a confusing sport, but almost everyone knows that hockey players aren’t allowed to shoot chicken nuggets from the ice and into the stands. Wait, no they don’t…
During a minor league game between the Toledo Walleye and the Kalamazoo Wings, one player got sent to the penalty box for a 10 minute major misconduct. Getting 10 minutes in the penalty box usually takes something pretty serious, but in this situation, it was instead something very funny.
The two teams were playing in front of a raucous crowd of elementary schoolers, middle schoolers, and high schoolers for “School Education Day,” which students got out of class for to attend. Imagine how hyped up you would have been at a hockey game that allowed you to leave school and watch grown men skate around on ice and hit each other.
So naturally, one of the kids took a chicken nugget and threw it out onto the rink. There were teachers and chaperones there, but have you been around a school aged kid lately? They are heathens, and if they want to throw a chicken nugget, they’ll do so.
Kirill Tyutyayev, a forward for the Toledo Walleyes, saw the nugget smack onto the ice, and decided to get it out of the way. The hockey player skated over and effortlessly smacked the chicken nugget up and out of the hockey rink, and by doing so, he accidentally violated a rule (Rule 39.4 to be exact) that prohibits players from throwing “equipment” out of the playing area. So that means chicken nuggets are considered equipment in hockey?
Below is the video of the incident, which was captioned:
“Something gets thrown onto ice at a morning kids game in Toledo, and Kirill Tyutyayev shoots it back into crowd. Gets a 10-minute misconduct. Gonna be interesting to see if league gives supplemental discipline. It’s pretty vanilla, but they don’t like shooting into stands.”
Seems like an overreaction to me. I guarantee you that the chicken nugget landed in the stands or in the hands of a K-12 grade student, and it was probably one of the coolest things that’s ever happened to them.
For a sport that allows players to drop gloves and punch each other, giving someone a 10 minute penalty for slap-sticking a chicken nugget seems a bit outrageous.
