LAH: a camera explodes on the ice in the middle of a game

The AHL playoffs have been underway for a few days now. Unfortunately for the Laval Rocket, they were short-lived, as the Canadiens’ training club was eliminated last night.

Our colleague Pablo Herrara-Vergara told you all about it after the game.

The Rocket escaped with a two-second lead → https://t.co/PWYykMyEwJ

– DansLesCoulisses (@DLCoulisses) April 22, 2023

That said, today it’s not the Rocket game I want to talk about. In fact, I’m taking you to Charlotte, where the Checkers (the Panthers’ feeder club) hosted the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (the Flyers’ feeder club) last night.

Early in the third, with the Checkers in complete control of the game thanks to a 5-0 lead, a Checkers player sent the puck deep into Phantoms territory along the boards. Seconds later, play was stopped.

The reason? The camera along the band exploded when it came into contact with the puck, so that several small pieces ended up on the ice.

Now here’s something you don’t see happen often in a field hockey game!

Charlotte sends a puck in behind LV’s net and the puck explodes into a dozen pieces. @InsideAHLHockey

The referee’s bewilderment at what just occurred… LOL pic.twitter.com/NNtoCLL0Sr

– Tony Androckitis* (@TonyAndrock) April 22, 2023

I love the referee’s reaction right next to the camera, him being totally confused by what just happened next to him.

What’s fascinating is that we’re not talking about a necessarily powerful clearance, when the player simply pushed the disc forward to send it deep into territory.

Having said that, we know that a device of this kind is quite fragile, so it didn’t take much for it to break like that.

The good news is that, apart from the financial implications, there was no damage to the footage. It’s already a camera incident not as bad as the one that injured Jeff Petry in the summer of 2021, when he got his little finger stuck in the camera hole.

What bad luck: Jeff Petry seems to injure himself by getting his little finger stuck in the hole reserved for cameras… 😰 pic.twitter.com/hqndUGeOfW

– TVA Sports (@TVASports) June 7, 2021

In short, a rather unusual moment in the LAH yesterday. In the end, the Checkers prevailed by a score of 6-0 and, in so doing, won their series against the Phantoms.