NHL coach narrowly avoids disaster as glass shatters behind bench
Los Angeles Kings head coach D.J. Smith narrowly avoid disaster in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday night.
Raucous Avalanche fans banging on the glass behind Smith caused the pane to shatter after Colorado goaltender Scott Wedgewood made a stop on Quinton Byfield. Some pieces of glass rained down on Smith. He covered his head and brush the glass off his suit before running down the tunnel to get checked out.
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Smith was OK and he returned to the game.
“Whoever the guy (was) just kept pushing and pushing and pushing,” he called. “I looked back because it hit me a bunch of times, then it broke.”
The incident delayed the game for about 15 minutes. The score was even at zero when the glass broke. Colorado eventually picked up the 2-1 win in overtime thanks to Nicolas Roy’s game-winner. The Avalanche had a 2-0 series lead.
Avalanche star Gabriel Landeskog said he was “loud” when Wedgewood made the save and admitted that the “fans got a little too excited.”
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“There’s nothing you can do to control it. There’s nothing you can do about it, so you just deal with it,” he said of the delay. “I think maybe the only thing was that there were so many bodies on the ice that it (wore) the ice out a little bit for the rest (of the period).
“I thought the ice crew did a good job and they did their best to fix it as fast as possible. Doesn’t happen every day.”
Colorado head coach Jared Bednar said the delay was a first for him.
“That’s a different one,” Bednar said. “But, I mean, stuff happens. Fans get excited. Our guys were excited, competing hard. There was a bunch of melees on the ice today. It felt like playoff hockey.”
Game 3 is set for Thursday night in Los Angeles.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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