The penalty shot can be one of the most exciting plays in hockey. Or it can be one of the weirdest, as Bruins center Erik Haula showed Sunday night.
With 1:57 left in the first period of Boston's 5-3 win over Montreal, Haula stole the puck at the defensive blue line and raced the other way on a breakaway. Canadiens forward Mike Hoffman caught up to him and appeared to make a pretty clean defensive play to break up the chance, but the ref whistled Hoffman for a slash and awarded Haula a penalty shot.
Whether it was actually a penalty is not the weird part. That would come on the penalty shot attempt.
Haula skated up to the puck at center ice and... missed it. So then he turned around, got it, skated in, and snapped a shot glove-side past Sam Montembeault to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead.
If that looks familiar, it's probably because you're thinking of Brad Marchand's infamous whiff on a shootout attempt against the Flyers in Jan. 2020.
But wait! Why did Haula's goal count while Marchand was denied a redo? Because of one key difference: Haula never touched the puck, while Marchand did.
By the rulebook, a penalty shot or shootout attempt does not start until the offensive player touches the puck. So Haula was able to circle back and officially start his attempt after missing the puck.
But once a player does touch the puck, he must keep it moving forward all the way through his shot. So Marchand was not able to circle back because the puck had started moving and then stopped, thus ending his attempt.
"Honestly, I was so flustered after that happened, I didn't really know what was going on," Haula said after the game of his penalty shot. "It was so loud that I didn't know if the refs blew it or not. I just grabbed the puck, I was like, 'All right, I guess I'll take it down.' Thank god I scored, so we can move on quicker."
Haula would add a second goal 4:04 into the second to give Boston a 3-1 lead. The Bruins went on to win 5-3.
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