The embattled Detroit Red Wings found themselves facing yet another hardship on Tuesday night, though this one was hard to see coming. Instead of poor goaltending or tough injuries or simply more talented opposition—well, that last one still applied—the Wings instead had to put down a rebellion from the technology in their own building, as a malfunctioning horn conspired to ruin the first period between Detroit and Tampa Bay by blaring every 60 seconds, to the dismay of all participants.
The Lightning, in fairness, have as much of a grievance as the Red Wings here, particularly when the refs completely stopped the action during a TB power play to try and figure out what the heck was going on.
Apparently, fixing the issue would have taken 10 minutes, so the officials decided to just power through until the first intermission, leading to a bizarre—HOOOONK—stretch of play where everyone just refused to let the repetitive blasts interrupt their—HOOOONK—work.
“I thought I was at my kid’s squirt game. It was unbelievable," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper afterwards.
“You take a split-second to think about it and then realize you got to keep playing. It’s something I’ve never seen at a hockey game,” Wings captain Dylan Larkin observed.
Though this was the Red Wings' home-ice horn, they did not appear to gain any advantage from its antics. They were down 2-1 when they—HOOOOONK—went back to the locker room, but stormed back with two goals in the second period that eventually earned them a loser point.
