Often times when athletes take exception to a call, a referee will decide that their best course of action is to just ignore the player until they cool down. Sometimes, though, the ref chooses a different adventure.
This would be one example of the latter.
NHL referee Gord Dwyer was in no mood to put up with Carolina Hurricanes forward Viktor Stalberg on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh. Instead of standing around while Stalberg threw a tantrum in the penalty box, Dwyer decided to take action.
As Stalberg banged his stick on the glass and angrily disputed the call, Dwyer skated over to the box, threw the door open and gave the player a big-time scolding (complete with an emphatic finger point) to shut him up. And it worked.
It was a well-deserved scolding too, considering Stalberg was arguing a call that he had no business protesting. The Canes forward delivered a slash that broke the stick of a Pens player, which is basically an automatic two minutes night in and night out in the NHL.
So not only did Stalberg have to take the penalty, which gave Pittsburgh a 5-on-3 that they would score on, but he also basically got grounded. Tough night.
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