Lots Of Oops In One Game

Yes, you're seeing correctly. That's the Florida Panthers, in white, playing the Dallas Stars, in white. If you're colour-blind, red and green look fairly similar, so you'd be hard-pressed to think this image was nothing more than a picture of a scrimmage. However, fans in London, Ontario got this white-on-white game on Sunday night because it's still the NHL preseason where mistakes happen on occasion.

According to George Richards of the Miami Herald, the above face-off was seen all night due to a bit of a misunderstanding. Richards writes,

Apparently the Panthers thought Dallas was bringing its home sweaters since the two teams meet again Tuesday in Texas.

It only made sense for Florida to bring one set of jerseys on this road trip.

Dallas, however, was originally listed as the road team for Sunday's game and brought its road jerseys.

With Dallas being on the road since September 28 and playing both Colorado and St. Louis in their respective buildings prior to being the road team in London, Ontario against Florida, I'm not sure how it made sense for Florida to only bring their road whites. It becomes increasingly curious when Florida played Tampa Bay in Tampa Bay on Thursday, September 29 in their only game prior to Sunday's game in London. Methinks the error lies on Florida's side of the equation.

Regardless of who is to blame, the NHL gave fans in London a rare treat of a white-on-white game. It didn't seem to squash the excitement of the fans as they were treated to Jonathan Huberdeau goal with 6.2 seconds to play in the first period off a pass from Jaromir Jagr. The crowd, it seems, enjoyed the living legend's presence in the lineup despite the lack of energy on the ice between the two teams.

Dallas scored the equalizer in the second period when Antoine Roussel dented the twine. It took another full period plus some extra time for Nick Ebert to score the game-winner in overtime as the Dallas Stars downed the Panthers 2-1. The strange part of this game, though? There were no radio crews, no camera crews, and zero coverage of the game anywhere on traditional electronic media. Even the NHL.com site featured no coverage of the game on the Panthers-Stars game page! How does this happen in today's day and age of mass information and social media?

That's why it's the preseason, folks. The NHL, it seems, is just as human as you and I.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!