You won't see this called for a penalty every day.
Thursday night's NHL preseason game between the Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins was moving along like any old game, until Trevor Zegras was whistled for a bizarre penalty you don't see called every day.
Just about halfway through the second period of their game against the Bruins, the Flyers were called for their first individual penalty; their first of the night was a too many men penalty served by Matvei Michkov, who also scored the game's first goal.
Zegras was penalized by the referees for "improper wearing of equipment" and in real time, nobody seemed to know what exactly happened or why.
But, as we came to find, Zegras had his jersey tucked, and the NHL and its referees will apparently be cracking down on that this season.
According to NHL insider Elliotte Friedman via his X account, the "league has indicated it will warn players if equipment -- neck guards, visors, helmets (during warmup) -- is not being properly worn. Jerseys are supposed to be untucked at the beginning of a player's shift. (If it rides up during a shift, no issue.)"
Friedman added, "Procedure is a warning, followed by a two-minute penalty. So, Zegras must have been warned earlier in the game. Next violation is supposed to be a misconduct."
If Zegras and the Flyers were, in fact, warned ahead of time, it was rather innocuous and went unnoticed. Both Zegras and Travis Konecny both plead the Flyers' case to the referees, but their appeals fell on deaf ears.
Ultimately, the Flyers survived the strange Zegras penalty, which was compounded by a Jett Luchanko hooking penalty that put the Flyers on a 5-on-3 penalty kill not long after.
As is seemingly tradition, the Flyers appear to be the first team to be an example for the rule the NHL is trying to enforce, and it certainly caught everyone off guard.
