Los Angeles Kings interim coach D.J. Smith walked away from a scary moment in Denver on Tuesday night after a pane of glass behind the bench suddenly shattered, briefly showering him with shards in the middle of a playoff game at Ball Arena.
Smith quickly ducked, brushed pieces off his suit and headed down the tunnel while officials stopped play and arena staff scrambled to clean up the mess.
What happened
The glass gave way right after a loud reaction from the Ball Arena crowd when Colorado Avalanche goaltender Scott Wedgewood turned aside a penalty shot. The pane behind the Kings bench shattered, sending fragments onto the coaches and players and forcing everyone on the bench to back away.
Members of the arena conversion crew grabbed shovels and buckets, scooping up glass and hauling a new panel over to the boards, as reported by Sportsnet. Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog told ESPN he had “never seen something like that happen before,” according to that account.
Penalty shot and timing
The sequence started with Kings forward Quinton Byfield being awarded a penalty shot in the second period. He moved in on Wedgewood, who made the stop, and the home crowd erupted.
CBS Sports’ live game log places the shattered glass incident immediately after that penalty shot, with the play-by-play marking the stoppage that followed. Television replays showed fans pounding on the glass after the save, while the broadcast cut to arena workers hustling a replacement pane down to the bench area, as reflected in the gametracker timeline from CBS Sports.
Delay, cleanup and return to play
The broken pane led to a lengthy delay as stadium workers tried to make the bench area safe again. Players and coaches cleared out while staff shoveled up scattered shards and swept the remaining slivers away.
After workers slotted the fresh glass into place and finished one more round of cleanup, Smith returned to the bench, and the game picked back up, according to The New York Times.
Safety questions and precedent
Falling or dislodged glass is rare in modern NHL arenas, but it is not unheard of. The Los Angeles Times chronicled a 2012 incident in which Boston Bruins forward David Krejci was hit by a pane that came loose during a celebration. That earlier scare prompted closer scrutiny of how boards and glass are installed and how fans interact with the barriers around the rink.
This latest episode in Denver is likely to send building operators and league officials back to the tape yet again, with another round of questions about whether a panel was weakened, installed improperly or simply took too much of a beating from an amped-up crowd. Sources say league and arena officials are expected to review both the video and the rink setup to understand how a pane failed in the middle of live playoff action.
After the pause
Smith’s quick duck appears to have saved him from anything more serious than a scare and some glass on his jacket. Once the replacement pane was locked in and the shards were cleared, play resumed.
The clip of the glass exploding behind the Kings bench spread quickly online, fueling fresh debate among fans and commentators about whether current arena procedures and crowd-control measures are enough to protect benches and players. For now, it goes down as another strange playoff moment, and another item for the league’s safety checklist as the series rolls on.
