Max Pacioretty Accidentally Passes to Steven Stamkos for Nasty Slap-Shot Goal

You don’t do Steven Stamkos favors.

Conventional wisdom states you do everything possible to make life miserable for the Tampa Bay Lightning’s standout center and pray it’s enough to keep him from burying you alive.

The Montreal Canadiens did not do this. Instead, they passed Stamkos the puck and dared him to make a move, which went about as well as you’d imagine.

Deadspin’s Kevin Draper spotted footage of an ugly brain fart engineered by Max Pacioretty in the first period Monday night.

The Canadiens winger corralled a pass near center ice and—presumably, hoping to set up an attack—dropped the puck back to a defenseman. This defenseman looked a lot like Steven Stamkos, however, and he gratefully received the gift and ripped off a scarily accurate slap shot for Tampa Bay’s second goal of the game.

This is not offside, according to Rule 83.1 of the NHL Officials Association rulebook:

"

If a player legally carries or passes the puck back into his own defending zone while a player of the opposing team is in such defending zone, the off-side shall be ignored and play permitted to continue.

"

Welp. You learn something new every day.

As for Pacioretty, part of the mix-up appeared to be in misunderstanding the situation at hand. Puck Daddy’s Greg Wyshynski reported the teams were playing four-on-four at the time of the goal, and the Canadiens forward appeared unaware a line change had occurred leaving him short a left defenseman.

This led to the pass and the Stamkos goal—the first of two on the night. Tampa Bay would go on to win 4-2.

While a regrettable mistake on Pacioretty’s part, let’s not begrudge Stamkos his moment. He blistered a glove-side comet beyond Carey Price on a less-than-optimal angle. Doff your cap to the man. He’s good.

Dan is on Twitter. This pass is like when you were a kid and accidentally tugged on a woman’s dress thinking she was Mom.