Red Wings' Lucas Raymond Smacks Himself In Face With Opponent's Stick In Apparent Bid To Draw Penalty, Nearly Gets Away With It

One of the most incredible things about the NHL and hockey, in general, is the lengths to which some players will go to gain an edge for their team. In the case of the Detroit Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond, he seemed to be more than willing to bash himself in the face with a stick hard enough to draw blood and give his team a 4-minute power play.

Talk about a team guy, but unfortunately for him and the Red Wings, he got caught.

The Red Wings were in New York to take on the Rangers in a game that would've had a lot of Patrick Kane talk surrounding it.

With around 14 minutes left in regulation and Detroit up 2-1, referee TJ Luxmore called a double-minor on the Rangers' Will Cuylle for high-sticking Raymond. There was no denying that the 21-year-old Swede had been hit with something. He could be seen at the bench getting medical attention.

However, upon review, it turned out that Cuylle wasn't at fault at all.

Clever gamesmanship? Or was Raymond trying to simply get Cuylle's stick out of his way? It really doesn't matter because the end result was the same: he whacked himself in the face.

If intentional, he's the kind of guy you want on your team. It takes a special kind of player to hit himself in the mouth to draw a double-minor during a regular season game in November.

The NHL's Video Review Rules Strike Raymond And The Red Wings

Raymond would have gotten away with it if it weren't for the NHL's video review rules and those meddling referees.

Double-minors are reviewable and that's what the officiating did, which revealed that Raymond's cut was self-inflicted.

Despite the overwhelming evidence proving Cuylle's innocence, Red Wings bench boss Derek Lalonde was incensed. Yeah, the review cost his team a golden opportunity to get an insurance goal. But how do you argue with the video evidence? If anything, they're lucky that the officials couldn't retroactively assess a penalty on Raymond. There were good cases for holding the stick or diving penalty and hand the Rangers a powerplay.

What probably didn't help cool Lalonde's rage over that call was that it was a major turning point in the game. The Rangers potted two goals in the third period after that double-minor was reversed. They went on to win the game by a score of 3-2.

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