Obscure NHL rules: Ryan Carter's penalty box interference penalty

Ryan Carter was called for a rare type of interference penalty on Saturday night. Here is why he was penalized.

By Adam Gretz

Dec 27, 2014 at 2:58 pm ET • 1 min read

Here is a penalty you don't see called very often, and it seemed to cause a bit of confusion in Minnesota on Saturday night when Wild forward Ryan Carter was called for interference for playing the puck while attempting to exit the penalty box against the Winnipeg Jets.

Normally you think of interference as hitting a player that doesn't have the puck or some sort of obstruction through the neutral zone. But when Carter attempted to play the puck with his skate while his other skate remained inside the penalty box, that is also an example of interference, and it's the type of call you might go years without seeing.

Here is a look at what happened:

It's a strange call, but it's definitely a rule that you most have both feet out of the box before you're allowed to play the puck (or the body of an opponent).

From section 56.2 of the NHL rule book

A minor penalty shall be imposed on any identifiable player on the players’ bench or penalty bench who, by means of his stick or his body, interferes with the movements of the puck or any opponent on the ice during the progress of the play. In addition, should a player about to come onto the ice, play the puck while one or both skates are still on the players’ or penalty bench, a minor penalty for interference shall be assessed.

So there you go. You might not see it again this season because it requires the absolute perfect storm of a player coming out of the box at the exact moment the puck comes past the boards while he still has a foot inside the box, and that just rarely happens. Unfortunately for Ryan Carter and the Wild, it happened for him.