NHL

Bring me your terrible plays. Be it an own goal, brutal line change, low effort play, or total whiff by a goalie.

For the record I think Stefan misplayed the puck - he should have taken it into the corner and protected it - but it was definitely not the worst play of all time. Not even the worst empty net miss, which I would give to .

❣️ Congrats, Taylor Hall! ❣️ Taylor Hall is the 2018 Hart Memorial Trophy winner and the first-ever recipient in New Jersey Devils franchise history!

This is a bit of a deviation from the usual "malicious compliance" but I think it fits.

Background:

The National Hockey League has a salary cap that each team must abide to each season. The total sum of player salaries for a team must stay below the salary cap. However, this salary cap does not apply in the playoffs, ostensibly to allow teams to replace injured players. However, this caveat allows for salary cap circumvention.

In 2015, the star player of the Chicago Blackhawks, Patrick Kane, was injured towards the end of the regular season and place on Long-term Injured Reserve. His salary was no longer counted towards the cap. The Blackhawks used this situation to their advantage and acquired multiple players at the trade deadline that they otherwise would not have been able to. Patrick Kane happened to return for Game 1 of the playoffs and the Chicago Blackhawks wound up winning the Stanley Cup... eliminating the Tampa Bay Lightning. There was considerable criticism at the time.

Apparently, the Tampa Bay Lightning and St. Louis Blues voted to close this loophole in 2016. Every other team voted to allow it.

This Season:

During the 2019-20 bubble season, Nikita Kucherov (a former MVP), was injured in the playoffs. The timeline of recovery from his injury was long, but typically less than an entire season. He ended up having surgery and sat out the entire season, amid rumours that he was fit for play. If he had played, the Lightning would have been unable to remain cap compliant and would have had to play short.

Nikita Kucherov and his $9.5 million salary hit (along with others, totalling $18 million over the salary cap) happened to sit for the entire regular season and return for Game 1 of the playoffs. He didn't just return - he was playing at MVP level.

Following a series loss to Tampa Bay, an opponent said: "We lost to a team that's $18 million over the cap or whatever they are. I wasn’t knocking the rules or anything. You realize how many weapons they have, and if you think about how many more players you could have with the money, you realize how much deeper you’d be."

The Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup playoffs. Kucherov ended up leading the entire playoffs in points with 32 (next highest were 23 and 18, both teammates) and was 3rd overall for points per game - suspicious for someone who was apparently unfit to play during the regular season.

Aftermath:

There have been dozens of articles about Tampa Bay's salary cap circumvention and "$18 million" dominates social media discussion of their victory. Supporters are quick to point out that they were 1 of the 2 teams out of 30 that voted to close the loophole.

TLDR: Team is outvoted 28-2 to close loophole. Exploits loophole to win championship a few years later.

Thank you to for pointing out it was Tampa Bay that the Blackhawks defeated in the finals.