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Dmitri Voronkov Plays After Game Misconduct, then Columbus Gets Hit With Illegal Player Penalty

Originally posted on Blade of Steel | By Tom Banks | Last updated Apr 12, 2025 5:33 PM ET

The Columbus Blue Jackets dominated Washington on Saturday, but after a player was ejected from the game, he somehow found his way back onto the ice.

On Saturday, the Columbus Blue Jackets demolished the Washington Capitals, putting up seven goals to keep their slim Stanley Cup Playoffs hopes alive, with two goals to young phenom Adam Fantilli enough to keep them in the race.

During the game however, we saw perhaps a first in NHL history, as forward Dmitri Voronkov was ejected from the game due to a game misconduct, but that wasn't the weird bit.

After being ejected, Voronkov simply didn't leave the game and continued taking the ice like nothing happened, and as a result, the officials realized what happened and then gave the team a penalty for having an 'illegal player' on the ice.

Later, the strange situation was explained by Ray Ferraro, who noted that it was a language barrier that led to everything going down the way it did, as Voronkov simply didn't know that he'd been kicked from the game and continued to play like nothing had happened.

The surprising part of that is that the officials didn't go to Dean Evason or any of the other coaches to tell them what happened, and even after Voronkov didn't leave the ice, they simply continued to let it go until one of them realized their mistake.

Given all of the game misconduct penalties in NHL history, there's a chance that this has simply never happened before, and while it didn't play a factor in the result in this one, if the officials can let something like this slip by, it's safe to say it could hurt them in the future.

This article first appeared on Blade of Steel and was syndicated with permission.

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