An NHL game was delayed 45 minutes after errant puck cracked a glass panel

Hockey may not be at the mercy of the weather like other sports, but they certainly have their own delay problems. Take the Anaheim Ducks and Colorado Avalanche, for example, who were delayed for 45 minutes thanks to a cracked glass panel.

Eric Gelinas was the culprit of the glass breaking, as his shot missed the Ducks’ net and cracked the glass behind John Gibson.

Play was stopped after the whistle, and the maintenance crew in Anaheim came on to the ice to remove the cracked panel.

Which took a long time. A very long time. Mostly because the stanchion keeping the glass panels upright wouldn’t budge, which kept the crew from removing the glass and replacing it.

When they finally got the glass removed, the panel needed to be cut down to size to fit around the camera behind the net, leaving a gigantic hole behind the Ducks net where the glass once was.

The glass came out one more time, before being removed once again for size issues. The teams then left the ice on an intermission break, leaving 29:48 — almost half of a hockey game! — still to play.

Finally, the Ducks and Avalanche returned to the ice to play, first the remainder of the second period, then a dry scrape, then the final 20 minutes of the game.