Referee Offers Jacob Fowler an Apple After a Fan Throws One Onto the Ice in Toronto

A referee offered Jacob Fowler an apple on Saturday night, and the joke landed because hockey slang made it literal. A fan had thrown a fake green apple onto the ice at the Canadiens goalie during live play in Toronto, referee T.J. Luxmore picked it up and showed it to Fowler during a stoppage, and Fowler declined. The 21-year-old then stopped 26 of 28 shots as Montreal beat the Maple Leafs 4-2.

What happened in the second period?

With about 8:30 left in the second period at Scotiabank Arena, a fan threw a fake green apple onto the ice toward Fowler while play was live, ClutchPoints and MarkerZone report. Luxmore picked it up, and during a stoppage he showed it to the rookie goalie. He joked at first that it was a tennis ball, then revealed the apple, and suggested he might have stopped play if Toronto had entered the offensive zone while it was sitting there. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman confirmed the apple came from the stands, and the NHL posted the clip itself with the caption “Can I offer you an apple in this trying time?”

Why did the whole arena laugh at it?

Because an assist is called an apple in hockey, and Fowler has zero of them in 27 NHL games. The broadcast team of Chris Cuthbert and Craig Simpson spotted the joke immediately, NHL.com notes, and Fowler played along. “I’m used to tracking a black puck, not a green apple,” he said after the game. The apple itself gave the joke away as a fake: NHL.com points to the perfectly placed leaf on top and a white logo on the side, the kind of soft squeezable apple handed out as a giveaway rather than anything from a grocery store.

Did the throw rattle Fowler?

No, and that is the part the clip alone does not show. Fowler played all 60 minutes, stopped 26 of 28 shots and earned the win, MarkerZone reports, improving his season record to 8-1-1 with a 2.15 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage. Zachary Bolduc added an insurance goal on the power play late on, and Montreal left Toronto at 11-3-3 with an 8-0-2 run over its last 10 games. The Leafs fell to 8-8-2. Fowler also talked after the game about his bond with Carey Price, the better story to come out of the night for a rookie goalie holding the crease in a rivalry building.

Is throwing things on the ice actually a problem?

Yes, and the jokes skip that half of the story. A goalie tracks a small black puck through traffic, and a foreign object on the ice can catch a skate or sit in the crease at the worst moment, MarkerZone notes. The apple was small and nobody was hurt, but the principle is the same as any object thrown during live play. Arenas have the cameras and the ushers to identify the fan responsible, and this is the kind of incident where they should use them. So far nothing in the reporting says whether the league or the Maple Leafs have responded, and no fan has been publicly identified.

Has anything like this happened before?

Fans throwing objects at players is not new, and the league has dealt with it before. The Oilers said earlier this season that a viral Rogers Place ejection had nothing to do with an Alberta flag, a reminder that fan incidents now get a club statement almost as fast as they get a clip. What made this one different was the official in the middle of it: referees usually remove the object and move on, and a referee becoming the punchline of the night is rare enough to travel on its own. The same weekend also gave the league a very different officiating story, with Tom Wilson ejected for boarding Sandis Vilmanis and awaiting a Player Safety decision.

What happens next?

Montreal plays Minnesota on Tuesday, and the question now is whether the fan faces any consequence. The desk will update this article if the NHL or the Maple Leafs respond, or if the fan is identified. Fowler keeps the crease in the meantime, with the apple now part of his rookie-season story: a goalie with no assists in 27 games, offered one by the referee, who turned it down and won the game anyway.