Gavin McKenna skated his rookie lap for the Toronto Maple Leafs without a helmet, and no, the NHL isn't coming after him for it.
The Leafs posted the clip ahead of tonight's home opener against Montreal, and McKenna had the ice all to himself.
No. 92 glides alone past the end boards with his hair out, while fans are still filling the lower bowl under a ribbon board that reads HOME OPENER.
Rule 9.6 requires a helmet in warmups for every player who entered the league in 2019-20 or later.
Rookie laps are the exception. The skate before a player's first NHL game is treated as an honor, not a warmup.
The rule got a fresh reminder last December, when Bill Daly told ESPN's Greg Wyshynski the league would send teams a memo after a run of helmetless warmups.
Good. A rookie's first lap in the league should look exactly like this, and anybody reaching for the rulebook here is missing the point.
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Once the lap ends, the helmet rule catches up to Gavin McKenna
What happens after the lap? As a player entering the league now, he needs a bucket for every warmup that follows.
The Senators skated out for warmups without helmets in Vegas on November 26, and the Sharks did the same there three days later. That's what triggered the memo.
"Just to have a little bit of fun," Sharks goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic said at the time, per The Athletic.
It's the birthday kid getting cake before dinner. Everyone lets it slide once, and then the house rules come back.
Veterans who entered before 2019-20 can still skip the helmet in warmups, which keeps a few flowing hairdos alive for now.
McKenna isn't the only newcomer tonight. Kirill Marchenko is also making his Leafs debut against the Canadiens.
That gives Jim Hiller two first-night stories in his first regular-season game since the Leafs hired him in June.
Jakub Dobes gets the Montreal net against Sergei Bobrovsky, according to TVA Sports insider Renaud Lavoie.
The lap was the easy part. What McKenna does once the puck drops against Montreal is the only thing anybody will be talking about by midnight.
Should the NHL let rookies like Gavin McKenna skip the helmet in every warmup?
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