First year NHL P. A. announcer Andrew Imber has had quite the inaugural season.  There’s been the celebrations back 20 years to the Florida Panthers improbable run to the Stanley Cup Finals, the playoff chase, and reintroducing fans to hockey in South Florida.

StarPulse.com: So Who’s The Genius That Decided to Give Out Toy Rats To Florida Panthers Fans On Thursday Night?

But what happened last Thursday against the New Jersey Devils could go down in the annals of hockey history as the greatest penalty call of all time, when the Panthers were whistled not once…but TWICE…for too many rats on the ice.

Officially, the Panthers were assessed minor penalties for “Objects on the Ice”, because that’s what they are.  Check out the screen shot to the right from NHL.com from the play-by-play of Thursday’s game.

From the NHL rulebook:

63.4 Objects Thrown on the Ice – When objects are thrown on the ice during a stoppage in play, including after the scoring of a goal, the Referee shall have announced over the public address system that any further occurrences will result in a bench minor penalty being assessed to the home team.

ScoutingTheRefs.com: Panthers Penalized Twice For Rats On Ice

Though Imber announced to the crowd the potential repercussions, they obviously didn’t listen.  You can see what Imber wrote on his penalty sheet to announce to the crowd after the first instance in the tweet below…along with a couple of rats that ended up in the penalty box.

Rats rained and the #FlaPanthers magic number is 3. pic.twitter.com/KKlzoJpNcU

— Andrew Imber (@Imber_Voice) April 1, 2016

Apparently, not all of the 10,000 plastic toys that were given away came down during the game, as a few rained down AFTER the game too.

Rats raining down on a big #FlaPanthers win! pic.twitter.com/m3ghHMdtvB

— Andrew Imber (@Imber_Voice) April 1, 2016

For those who don’t know, this all started more than 20 years ago when Scott Mellanby fired a real rat in the locker room of the old Miami Arena before the first game, and the Panthers went on to one heck of a first season.  Having had the chance to sit in the stands that season for one game, it was one of the coolest moments to see the rats come down on the ice.  Though we were higher up, I felt bad for the people sitting in the lower seating areas of the old arena.  Those things have to hurt!

And if you think it’s just relegated to Sunrise, Florida, nope this rat was seen stuck in the protective netting behind the Panthers first and third period goal after a February 2 game in Washington.

Hmmm, I wonder if Mr. Imber could get one of those rats, autograph it and send it to us?!  The featured image is actually from 2012, but also against New Jersey!