The Capitals amazing season came to an end last night in OT of Game 7 of the first round. The loss was painful, but the officiating made it a lot more difficult to stomach.
In the second period, Flyers LW Patrick Thoreson drove Capitals D Shaone Morrison towards the goal, taking out Caps' goalie Cristobal Huet in the process. With the net open, Sami Kapanen dumped in an easy goal to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead in the second period. Everyone in the arena knew the play was goaltender interference, and the NHL rulebook tends to support them.
The relevant parts of NHL Rule 78 are as follows:
a) If an attacking player initiates contact with a goalkeeper, incidental or otherwise, while the goalkeeper is in his goal crease, and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed.
b) If an attacking player initiates any contact with a goalkeeper, other than incidental contact, while the goalkeeper is outside his goal crease, and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed.
The above photo comes after the contact, but you can see just how out of the play Huet is following the collision.
The NHL Rulebook has very few interpretations, though those probably exist in a separate book not available to the public. For this goal to be allowed, the interpretation of "initiates contact" must require that the attacking player contacts the goalie himself. Does that seem likely? Why don't attacking players in front of the net push defenders into the goaltender more often? How can the defender be used as a proxy for the attacker to circumvent the interference rule?
It definitely seems like the officials swallowed their whistle on what was obviously a crucial play, as the Caps went on to lose the game in overtime.
1 Responses:
I still can't believe Federov didn't get his stick down on that pass from Ovechkin at the end of regulation. That would have been such a sweet goal.
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