The Ottawa Senators had a goal waved off after a Coach’s Challenge for offside against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
For some, the offside was easy to miss.
Where’s the offside? Check the bench.
Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk was headed off the ice on a line change. He was close enough to the bench to avoid a too-many-men penalty, provided he didn’t impact the play. Since he was still physically on the ice, though, he was determined to be offside.
Rule 83.3 covers this situation:
If, during a delayed off-side, an attacking player in the attacking zone elects to proceed to his players’ bench (which extends into the attacking zone) to be replaced by a teammate, he shall be considered to have cleared the zone when both skates are off the ice and the Linesman judges him to have left the playing surface.
If his replacement comes onto the ice in the attacking zone, while the delayed off-side is still in effect, he too must clear the attacking zone.
Tkachuk was okay for the change, but hadn’t cleared the zone.
This is similar to the offside play during the Stanley Cup Playoffs that was called on Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog during Game 7 against the San Jose Sharks.
Again, the determination of a player being on the ice for too-many-men is different than the evaluation for offside, thanks to the five-foot allowance near the bench for line changes. Of course, if you wanted to argue that point, remember, too-many-men isn’t eligible for review or challenge. Even if that were the case, the officials can’t do anything about it via replay.
They can wave off the goal though. They can, and they did. (Well, actually, the final decision is made by the NHL’s Situation Room…)
The Senators won the game 2-1. Referees were Mitch Dunning (#43) and T.J. Luxmore (#21); linesmen were Mark Shewchyk (#92) and Caleb Apperson (#77).
