A Montreal Canadiens’ goal held up after a Coach’s Challenge when Josh Anderson batted the puck out of the air with his glove and deflected it to a teammate.
With just under five minutes remaining in the second period, a shot from Montreal defenseman Jesse Ylonen was deflected by Brendan Gallagher. The puck popped up, where it was gloved down by Anderson. He dropped the puck immediately and tried to stuff it in. The bouncing puck deflected off Anderson’s stick and found its way to Christian Dvorak at the far post for a goal.
Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness challenged the play, citing a hand pass by Anderson.
Rule 67.2 covers handling the puck; here’s the relevant portion of the rule:
A player shall be permitted to catch the puck out of the air but must immediately place it or knock it down to the ice. A player shall be assessed a minor penalty for “closing his hand on the puck” if he catches it and skates with it, either to avoid a check or to gain a territorial advantage over his opponent …
Anderson grabs the puck and drops it right away. No issue here on closing his hand on the puck.
This, however, is not reviewable. What the league was looking for here was the hand pass. From Rule 79:
A player shall be permitted to stop or “bat” a puck in the air with his open hand, or push it along the ice with his hand, and the play shall not be stopped unless, in the opinion of the on-ice officials, he has directed the puck to a teammate, or has allowed his team to gain an advantage, and subsequently possession and control of the puck is obtained by a player of the offending team, either directly or deflected off any player or official.
The issue here is no longer the catch-and-drop. The question is what happened next. For this play to be legal, Anderson needs to play the puck himself. After review, the NHL’s Situation Room ruled that’s exactly what he did.
The rule addresses deflections, but that’s applicable to uncontrolled pucks bouncing off bodies. Contact with the puck on an attempted shot or stickhandle is sufficient to negate the hand pass.
We’ll be honest. It looked inconclusive to us. The puck appears to have tipped off the stick, but impossible to say for sure. Because of that, we’d defer to the call on the ice here, which was a goal. The NHL, though, appears to have a bit more confidence; rather than calling it inconclusive, the Situation Room saw enough in the clip to support the call on the ice.
From the NHL:
Video review supported the Referee’s call on the ice that Montreal’s Josh Anderson’s stick made contact with the puck, thereby negating a hand pass prior to Christian Dvorak’s goal.
Unless other rules, there’s no control or possession required in this situation, merely that his stick made contact with the puck.
Winnipeg is 0-for-2 on Coach’s Challenges this season. Bowness is 4-of-8 (50%) on challenges stince stepping behind the Jets’ bench last season.
The Montreal Canadiens went on to win the game 4-3 in overtime. Referees were Garrett Rank #7 and Brandon Blandina #39, with linesmen Michel Cormier #76 and Ryan Daisy #81.
