The Philadelphia Flyers scored a crazy goal against the Ottawa Senators after everyone – even the referee – appeared to lose sight of the puck.
A shot on goal by Philadelphia’s Joel Farabee deflected up into the air. As the players – and referee Francois St. Laurent – looked for it in the crease, it caromed right to defenseman Egor Zamula who fired it into an empty net.
Why wasn’t the goal disallowed for ‘intent to blow?’ Here’s Rule 31.2:
As there is a human factor involved in blowing the whistle to stop play, the Referee may deem the play to be stopped slightly prior to the whistle actually being blown. The fact that the puck may come loose or cross the goal line prior to the sound of the whistle has no bearing if the Referee has ruled that the play had been stopped prior to this happening.
St. Laurent was right on top of the play, with his whistle raised, ready to blow the play dead. But he didn’t.
This can’t be considered ‘intent to blow’ if the referee hadn’t yet intended to actually blow the play dead.
The whistle sounds after Zamula has already shot the puck. Nothing changed as a result of the whistle sounding at that point. Nobody eased up on the play. Nobody stopped skating. The NHL deems these situations ‘continuous plays’ which are in Rule 37.3:
Puck entering the net as the culmination of a continuous play where the result of the play was unaffected by any whistle blown by the Referee upon his losing sight of the puck
The league took a second look to ensure that the puck entered the net legally, and that it was the result of a continuous play. The call on the ice was confirmed; the Flyers’ goal would stand.
The Ottawa Senators went on to defeat the Flyers 5-3. Referees for the game were Francois St. Lauren (#8) and Kendrick Nicholson (#30), with linespersons Julien Fournier (#56) and C.J. Murray (#68).
