The Chicago Blackhawks unsuccessfully challenged a Vancouver Canucks goal after a possible offside on the zone entry. After review, the play was ruled onside and the goal stood… but why?

Blackhawks center Nick Foligno won a neutral zone draw, pushing the puck into his defensive end.  Vancouver’s Kiefer Sherwood collected the puck in the Chicago zone and skated along the blueline.  

The puck came out of the zone as Sherwood stickhandled, but the play continued, with Danton Heinen eventually scoring his second goal of the game to give the Canucks a 3-1 lead. 


 

Chicago challenged the goal for offside.  Before we break down the ruling – and why it was strange but correct – here’s a peek behind the scenes from the NHL’s Frozen Frenzy Situation Room blog:

We’ve got an offside challenge in Chicago. Should Danton Heinen’s goal at 10:46 count to give the Canucks a 3-1 lead? Was Kiefer Sherwood offside when he brought the puck into the zone?

Right away, Kris King, the executive vice president of hockey operations, got on the headset to talk with the referees. Rob Shick, the former on-ice official working in the room, also got on a headset to talk it through.

They’re watching the review, winding it back to see Sherwood’s skate placement in relation to the puck. Rod Pasma, the group VP of hockey operations, comes over and asks if Sherwood tags back up before he touches the puck again.

They look further and, yes, the first look definitely shows Sherwood loses the puck and as he does he reaches his skate back to the blue line, touching it, which indicates a tag up. He then touches the puck again after tagging up.

“He tags up and gets this puck,” King said. “So I think he’s onside.”

King continues to talk with the referees to determine what angle they want to see.

Now Colin Campbell, the senior executive VP of hockey operations, comes over to get involved. Schik is talking it through with Campbell, showing him the tag up.

“I think we put them in the box, this is onside,” King said, referring to the delay of game penalty the Blackhawks are about to get for a failed coaches challenge. “It’s a different one, but this is the right call, guys.”

Just as he said that, King follows with, “Hang on a second, I’m getting one more look.”

He pauses for a second.

“Yes, this is onside,” he said.

“I don’t think he meant to do that,” Campbell said.

Regardless, Sherwood is onside and Heinen’s goal is good.

Shick and Campbell continue talk about it further after the review is completed, showing the stick is off the puck as Sherwood tags back up and then he gains possession again after the tag up.

Several loggers in here have said they haven’t seen a review like that before, an offside challenge where the player in question pulled himself offside and then on his own tagged up before touching the puck again in a legal fashion.

King then went on ESPN to talk about it, joking with John Buccigross, Kevin Weekes and P.K. Subban, “We were having a quiet night until you guys got involved.”

As the Situation Room noted, this is effectively a delayed offside.   Let’s break it down:

  • Sherwood is in the attacking zone. 
  • He pushes the puck into the neutral zone, creating a delayed offside.  He’s allowed to play the puck in the neutral zone, which he does. 
  • As the puck crosses the blue line into the attacking zone, we’re still looking at a delayed offside until he touches the puck. 
  • Sherwood tags up, his skates touching the blueline, making this a legal, onside play before he touches the puck. 

Yes, it looks crazy.  Yes, it seems controversial. 

It’s not too far off from what happened when Cale Makar delayed touching the puck until his teammate tagged up.  This time, though, Sherwood himself was the offside player. 

Can’t say we’ve seen anything like this before.

We also can’t say it’s a bad call.  It’s correct under the rulebook and consistent with how the league has interpreted the offside rule in the past. 

 

Referees for the game were Ghislain Hebert (#22) and Carter Sandlak (#29), with linesmen Andrew Smith (#51) and Mitch Hunt (#62).