What is it with the Colorado Avalanche and controversial offside calls?
First, we had Matt Duchene offside by a mile. Then Cale Makar scored an onside delayed-touch goal.
Now, we’ve got an offside play that has fans and broadcasters shaking their heads.
The soon-to-be-disallowed goal came early in the second period of Tuesday night’s game between the Avalanche and the Utah Mammoth, with Colorado leading 1-0.
Utah moved the puck out of their defensive end, with winger Dylan Guenther struggling to corral the puck just outside the blue line. The puck deflects off his skates, rebounding off the boards, when Guenther attempts to regain possession as the Avs’ Valeri Nichuskin moves in on the forecheck. The Mammoth forward tips the puck with the toe of his stick before pushing the puck back into the attacking zone. Nichuskin doesn’t actually make contact with the puck until it’s already in the Utah end.
With all of this going on, the Avs were in the midst of a line change, with two players entering the bench through the door – both with their skates on the ice – as the puck crossed the blue line.
There was no offside signal on the ice from the linesman, who was right on top of the play. Colorado moved the puck to the slot for a goal by Gabriel Landeskog.
Reviewing the Offside Rule
When a defending player moves the puck back into his zone, that negates a potential offside. We’ve seen similar plays happen — even last season when an Avalanche goal was disallowed then re-awarded after review determined that a Kraken player was the one who moved the puck into the zone.
The puck clearly went off Guenther’s stick… so, how could this be offside?
Check out Rule 83.2:
When a defending player propels the puck out of his defending zone and the puck clearly rebounds off a defending player in the neutral zone back into the defending zone, all attacking players are eligible to play the puck.
However, any action by an attacking player that causes a deflection/rebound off a defending player in the neutral zone back into the defending zone (i.e. stick check, body check, physical contact), a delayed off-side shall be signaled by the Linesperson.
This is the crux of the Situation Room’s ruling. Nichuskin doesn’t have to touch the puck, he just has to do anything – including forecheck – that causes Guenther to move the puck back into the zone.
That puts this into a delayed offside situation, which is under Rule 83.1:
If, during a delayed off-side, an attacking player in the attacking zone elects to proceed to his players’ bench (which extends into theattacking 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 Linesperson judges him to have left the playing surface.
We’ve got two guys still trying to leave, but still with their skates on the ice in the attacking zone.
You might remember that a similar play in the 2019 playoff against the San Jose Sharks resulted in a disallowed goal for the Avs as Gabriel Landeskog went off for a change.
So we’ve got a combo bonus here. The forecheck resulted in a delayed offside, which prompted the offside ruling due to the line change.
Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar called the ruling “complete nonsense” after the game.
It might be frustrating and confusing, but it’s by the book. Heck, it’s even been applied consistently to the Avs in recent history.
Here’s the official ruling from the NHL’s Situation Room:
Video review determined that the actions of Valeri Nichushkin caused the puck to enter the Utah zone while Nathan MacKinnon was in an off-side position. The decision was made in accordance with Rule 83.2, which states in part, “Any action by an attacking player that causes a deflection/rebound off a defending player in the neutral zone back into the defending zone (i.e. stick check, body check, physical contact), a delayed off-side shall be signaled by the Linesperson.”
The clock is reset to show 19:18 (0:42 elapsed time), when the off-side infraction occurred.
The Utah Mammoth – who also had a goal disallowed in the game – went on to win 4-3 in overtime. Officials for the game were referees Jake Brenk (#26) and Graedy Hamilton (#41), with linespersons James Tobias (#61) and Kiel Murchison (#79). The Situation Room made the ruling on the offside play.
