Okay, I’m writing this in the middle of the night, trying to process what happened at Colorado’s goal 3-2 at the end of the first period.
When I first saw Cale McCarthy’s result, I said, “There’s no way.”
But he stayed after the examination. It certainly seems counterintuitive, but that’s why it lingers:
First look at the linear at the top of the photo. His hand is not in the air. This is not a delayed offside. Rule 83.3 screenshots were being thrown all over the internet, but that wasn’t a factor. The puck was not in Edmonton’s zone, it was in the neutral zone when Makar first touched it. Although it is on the side. He is not trying to chase the puck offside.
This is offside. Not postponed offside. The game continues if the offensive players who have overtaken the puck in the zone return to the blue line and mark it.
It is Valery Nichushkin’s responsibility to get on. If Makar throws him out and Nichushkin goes for the puck before scoring, it’s offside. If he goes to collect the puck instead of marking, he is offside.
If you are watching naked either in repetition or at real speed, the only signal you give on the line is to drop an offside call. It is close, but Nichushkin is believed to have left the area legally.
(This particular situation was the main focus before the playoffs for teams and TV operators. The NHL made an effort to remind everyone that a player’s skate can be off the ice, provided it doesn’t clear the plane of the blue line when entering the zone, but this not good enough when going out. Your skate needs to touch the ice to clear.)
Among the people who approached the conversation, most who disagreed were active or recently active players. They thought that Makar certainly brought in the possession zone and the game was offside. Those who supported the call included several general managers and video trainers. Several of them immediately sent an SMS saying that they felt bad for Edmonton, knowing that the Oilers would lose the challenge.
“I bet that didn’t happen to them,” one wrote. “They weren’t familiar with that.”
Here are some examples in which this type of game stood as a goal:
On March 19, 2017, this call was the one that several coaches said had started this precedent. The game was decided from the sidelines, with the Blackhawks scoring seconds later.
Here are some other examples, and when they happened …
February 4, 2020:
January 23, 2021:
April 6, 2021:
I’m not sure this will change anyone else’s mind, but I understand why it counts – although it will take my brain not to process it offside. I would also say that there were many more disagreements with Blake Coleman’s rejected goal in Game 5 of the Calgary / Edmonton series than that.
A full blog with 32 thoughts will come later, but it needed an update early in the morning.
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