More on Habs' first goal

I completely hate Montreal's first goal last night. Pushed from behind by Andrej Sekera, Travis Moen is dumped into Ryan Miller and his slide propels Miller and the puck over the goal line as the net is jarred off. Check out the video here.

Seriously now, how many goals might Alexander Ovechkin get this year if a play like that is allowed? 70? 80? Just plow through the goalie like it's no problem. And isn't every team going to need about three goalies to get through the season with all the injuries that would result?

So I checked the rulebook on this one this morning. Here's what I found:

Rule 78.5: "Apparent goals shall be disallowed by the Referee ..."
    Section ix When a goalkeeper has been pushed into the net together with the puck after making a save. See also 69.6.

Seems pretty obvious. Miller said he made a save and stopped the puck's momentum (although the puck still appeared to be sliding through his legs on the replay). If that's the case, no goal, right? Hmmm. Let's see 69.6.

"In the event that a goalkeeper has been pushed into the net together with the puck by an attacking player after making a stop, the goal will be disallowed. If applicable, appropriate penalties will be assessed. If, however, in the opinion of the Referee, the attacking player was pushed or otherwise fouled by a defending player causing the goalkeeper to be pushed into the net together with the puck, the goal can be permitted. In the event that the puck is under a player in or around the crease area (deliberately or otherwise), a goal cannot be scored by pushing this player together with the puck into the goal."

OK, the underline is mine for emphasis. I think that's the out to allow the goal to stand as goofy as the whole thing is. The section itself is pretty contradictory too -- the referee can allow the goal but the goal can't be scored by pushing a player that has the puck underneath him?

I think when push comes to shove (bad pun I know), the officials have the case to count the goal. But I wouldn't want to be a goalie if this kind of stuff is let go all season. We don't want to be back to where we were with stupid crease rules in No Goal days but the NHL better find a happy medium to protect the goalies too.

---Mike Harrington

(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

Comments

[dumbunny]

After just 1 game,1 GAME! Crocodile tears Sylvester was already blaming the new boards caused Buffalo to lose the game in overtime.This guy makes every excuse in the books for every loss instead of opening his eyes to the fact that this Sabres team is at best a very mediocre one.C`mon,at least wait a few games till you start making up things instead of stating the obvious.

[jan]

unfortunate call, but the game's over. Time to move on. Check out what worked, fix what didn't and get ready for the next game.

[stix]

Mike -

Yeah, I do recall the Ovie incident. It's a good example of a similar play, but I wouldn't insinuate that Ovie does that all the time. (seeing the majority of his goals actually come from inside the faceoff circle) I WOULD insinuate, however, that Philadelphia practices a hard drive to the goal all the time, darn the consequences. This actually goes back to the Philly-Caps series in 2008, and an integral moment when Philly ran Huet and got a goal. And I could see Toronto developing a similar attack.

With that said, it looks like teams will have to police the situation themselves, so I won't blame Miller if he shoves his blocker down someone's throat someday. Sometimes you gotta show a little Billy Smith to be given some respect in this league.

[Mike Harrington]

Good discussion. The reason for the post, remember, was I got some emails asking about the rule. And ultimately, I said in there there was an easy out for the goal to stand.

The Ovechkin reference stems from last April's game in DC when Miller facewashed No. 8 after he essentially tried the same play (but didn't go to the ice). Miller said afterward the league has to clean that up or goalies will get killed. None of you apparently remembered that I guess. Nothing darker to the reference than that.

[stix]

Look, everyone gangs up on Harrington for his complaining here. (Perhaps referencing Ovie IS a little meaningless, Mike) But he has a point. These plays were all over the league last year too, and they were called with equal inconsistency. THAT is the issue that should be addressed here. Because it is left to the ref's discretion, there's no way to really know if and how it will be called. It's like dealing with an ump whose strike zone is below your knees. Only in the hockey case you are dealing with the wellbeing of your goalie. If they protect the goalie so much outside the crease as they now do, then they should protect him within the crease too. Either that, or allow the goalie to be checked outside the crease again.

[walk away]

Saw the incident with Butler...Gill was pushing him around like a rag doll, Butler kept looking around for somemone to get him away from there...no guts ....ironic, Butler was the d that allowed the last goal too...even if not a fighter, you have to stand up for yourself or get out of the game..

[Zeke]

Ovechkin will get 70 without plays like that (its only 5 more that his previous high).....You sound jealous that he is way better than anyone who has ever put on a Sabre uniform.

[GregS]

Cry me a river, Harrington! Sheesh! No one on the ice complained about it, Ruff didn't either. And what the heck does Ovechkin have to do with this game?

[Steve]

I don't know. Moen clearly didn't push the puck in, but he definitely interfered with Miller's ability to make the save. I didn't realize Reggie pushed him until this morning, but isn't Moen supposed to make an attempt to avoid the goalie anyways? Looks to me like he purposely slides right into him, should be goaltender interference. Anyways if you only score one goal you're probably not going to win.

[Greg B.]

It was one game. The result wasn't what we all wanted, but we got one point so it wasn't a complete waste. I'm skeptical but encouraged after watching Buffalo dominate Montreal for a majority of the game. Now they have to take care of business against a Phoenix team they should beat and who will be playing the second of a road back-to-back.

[what a whiner]

want some cheese with that whine?

[Dude]

The overhead crease angle shows the puck going through before contact is made. It was actually the right call IMO. Ruff didn't seem too heated over it.

And notice how in the rule it says, "in the opinion of the referee". Alot of discretion there.

Sabres got unlucky, that's all. Only 81 more games to go, folks.

[Sam Resch]

As a Leafs fan, I can tell you with a fair amount of certainty that Moen's goal was allowed because of something that happened in the Leafs/Habs game on Thursday night. There, like Saturday night, Moen was charging hard to the net when Komisarek gave him a pretty good cross-check to the back and sent him flying into Toskala. Don Van Massenhoven, who was also the ref who ruled it a goal on Saturday night, called goaltender interference on Moen on Thursday night. After the fact, he undoubtedly saw what a horrific call it was and, at the very least, probably had it in the back of his mind on Saturday night when he had to make a split-second decision. Van Massenhoven is also notorious for make-up calls, as you also saw in the game on Saturday night. Sucks for you guys because that wasn't going in until Miller was contacted and should have ended in a 1-0 Buffalo victory.

[Daren Puppa]

Clearly no-goal. But as Bill said, it was on HNIC and the rules are flexible. You can't just shove the goalie in, as the HNIC announcer said.

Anyways, the plus side of losing this way this early in the season is a great big plus- instead of getting ripped off in the final game of the play-offs, we can get this out of the way and hopefully have no more bs calls.

Buffalo dominated Montreal the other night, I don't see why you people are so bitter.

[DUH]

City of excuses....wow ,did the Sabres ever toughen up over this past year..did you see Butler get challanged and given a face wash? He backed off three times, and from then on, the whole team did. WHy would anyone in their right mind think this girly team is any different than any of the past 4 years?We still have Marcy Regier....it is going to be a long year, keep looking for excuses to come up with.

[roy]

don't even know where to begin answering this gibberish. first, however, no one in the history of hockey has ever gone in on a goalie with the puck with the thought of sliding into him and scoring. you almost make it sound like ovechkin is watching replays and thinking about it. second, the goal should have had no impact on the game, other than to reveal it's the same old sabres. same old sabres to lean on the merest excuse; the same old sabres who cannot sustain anything or do something positive when it matters. third, spending all that time in the rule book considering the above and that it will almost never happen again is foolish for sure. there is so much more to write about that game, your nonsense doesn't surprise in the least.

[Mike Harrington]

Roy: How is this a useless take? This is about providing information for people who emailed me asking about the goal. I think a lot of people are pretty interested in what the rule book said. And, for your information, I played youth hockey for 8 years so that argument goes right in the can too.

[michael]

Complete blown call last night. Even though I feel the Sabres didn't do enough this offseason to make this team a playoff contender, it doesn't mean I can sit back and accept a pathetic call. I'll call it like I see it all year long and the Sabres didn't deserve this loss last night. The team played OK, great in the first, average the last two, defense played strong all game, Miller looked good all game, but the offense was non existent the back half of the game. I'll state for the second year in a row, Roy is not a top line centerman, we will never make, let alone go far in the playoffs with the team relying on guys like Pomminville. Come on Chad, bring it, here we go again. I suspect same story will play out this year. Just so everyone is aware of my opinion, this team will miss the playoffs by 4-10 points and the local favs will have some sort of excuss as to why they didn't make the playoffs. Miller got hurt, Miller got tired, so on and son on...

[roy]

this is the most irrelevant, idiotic, moronic, useless take, perhaps in the history of sports coverage. it also reveals out loud that the writer has never had a skate on or played a game.

[G]

I'd love to see them start 2-8. Just to hear what they would say !!!

[Jay]

Hard to be sympathetic to the Sabres when they manage to score just 1 goal.

After the last 2 seasons, I am no longer interested in talking about "bounces" or "breaks" when this team loses (even if there's truth to it). There are certainly positives about last night - Myers, PK units, overall play defensively - but let's bottom line it. They lost a very winnable game at home to an undermanned divisional opponent, scoring 1 goal in the process.

[Frisky1112]

I'm just encouraged by the overall game they played. Got a couple of bad breaks/goals but if they keep up the effort I think we'll be ok.

[Buffalo Excuses]

Quit making flippin excuses. It's why this organization can't win.

I can still hear Brett Hull chuckling.

Move on.

[Be Blank]

Did you see the reverse angle? Clearly shows the puck in the net before Miller was hit.

[Bill]

Mike, you should have read on.

Rule 2742(B)(iii)(a)(1) states clearly that "all rules shall be enforced at the referee's discretion when (a) a Canadian team will benefit from the rules not being properly enforced, and (b) it is Hockey Night in Canada."