Coaches face grey area in blue paint

Goalie interference debate is alive and well in playoffs

Minutes after his team was knocked out of the NHL playoffs in a game that included two disallowed goals because of goaltender interference, Jon Cooper was careful to say those calls weren’t the reason the Tampa Bay Lightning lost the series. He still had a problem with them.

The coach, a two-time Stanley Cup winner, pointed out the league has made one rule change after another to encourage offence. When Tampa Bay scored its first goal, Florida coach Paul Maurice successfully challenged and it was wiped out for goalie interference. When on-ice officials ruled a later Lightning goal should not count for the same reason, Cooper challenged but the call was upheld. His team went on to lose 6-1, and afterward he didn’t think there was enough evidence for either call.

This was the biggest controversy of the post-season so far.

At least one prominent colleague agreed with Cooper’s sentiment, and many of the coaches left in the playoffs acknowledge there’s a delicate balance when the decision or a challenge can swing a game or a series.

“It’s an area they’re going to have to look at to shore up,” said Carolina’s Rod Brind’Amour, who sided with Cooper about goalies being overprotected for incidental contact. “We want to see goals, especially those ones when you’re fighting around the net. If you knock a goalie over, that’s goalie interference. But there should be a little more onus on just the common sense part of it.”

After the Panthers were on the positive end of three goalie interference challenges, Maurice felt he could be more philosophical than if he were in Cooper’s chair. The veteran coach who guided Florida to the Stanley Cup final last year felt confident enough to challenge, but wasn’t entirely sure what the league’s situation room would decide. Still, he thinks the infraction is clearer now than it was four or five years ago because the pendulum has swung from zero tolerance to more contact and settled in the middle.

“They’ve tried to narrow it,” Maurice said. “If the goaltender can’t get to the save, it’s goalie interference. So, what I do (behind the bench) on that is truly: spirit of the rule. I try not to factor in all the things that are criteria that they tell you. Is (an opponent) in his crease to stop him from making a save I think he can save? It’s almost that simple.”

What takes some of the simplicity out of the process is the punishment: a two-minute delay-of-game penalty for any unsuccessful challenge, either goaltender interference or offside.

Challenging for offside is usually more clear since video coaches watch that closely and rarely get it wrong.

Goalie interference has become more like the definition of a catch in football: a moving target. As such, the calculus that goes into challenging changes case by case.

“Time and score has something to do with it, the way your team plays has something to do with it,” said Colorado’s Jared Bednar, who led the Avalanche to the Cup in 2022. “The reality of the situation often is: You better be sure it’s goalie interference if you’re going to challenge it. If it’s questionable, then you’re likely not getting the call.”

Bednar added that if there was a poll of NHL coaches, it would show the league hasn’t established a clear standard. That grey area is what drives coaches crazy.

“That’s why this whole thing is tough, because it does come down to opinions,” Brind’Amour said.