Automatic ‘puck over glass’ penalties playing pivotal role

EDMONTON, Alberta — Zach Whitecloud covered his face with his gloved right hand in anguish inside the penalty box. By the time he collected himself and walked out, the Dallas Stars were celebrating an overtime victory to send them to the Stanley Cup Final.

Whitecloud had flipped the puck over the glass for an automatic delay-of-game penalty, Dallas scored on the power play, and Vegas lost the game and the

Western Conference final.

“Just for that type of penalty to decide a game, it doesn’t make sense to me,” Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer said.

It’s affecting a lot of games in the “puck over the glass” playoffs. Gone are the days that you have to mug somebody to get a penalty late in regulation or in overtime of a playoff game because referees swallow their whistles not to have too big an influence. Part of the reason for that is some of the penalties are automatic or blatant and can’t be ignored just because it’s the Cup.

“With those, it’s not subjective,” Tampa Bay Lightning forward Alex Killorn said. “Those are penalties regardless. It’s not a judgment call by any means. I don’t know if the fans not being there affect anything at all, but you know when you’re taking penalties, you try not to take them, because they can be so costly at the end of a game.”

It’s not just this year, either. There were six “puck over the glass” penalties in the seven-game 2019 final between St. Louis and Boston.

Then again, after that call made up 3% of all trips to the box in the regular season, there have been 31 “puck over the glass” penalties through 125 games this postseason and roughly 20% of them have come in overtime, according to the officials-tracking website Scouting the Refs.

Like DeBoer and many around hockey, Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper isn’t a fan of the rule but understands the intent. There’s a real strategy to pressuring an opposing player who has the puck in his defensive zone knowing this is one of the things that can happen.

“They are forced errors,“said Cooper, a former Norfolk Admirals coach. “The reason they’re putting them over the glass is because they’re under pressure, and I think at this time of year, the stakes are so high, I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more.”