Blues players, coaches grappling with NHL's goaltender interference rulings
The Blues coaches think they know how to deal with goaltender interference. The players? That's another story.
With a series of controversial goaltender interference goal reviews across the league in the first week of the season, people around the NHL have taken notice. Five of the eight goalie interference challenges this season have resulted in overturned goals, and the most controversial of them was Corey Perry's infraction in Edmonton on Sunday, when an Oilers goal was taken off the board.
During the play, Perry planted himself with his heels in the crease as Flames goalie Dan Vladar initiated contact and tried to make a save. Calgary coach Ryan Huska challenged the play and was successful.
Blues forward Jake Neighbours makes his living around the blue paint, particularly as the net-front guy on St. Louis' top power-play unit.
"The one in Edmonton the other day, at that point, you're just asking guys not to go to the net," Neighbours said. "Goalies are too good nowadays, you need to be able to have that right to be there. In my experience, refs are pretty communicative. During the play, they'll communicate with you, 'Hey, get out of the blue. Watch the blue.' So they talk to you a lot and try to help you out that way.
"Some of those calls, I don't know what you're supposed to do. Perry's one the other day, that's just a guy going to the net, I don't think he really makes contact with him. Yeah, he's in the blue, but he doesn't affect the goalie's ability to stop the puck. I don't know. I think there's kind of a gray area right now with it."
Two stalls away from Neighbours was Mathieu Joseph, who had a goal disallowed in the preseason because of a similar play with Jake Oettinger when the Blues hosted the Stars. As Joseph got involved in the discussion, it became more animated with Neighbours.
"If I'm standing right here and shot comes and he pushes into me and they call me for goalie interference, that's (wrong)," Neighbours said.
"If they're not allowed to initiate contact, we'll take more inches and more inches and more inches and now they won't be able to touch us," Joseph countered. "That's not fair."
In the NHL's rule book, Rule 69.3 is pretty clear on contact in the crease, even if initiated by the goaltender.
"If a goalkeeper, in the act of establishing his position within his goal crease, initiates contact with an attacking player who is in the goal crease, and this results in an impairment of the goalkeeper's ability to defend his goal, and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed," the rule says.
It continues: "If, after any contact by a goalkeeper who is attempting to establish position in his goal crease, the attacking player does not immediately vacate his current position in the goal crease (i.e. give ground to the goalkeeper), and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed. In all such cases, whether or not a goal is scored, the attacking player will receive a minor penalty for goalkeeper interference.
"If an attacking player establishes a significant position within the goal crease, so as to obstruct the goalkeeper's vision and impair his ability to defend his goal, and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed.
"For this purpose, a player "establishes a significant position within the crease" when, in the Referee's judgment, his body, or a substantial portion thereof, is within the goal crease for more than an instantaneous period of time."
That's where Neighbours' argument comes from, that the small presence of skates on the edge of the crease shouldn't impact the goalie, nor the officials' call if a goal is scored.
"It's not a rule that you can't go in the paint like it is in international hockey, where you literally cannot go in the blue paint," Neighbours said. "Here, I feel like there's kind of a gray area around it."
Blues coach Drew Bannister said that the coaching staff reviews the goalie interference challenges every morning to understand where the trends are with the NHL's rulings.
"There is gray area at times, but for the most part, it's been pretty standard," Bannister said. "If you're in the blue paint and you make any kind of contact, or if you go to the blue paint without getting pushed in, it's probably going to be automatically goalie interference.
"It's something that we've tracked, and obviously, there's been some instances in the last few days, last week, where there was questionable calls possibly. On our end, it gives us a good read on what they're thinking at the NHL level and what to be prepared for."
Hockey reporter
