The New Jersey Devils thought they had tied their game Saturday night in Ottawa on a power-play goal by Connor Brown late in the third period.
Yet, the NHL Situation Room in Toronto felt differently.
The league’s powers that be ruled Brown’s would-be game-tying goal a hand pass and took it off the board, much to the dismay of Devils fans and especially coach Sheldon Keefe.
The Devils allowed three third-period goals to the Ottawa Senators and lost 4-1, their third loss in their past four games.
Sheldon Keefe Felt Connor Brown’s Disallowed Goal Should Have Counted
Trailing 2-1 with less than four minutes in regulation, Brown received a fortuitous bounce at the side of the net when Dougie Hamilton‘s blast from the point was deflected. Brown gloved the puck and dropped it forward and into the net, off Ottawa goalie Linus Ullmark’s stick, for a goal that appeared to knot the score at 2.
The situation room called down to officials Justin Kea and Frederick L’Ecuyer to review the play and took the goal off the board. The announcement from Kea was it was called off due to a hand pass, though Brown did not direct the puck to any of his teammates.
Here is what the rule that was enforced:
Rule 79.1– A player shall be permitted to stop or “bat” a puck in the air with his open hand, or push it along the ice with his hand, and the play shall not be stopped unless, in the opinion of the on-ice officials, he has directed the puck to a teammate, or has allowed his team to gain an advantage, and subsequently possession and control of the puck is obtained by a player of the offending team, either directly or deflected off any player or official.
The second part of the above-referenced rule is what’s important, since there were no teammates in Brown’s vicinity. The situation room deemed Brown and the Devils “gained an advantage” by playing the puck forward, and the fact it “deflected off” Ullmark did not matter.
But after the game, Keefe felt the Devils were cheated.
“As I see it, Connor’s making a play on it to put the puck down, and he’s about to put the puck in the wide-open net, and then their goaltender puts it in for him,” Keefe said. “If the goalie doesn’t make a play on the puck and shoot it in himself, then Connor puts it in a wide-open net.”
“That’s a tough one. I guess that is the rule — the goalie is playing his position — but obviously we’re not going to love the interpretation of that rule, because it’s an empty-net goal for Brownie if the goalie doesn’t do what he did. That’s a tough bounce to not go our way.”
Jesper Bratt Was Frustrated By Connor Brown’s Disallowed Goal
The Devils went 0 for 5 with the man advantage Saturday night, but don’t tell Jesper Bratt that.
“I think that in the third period, we had some really good looks and some key chances on the power play,” the Devils’ star forward said. “One of them technically went in, but it technically wasn’t a goal.”
Though he remained his usual demur self, Bratt was clearly worked up over Brown’s disallowed goal, especially since shortly after the power play ended Tim Stutzle made it 3-1 with his 25th that effectively sealed the game.
“Obviously, the rules are what they are, and they looked at it,” Bratt said. “I guess it wasn’t a goal, but that obviously would have changed the game a lot to have [the score be] 2-2 instead of a couple minutes later [the Senators] going up 3-1.”
