WINNIPEG — The play before the controversy was simple enough.
Six and a half minutes into Sunday’s game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Winnipeg Jets, Brandon Hagel picked up a stretch pass from Erik Cernak, gained the Jets zone, doubled back and fired a shot toward Connor Hellebuyck.
Conor Geekie, a rookie from Strathclair, Man., with tons of family in the stands, deflected Hagel’s shot off the crossbar — and that’s when the chaos began.
The deflection had been so sudden and the bounce off the crossbar so surprising that Geekie, linemate Anthony Cirelli, Jets defensemen Josh Morrissey and Dylan DeMelo and Hellebuyck froze for a moment as they tried to find the puck. Cirelli got to it first, chopping a shot off Morrissey’s stick that bounced into the crease. Then, on a play that saw seven skaters pile into the low slot — and four of them in the crease — Geekie swiped at the rebound, missed the puck and pushed his stick into Hellebuyck’s pads.
The puck lay in the crease, untouched, until DeMelo swiped it into the slot with his hand. Morrissey and Geekie battled, with Morrissey cross-checking Geekie once and Geekie swiping at and missing the puck twice before Geekie fell down, pushing Hellebuyck deep into his net with his stick as he fell. Then, with Geekie on Hellebuyck’s lap, Morrissey falling at one post, Mark Scheifele standing at the other and DeMelo on the ice, Hagel finished the play with a goal.
“Watch Connor Hellebuyck’s right pad,” Brian Engblom said on Tampa Bay’s broadcast. “You can’t push the goaltender back into the net in order to score a goal, so (the Jets) are going to argue that yes, they interfered with him, pushed him back into the net, and then the puck came loose. How much do you allow here? How much do you allow a guy to fight?”
Dave Mishkin calls Hagel’s goal pic.twitter.com/Oumq4rtIkf
— Bucs Rays Bolts (@BucsRaysBoltsYT) November 3, 2024
Winnipeg challenged the play for goaltender interference — a play Jets head coach Scott Arniel later said he’d challenge every time — but the challenge wasn’t successful.
The on-ice officials hadn’t indicated an interference call and the NHL’s video review upheld their call. Their ruling was that Geekie had made a play on the loose puck in the crease prior to Hagel’s goal. To the situation room, this constituted sufficient grounds to interpret the goal based on Rule 69.7: “In a rebound situation, or where a goalkeeper and attacking player(s) are simultaneously attempting to play a loose puck, whether inside or outside the crease, incidental contact will be permitted, and any goal that is scored as a result thereof will be allowed.” Winnipeg was penalized for delay of game for its unsuccessful challenge.
The Lightning made quick work of their power play. Just 97 seconds after Cernak’s breakout pass sent Hagel into the Jets zone, Brayden Point finished off a clever play by Nikita Kucherov to make it 2-0 Tampa Bay.
Arniel was incensed on the bench. Winnipeg’s players showed their frustration, too. Unsurprisingly, it was Hellebuyck himself — a longtime member of the NHL’s competition committee — who was the most upset.
“Just when I thought we were getting somewhere, they go and make that decision,” Hellebuyck said on Monday. “That was clearly goalie interference, and everyone I know and, I think, the majority of the people in the hockey world, know that was goalie interference. The only guys that didn’t think so were the guys in charge of making the call, which is unfortunate.”
Hellebuyck’s frustration is natural. Whether or not you agree with the NHL’s situation room, Hellebuyck allowed a goal with a player on his lap. Whether or not Geekie made a legal play, Hellebuyck was unable to make a play on the puck.
His biggest argument with the league ruling is with how the NHL handled the definition of incidental contact.
“Incidental contact is going for the puck and maybe pushing the pad or hitting the glove that’s maybe around the puck,” he said. “When you miss the puck and drive the goalie three feet into the back of the net, that’s no longer incidental contact. That’s, ‘Oh, I missed the puck. This is the only thing I can do to affect the play is goalie interference.’ I’ve tried to describe this to them. If they want to make puck-first contact, so be it. I’m good if that puck is loose and you’re making puck-first contact and you make that a battle, I’m good with that if you drive us into the net. I’m good with that.”
There’s another key reason Hellebuyck is so frustrated by Hagel’s goal.
As a member of the NHL’s competition committee, Hellebuyck has spent years trying to prevent goals just like it. He and his agent Ray Petkau have “tackled this issue in various ways over a number of years,” per Petkau.
Hellebuyck has spoken to the players, coaches, managers and owners on the competition committee at great length. Two years ago, he made a 45-minute presentation to the committee in an effort to clarify what should and shouldn’t constitute goaltender interference. He said he presented his case in great detail.
“I brought in a chart of ‘crease’ and ‘no crease’, ‘goal’ and ‘no goal’ and just a couple of bullet points in each of the parts and tried to describe plays with clips,” Hellebuyck said. “(I shared) what I thought should lie where. The no-goal chart had a couple of bullet points and said this clip would lie under this one because of this. We went through it a couple of times and said, ‘This is bland, it needs to be updated and progressed forward, but this is a starting point.’”
Hellebuyck said the committee listened attentively to his presentation but wasn’t willing to move forward with his approach.
“I know they have it, I don’t know if they’re doing anything with it,” Hellebuyck said. “That being said, it’s just a continued battle that I’m going to have to continue to fight if we really want this to be black and white. Or you guys can just talk about it for the remainder of our hockey careers, that would give you guys a talking point.”
It seems likely that not everyone agreed with his views; goaltender interference is a hotly debated topic, even at the NHL’s offices. Two league sources contacted on Monday offered differing opinions. One viewed Hagel’s goal as an obvious case of goaltender interference, while the other felt Morrissey knocked Hagel onto his own goaltender.
Ultimately, Hellebuyck said he wants a clear standard — not just for himself but for all goalies to understand and adhere to. He believes goalies will adapt to clear direction from the league. Hellebuyck feels burned by the Hagel goal but believes goaltender interference is a bigger problem than a single play.
Hellebuyck has also been scored on after being slashed in the helmet by James Neal in 2019 and after his helmet was knocked off his head against Dallas in 2022. He remains a member of the competition committee, but he said his days of presentation-making are over.
“I’ve tried to help. I’ve tried to make it more black and white. (Hagel’s goal) for me was about as black and white as you can make it,” he said. “I know it’s sometimes going to be a tough call. But I’ve brought in clips very, very similar to that exact play, explained why I think it’s goalie interference and I guess they just don’t agree.”
(Photo: James Carey Lauder / Imagn Images)
