Goaltender interference debate is alive and well in NHL 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.
Cooper, a two-time Stanley Cup-winning coach, pointed out the league has made one rule change after another to encourage offense. When Tampa Bay scored its first goal, Florida coach Paul Maurice successfully challenged to wipe it 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 he said afterward he didn’t think there was enough evidence for either call.
It was clear this was the biggest controversy of the postseason 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 it comes to goalie interference, when the decision or a coach’s challenge can swing a game or a series at the most important time of year.
“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 on the premise about goalies being overprotected for incidental contact. “We 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 his Panthers were on the positive end of all three goalie interference challenges so far, Maurice felt he could be more philosophical about the topic 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 goalie interference 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.
